The future's bright on Broadway!
Meet our Chief Operating Officer of North America – Paul O’Malley.
Who doesn’t love a quickfire Q&A on the first day of their new job?
Following the news of our first stateside office opening its doors in New York, we sat down with our new COO for North America, Paul O’Malley, to discuss what makes him tick, where his career has taken him so far, and why he’s so excited about Fox Agency’s expansion into the US.
Could you share your backstory/journey to today?
I originally came into the B2B space in the UK on the media owner side at IDG (now Foundry) and from there I moved into the agency space with a company called Banner. Banner was a full-service integrated agency and really gave me the experience of what doing great work with great people was like. Banner was acquired by Mediacom which then gave me the big network experience. Everything was bigger and more divided which is necessary for the budgets and scale of the clients they have. For me, I wanted to be closer to clients, staff and the growth decisions that would make immediately impactful decisions. I moved to Kingpin in 2014 and after an amazing experience building and growing the business, we saw the agency through to acquisition in 2021 by The Marketing Practice, which ultimately provided me with the opportunity to hand the reins over and take a break.
Why B2B tech?
It’s the complexity of the industry that appeals. The idea that decision making is a team process rather than individual and that to go through that process you have to adapt your messaging to meet different needs, that keeps it fresh and interesting. Because of the complexity, there is a different level of satisfaction when you see your work result in positive outcomes for clients and hopefully award-winning campaigns.
What brought you to the US?
In 2015, I had helped Kingpin restructure for growth in the UK, and there was an ambition to take the agency to the next level. Opening in the US was not a eureka idea, but it required careful planning, a desire to re-motivate yourself through everyday ups and downs and to believe that through the process, success will come. I didn’t feel anyone else could take that on, not from a negative POV, but crucially, I had no ties to the UK, no kids, no mortgage. Just my wife and me. I didn’t have a particular desire to want to move to the US, it was just the right thing to do for the company…and I was bought so much into the drive and ambition of what we could achieve.
What excited you about the role with Fox Agency?
Might seem a bit ridiculous but Ben Fox’s LinkedIn posts. I haven’t told him that so it will be news to him. Since joining I can see the quality of the work so that is exciting, to be part of something where people have so much talent and they are getting to express that talent, it’s inspiring. BUT, so much of what gets posted on social media is “look at me + I’m great/the world sucks/your marketing efforts suck/general doom and gloom”. I was seeing posts that called out members of the team for the work they were doing. Or events where the team was getting together. That is everything for me. The work, regardless of the company will have up days and down days, but the culture and in particular how management drives that culture is what sets companies apart. So yeah, LinkedIn. Who knew?
What’s your vision for Fox Agency in the US?
I am a very ambitious person. I genuinely believe that barriers to success are there to be overcome. I see a similar belief in Ben. A vision to be the best of the best. No standing still. Do the best work we can do for our clients. Work that our teams are proud of. I’m not worried about competition, and I’m not worried about our limited time on the ground in the US. If we continue to deliver results through quality work, the world will come to Fox Agency. We must work to earn that, but the foundations from the UK team are so strong that we already have a great start in that quest to be the best.
What are your guiding principles in business or in life in general?
My number one value is ‘respect’. Respecting each other, time, clients, and people in general. Without it, there are no relationships, and we are in the relationships business. Beyond that, being authentic and honest. As a leader, I tend to go on about how authenticity and honesty are pillars of healthy relationships. Maybe it all stems from my desire to live with respect, but I feel that in business, managing the right expectations, good or bad, is what builds solid connections. When I was younger, I was trying to please both my girlfriend and family and really, what I needed to do was be myself and honest in situations. Of course, it’s difficult in business to say no to a client or no to supporting a teammate, but if we can’t deliver on those promises, the cracks appear.
Finally, shameless plug for your forthcoming photography exhibits in New York?
Haha. This is a perfect example of having a belief that barriers can be overcome with time and effort. I got into photography to distract myself from feeling like I was abandoning my former colleagues when I chose to leave The Marketing Practice. I had a passing interest but an idea that I could be good. I’m not sure where that idea came from…maybe a handful of decent photos over the years. I learned as much as I could about the camera and shot as frequently as I could. I did a ton of courses (and still am) and submitted work to various open calls, competitions, etc.
In the last six months, my work has been in shows in NYC, London, Minneapolis, Portland, and various online “galleries”. At the moment, I am concurrently running in 8 shows, including two solo shows with 20 photos in each, a show with 15 photos, and in early December, I will have a photo on display in Soho Photo Gallery in NYC, which is one of the most respected galleries in the US. And yet, despite that, I was asked in a class this weekend what the best moment of the week was, a week where I had a solo show opening, and I said, “starting a new job”. Go figure.