Time magazine is arguably the most historic and successful magazine in the United States. It reaches more than 100 million readers and prints 3.2 million copies a week. It was one of the first magazines to embrace the Internet and social-media age. It is also one of most successful magazines for on-line advertisements. And a Pepperdine alum is one of the reasons why.
Meet Farhad Fozounmayeh.
This Pepperdine graduate is at the forefront of making Time relevant in the new social- media age. And Fozounmayeh credits Pepperdine’s Advertising major and its professors for his success through their “real-world” experience.
A 1996 graduate of Pepperdine Fozounmayeh has forged a successful career in advertising the last 15 years. Based in Los Angeles he has been a manager of publishing at Timemagazine and Time.com for the past 8½ years.
Fozounmayeh believes the opportunities his Pepperdine professors provided were keys to his successes. He also sees this “real world” experience as key to any Pepperdine senior hoping to be successful in the new social-media age of advertising.
Born April 31975 in the Carmel Calif. Fozounmayeh grew up an avid San Francisco Giants fan. His father was an immigrant from Iran and always motivated Farhad to work hard so he could be accepted into a prestigious university. Pepperdine University was the school that Fozounmayeh decided to attend after high school.
Entering as a freshman in 1992 Fozounmayeh was first enrolled as a pre-med major but soon changed his mind.
“It was after I almost failed chemistry said Fozounmayeh. I figured I should find what I really wanted to do.”
Fozounmayeh found the advertising department his true calling.
“I knew I didn’t want to do business because I didn’t want to sit in an office all day said Fozounmayeh. At the time Pepperdine was one of the few schools that had an advertising department.”
So Fozounmayeh switched majors and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Advertising in 1996. During his time as an Ad major at Pepperdine he met his future wife Michelle Jordan (daughter of Pepperdine Journalism Professor Dr. Mike Jordan). They have been married for 15 years and have two children daughter Shirin and son Frederick.
Fozounmayeh is also a man of strong faith. He is a devout Christian and member of Malibu Presbyterian Church for over 10 years. He has served as a deacon and elder at Malibu Presbyterian and his good works are admired and appreciated by many.
“He lives by his faith whether it be with his family or his work said Kevin Iga, associate professor of mathematics at Pepperdine and a member at Malibu Presbyterian. He’s friendly there to help has a positive attitude and fun to hang out with.”
While at Pepperdine Fozounmayeh also found his mentor who would motivate aid and pave the way for Fozounmayeh to start his career.
Dr. Kyu Chang associate professor of advertising during that time was Fozounmayeh’s favorite teacher and mentor because of his real world perspective in his teachings.
“It was all about application said Fozounmayeh. He had been successful in the advertising world so he knew what it took and he had a lot of connections.”
These connections helped Fozounmayeh land his first job in advertising. Fozounmayeh recalls how Dr. Chang set up a tour of an ad agency in Santa Monica Chiat/Day. Fozounmayeh determined to make connections in the real world brought his resume with him to the tour and gave it to a Pepperdine alum who worked there.
By the beginning of his last semester at Pepperdine Fozounmayeh landed an internship at Chiat/Day.
“The internship was so important said Fozounmayeh. I got so much real world experience you just don’t get at school.”
The experience he received as an intern paid off. A few days after graduating Fozounmayeh was hired full time at Chiat/Day. He worked on many advertising accounts there including Nissan Motor Co. During his seven years at Chiat/Day Fozounmayeh also worked on many advertising accounts with Timemagazine.
“I networked a lot with the people at Time said Fozounmayeh. So when there was an opening at Time they called me.”
Fozounmayeh emphasized: “The advertising world is relationship-based. It’s all about who you know connections and networking.”
The connections Fozounmayeh made resulted in Timemagazine hiring him as the account manager for Time.com in mid 2002 (and later for the print version of Time as well). At Time Fozounmayeh is in charge of meeting clients building good business relationships with clients and negotiating deals to advertise clients’ products in Timemagazine or on the Time.com website.
As a result of these tasks about 60 percent of what Fozounmayeh does is out of the office (traveling to meet clients and negotiating deals).
“I get to know the clients and learn what type of marketing strategy they want to support said Fozounmayeh. I work with a creative team in New York to create a marketing program that we think the client will like in advertising their product in our magazine.
“I’m on the business (publishing) side of things (at Time) said Fozounmayeh. I’m on the side that brings in money so that the editors can write.”
Fozounmayeh’s job is becoming more difficult due to the new age of advertising.
“The traditional ways of advertising — television radio print and billboards — are gone said Fozounmayeh. We are now in the age where social and mobile media is taking over.”
The social-mobile media age means most information and entertainment content (Facebook Hulu Netflix etc.) is consumed on mobile devices (smart phones laptops tabs). As a person who works with advertising companies it is Fozounmayeh’s job to find a way to integrate Time into the social-mobile age.
“People want all their information and content to be integrated said Fozounmayeh. For the last three years advertisers have had a campaign to try and tap into the way people use Facebook and other websites.”
“People can now pick and choose what advertisements they want to see.”
As a result of this fragmentation Fozounmayeh was at the forefront of making Time more accessible to this “social-mobile” consuming society. Time now has an app for use on the iPad and iPhone. Now when consumers are reading Timeon their iPad or computer and see an advertisement next to an article they can choose to click on it.
“Every time a reader clicks on an ad it’s a return investment said Fozounmayeh.
Fozounmayeh believes Time’s ability to integrate into the social-mobile media age has continued to make the magazine relevant. They are not in competition with the Internet to send out breaking news stories (like newspapers). Fozounmayeh believes magazines, especially Time, gives the in-depth, story-behind-the-story” look at current and past events. He believes that with the magazine on-line and available on an app advertisers will continue to invest in the historic brand.
Fozounmayeh also believes that he would not be able to handle the changing times in the advertising world without the education and opportunities he received while at Pepperdine.
“I am very fortunate ” said Fozounmayeh. “I had the right teachers at the right time.”
Fozounmayeh added: “I had professors who were networked into the business and emphasized application. They helped me meet important people and that’s how I got my career started.”
The Pepperdine graduate again emphasized the importance of gaining real-world experience while a student at Pepperdine.
“It’s not about your GPA it’s about internships and the connections you are making in the outside world said Fozounmayeh. I got real world experience while I was a student. Th
at tradition continues today at Pepperdine.”