Marty Fox on Inspiration and Innovation

Written by Acme Mag

Acme: Tell us a bit about how you got started in the industry. What was the inspiration behind starting WHITEFOX?

Marty: It’s a long answer, but I studied accounting and marketing at university in Dunedin, New Zealand and was always reading something revolving around branding and sales. Long-term, I think I knew I’d end up starting my own thing or working within advertising or marketing. When I moved back to Melbourne, I ended up moving from marketing into real estate and found myself working for my then-girlfriend’s (and now wife’s) father. I was a bit hesitant at first – but found that I loved it. 

However, after about a year, I noticed there wasn’t any open for inspection software being used across the board and that there was an opportunity to implement a new technology into the industry. In a tiny office by myself, I invented an app called Touch Base, which I eventually sold to the REIV (Real Estate Institute of Victoria). What it did was give me an insight into the industry because we had 1,200 offices signed up to use this software. So for about two years, I spent my time speaking to agents, teaching them how to use it, and getting in behind closed doors to see how different businesses were operating. I got back into the real estate game and started to have a lot of success doing things my own way. I had taken the lessons I’d learned and implemented them into my day to day work. But I still felt there was more to be done.

Although I was considered successful where I was, at 28 I pulled the pin, left Wilson Real Estate and decided to invest in my own business and start WHITEFOX. I had about six months of preparation, sourcing the building where I wanted to house the first office and planning how I wanted to approach the market. As a company we really tried to do as much as possible to stand out from the crowd and so we dropped the traditional suit and tie look. We placed a huge premium on social media when no one else thought it was worth it. Every single listing had a black and white photo as it’s cover shot, something we believed really stood out online. Additionally, every listing had a video featuring a voice over of the agent narrating the property. We brought copy into the mix, but again, it was quite loud, quite classy – and had cut-through. We had a really solid tone of voice that we designed in-house. There was a lot of work behind the scenes from a marketing perspective, which is probably where a lot of what I learnt at university came in handy.

Acme: WHITEFOX is known in the industry as redefining what a real estate brand can look like – both in terms of branding and marketing as a whole. What was the reason for putting the emphasis on the brand visuals and how has it impacted WHITEFOX’s success?

Marty: I always had an interest in particular brands and products and how they managed to capture the audience’s attention. To the consumer, it looks simple, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot of moving parts to make sure that you’re differentiated from another brand. And I believe that’s what we really have at WHITEFOX. It’s not just the black and white photo online, it’s not just the arched board at the front of the property, it’s not just the narrated video or the strategically edited reel to have cut through within 15 seconds. There’s four of about 20 things in the background – all woven together to create WHITEFOX.

For the first twelve months we operated, we didn’t take on any listings under $1,000,000, which actually enabled us to achieve an average sale price of just shy of $3,000,000. What we found was there’s a large bracket of people who also loved the same brands that we did. They appreciated the aesthetic, they liked the attention to detail, they loved the fact that we’d have these beautiful open for inspection stands within their houses, and they loved that it held all the collateral without creating mess on their island benches. Word of mouth then carried our brand into other homes and into further transactions. We really organically grew from the one office into six.

Acme: How do you approach where to push the WHITEFOX design, making choices such as the now iconic arched signboard?

Marty: Back when we first started, our original board was cut and segmented – it was quite different from anything else on the market. Later, we implemented the really witty signboards with copy that got a lot of attention. They were quite often reflective of politics, sports, or news relevant to that area and they got an incredible amount of attention.

We took it to our design team at WHITEFOX and they helped finesse it. So really it’s just about pushing the boundaries and knowing when to retire something.

Acme: How do you feel when you see someone has taken inspiration from your brand?

Marty: They say imitation is the best form of flattery, don’t they? I mean, I don’t necessarily get a great feeling when I’m being copied exactly, but I understand that creativity is about being inspired, so if we are inspiring others with our work, I’m ok with that. We market ourselves as the ‘Industry Influencer’ and from that naturally people will take the things we do that they find attractive or interesting and put their own spin on it. It’s only when I see blatant copies of our boards or language that I can get a little frustrated. But we don’t dwell too long on anything, we just move on to the next big idea.

Acme: How do you approach innovation as a whole? Is it a matter of identifying what your competition isn’t doing, or is it about identifying areas where you feel WHITEFOX can excel even further?

Marty: When we’re after innovation or inspiration, the best place to start is to look at what the industry is doing at the moment – what are they all doing the same? Is there a way in which we can still do that, but in a different way that’s more functional and streamlined? We’re not trying to make things harder. So we’re asking, is there a way to do it differently? Great. Is there a way to do it differently and quicker? Even better! 

That extra layer is what helps us. We’ve achieved it a number of times, where we’ve done things that have never been done before and eventually they’ve become the norm within the industry. 

Acme: You’ve recently announced WHITEFOX will be expanding into New Zealand. How long have the expansion plans been in the works?

Marty: New Zealand has been on the cards for a long time. I went to university in New Zealand and have an amazing network there. I actually met my CFO while living in New Zealand as well, so having that strong connection meant we really had an opportunity to go national very quickly. We opened Queenstown on March 1st and opened Auckland shortly after. 

WHITEFOX Queenstown, Auckland and Melbourne have a really big connection. There’s people within the Melbourne market that will go to Queenstown once every year or once every few years. And there’s a lot of people in Auckland that buy property down in Queenstown too. Having that triangle is very strategic. We’ve got the right offices in those towns, we’ve got the right people running those offices, and our brand is the right brand to really shape a market that’s been dominated by traditional franchise groups for many, many years.

Acme: What’s next in the pipeline for WHITEFOX? What do you expect the business to look like in a year from now?

Marty: I believe there’s a lot of turmoil in the real estate market currently, with interest rates and the change in pricing from city-to-city. Every city has seen a decline while coming back to normality. So a year from now, I’d like to see a bit more stability across our six offices. If I go back to February of last year, we had two, so we’ve had severe growth adding Brighton, Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, as well Auckland and Queenstown. So for us, it will be about stabilising and allowing these offices to have an impact within their local areas. From there, we’ll look at reassessing our position and continue our organic growth. WHITEFOX has always grown, developed and changed and I can’t see that changing any time soon.

Want to see who else is redefining the industry? Check out our interview with Simon Cohen of Luxe Listings.

Photography: Elite Agent
Photographer: Emily Bartlett