Why we had to kill Media Fox on its 5th Birthday

By Stuart Robertson

March 5, 2018

Read Time: 5 minutes

In late 2012 I quit my job in radio and television after 5 years working in marketing and sales. It was great, I’d learned more than I ever expected to, and worked with some fantastic people - but it just wasn’t enough - I felt like I needed to do my own thing.

I was pretty sure that I was ok at what I did, and I enjoyed it, so if I was going to make a move it had to be for something I could call my own. I’d followed some pretty amazing creative agencies, and people like Todd Sampson, and was inspired by the work they did. That was what I wanted to do, and in mid-2012 I finally found the balls to quit my job and have a crack at it.

I quietly mentioned to a few close friends and colleagues that I was going to start my own agency in Warragul. I loved the town and I loved Gippsland, so I didn’t want to leave. I was told it would never work. I agreed that it was unlikely to even get off the ground, let alone provide me with an income, but I had nothing to lose and if I didn’t have a go I’d regret it.

(By the way, if you’re still reading at this point I promise I’m not trying to pump sunshine up my a*s, I just thought it was necessary to provide some context so you understand the reasons why we’re killing Media Fox).

At first all we did was advertising - we managed to get agency accreditation so we could book campaigns and earn a little commission for it (hence the word ‘media’ in the name. The ‘fox’ part was about my ideology at the time, that advertising had to be creative, agile, and adaptable which were all traits of the wily old fox).

So I started signing up some clients to the agency (I’ll thank them a bit later), and quickly learnt that they wanted to book print and television. Shit, now I need a designer and a video producer and I don’t have any money.

Once that hurdle was overcome, it was only a year or so that it started to become essential to have a good website. I quickly figured out that clients would be willing to pay me to organise it, so I went and found a web developer. As that trend continued, Social Media added itself to the mix. So now a few years later, we’ve added a content and digital marketer to the mix, along with our designers, web developer and video producer.

It’s pretty clear that we just adapted as we were thrown challenges and opportunities. There was no foresight.

Looking back, it kind of feels like all we did was ride the waves, get dunked, and found a way to resurface once the swell had passed. I never thought to grab a surfboard and make a plan to paddle through the white water.

Here’s where that context is important. After 5 years (and a few months) Media Fox has arrived at a junction that I never imagined we’d arrive at. As I said, I never planned any of this because I didn’t even think it would get off the ground.

Now we’ve finally had a chance to grab that surfboard and navigate through the white water. We’re staring out into the big blue ocean, just beyond the waves - and realise that we have to jump off that surfboard and into a boat.

Media Fox is the surfboard, and it has to go.

What started out as a little advertising agency is now so much more. We help our clients solve more problems than just ‘how to book an effective advertising campaign.’ Our work spans brand development, visual identity design, content and digital marketing, websites and apps, photography, film and video production.

We’ve worked extremely hard to find the sweet spot between modern design, creativity and insight-driven marketing best-practice. In simple terms, we put great thought into the creative decisions we make - across all the platforms we touch. We have some extremely talented creative people (all in-house), that take pride in every creative decision and execution they make. They know it has to do more than just ‘look good.’ It has to mean something.

Yet, we’re still known mostly for our roots in advertising - and it’s a quarter of the business.

We advise our clients on this sort of thing every day. Your brand is what your customers think it is. It’s influenced by what they see (with their eyes), hear (from trusted third-parties) and experience (themselves). This led us to develop internal processes we call the ‘Seen, Heard and Believed’ Brand Methodology.

So we’re taking our own advice and embarking on the biggest change we’ve ever made. The name Media Fox is holding us back. So from today, we’ll be known as ‘Seen’ and we’ll be driving a boat.

Footnote

I’d like to acknowledge and thank every one of the 125 clients we’ve worked with over 5 years. In particular, I’d like to thank a few people that gave me a go at the beginning and made ‘Seen’ possible; Stuart Evans from Evans Petroleum, Andrew McCarthy from Gippsland Solar, Taehee Lee from Bass Coast Dental Clinics and Dean Callaghan from Mr. Furniture (who has now moved on from the company).