Five minutes with Ben Fox
Meet our Global CEO, Ben Fox.
As we embark on a new financial year, we sit down with co-founder and Global CEO, Ben Fox, to learn about his career journey, the pitch that changed the game, and about his American dream becoming reality. Join us for 5 minutes with Ben Fox…
Tell us about your career journey so far and how it led you to set-up Fox Agency?
I’ve now been in the world of advertising, media, and marketing agencies for 20 years.
I started out in advertising media sales in the dark days before social media and quickly developed a belief that the agency folks I was selling media space to seemed to have way cooler jobs than I did…. which first piqued my interest into the world of agencies.
I then continued my career in predominantly northern UK agencies – always in client services roles, starting out as an Account Executive (caught in the headlights), before progressing to Account Manager, Senior Account Manager, Account Director, and Head of Client Services.
I made a lot of mistakes, had some wins along the way, and learnt a lot about the world of marketing, consulting with clients, building brands, directing campaigns, and the art of sales.
Then, in 2011, when the itch could no longer be scratched, I decided the time had come to make the leap.
Fox Agency is almost 14 – what are some of your highlights or greatest achievements in that time?
There are so many milestones and achievements along the way. I still recall winning our first client, our first ‘big’ pitch win, our first award win, and first time reaching £1million revenues.
But if I had to name a few, in no particular order:
- Day 1. Both exciting and terrifying at the same time. I sat at the kitchen table with just a Dell laptop, a mobile phone, and a shedload of fear – but also a sense of freedom and opportunity.
- Winning a pitch in 2018 for global technology and business consultancy, BearingPoint. This felt like a real game-changer for us as an agency and opened our eyes (and minds) to the wider world of global business and technology. To this day, I am still so proud to call BearingPoint a client and our key contacts are such wonderfully smart and collaborative people.
- Our 2021 rebrand and repositioning as an integrated agency for global B2B tech. Hands down this was the boldest (and best) move we ever made to go ‘all in’ on global B2B tech. Since then, we have continued to expand our capabilities and expertise across key tech verticals and continue to work with some of the world’s biggest B2B tech brands.
- In July 2023, launching Automotive client, PHINIA on the New York Stock Exchange. We were literally there with them at NYSE for the bell-ringing and everything that comes with such a momentous occasion.
- Opening our New York office in November 2023. Expanding into the US has always been ‘in the plan’ but always felt out of reach and perhaps a pipedream… until it wasn’t. Now it’s real and we have an amazing team across the US, with an expanding client portfolio, and a great platform from which to grow. The American Dream perhaps?
- There are many, many others and I will kick myself for not including them all here…
Over the last 13.5 years, I’ve also had the privilege of working with some truly inspiring and exceptionally smart people who have each played their part on the journey to the business we are today.
What does your move to Global CEO involve and what excites you the most about your new role?
Despite being a control freak, it has become increasingly obvious over recent years that I need to get out of the way and let people far better than I run the day-to-day agency operations, oversee our clients, define strategies, create amazing work, deliver exceptional outcomes, and generally create opportunity and drive growth for our clients.
Whilst I still love being involved across global B2B tech accounts, working with clients and internal teams to develop growth strategies, my new role will increasingly see my focus be on building our own business.
I will continue to work across our UK, European, and US businesses to raise our profile, expand our reach, expertise, capabilities, and to drive growth within our key tech industry verticals.
I’m always excited by opportunities and new possibilities and this new role allows me to focus on where I can bring the greatest value to our clients, to our people, and to our global business.
What’s your vision for the agency over the next five years?
Our vision remains unchanged – to build a world-class, integrated agency for global enterprise B2B tech brands and the world’s smartest, most creative, most strategic (and nicest) people.
Creativity will always be at our heart, but we will continue to build out our capabilities across strategy, media, performance, ABM, PR, data & analytics, video production, 3D, motion, AI and whatever future expertise is required to drive growth and create opportunity for world-leading B2B tech brands.
We will continue to expand our ability to serve and execute in local markets, initially focusing on the UK, Europe, and US, before looking to other markets such as Singapore, India and Dubai to name a few.
We continue to find new and better ways to serve and create opportunity for our clients and for our people, and we will always do what is right by our clients. We will never compromise our morals for short-term financial gain.
And last but certainly not least, we will continue our focus on sustainability and increasing our positive impact on local communities and the world we all call home.
