South Africa: FoxP2

Having wowed South Africa, the Loerie-laden creative powerhouse that is FoxP2, has now launched a sister agency in New York. Founders Andrew Whitehouse and Justin Gomes discuss doing bad design and being motivated by mammaries

Andrew Whitehouse and Justin Gomes are the founders of an agency in Cape Town whose name has become synonymous with creativity. It wasn’t always the case though. Not that creativity hasn’t always been at the heart of what Whitehouse (right) and Gomes (far right) have set out to achieve, it’s just that, for a while at least, people couldn’t get to grips with the name. “We wanted to attach some meaning to the name,” states Whitehouse.  “We thought about going with our last names or initials or something but decided on FoxP2; though for a while we were referred to as anything from R2D2 to, well, I don’t know what.” FoxP2, apart from being the name of Whitehouse and Gomes’ agency, is the name of the ‘creativity gene’ in the human genetic make-up. Better than Whitehouse/Gomes, surely.

That Wonderbra moment

Since its inception six years ago, FoxP2 has proved itself a shop to rival other, far more established, agencies. It’s award-winning work for clients such as Brandhouse and Frank.net has given it huge impetus and garnered admiring looks, and the more concrete distinction of being the number one awarded agency at the 2011 Loeries Awards.

Whitehouse and Gomes have worked together for more than a decade, first teaming up at Lowe Bull in Johannesburg in 2000. “I was a graphic designer before this,” states Whitehouse, “doing nasty, below-the-line stuff which I plodded along with for a number of years. But then I started seeing what was going on in the ad world and it interested me.” Whitehouse decided to put a “bad, designer’s portfolio” together and went to London to seek advertising work. After freelancing for a few years, he returned to South Africa with a spec book and wound up at Lowe Bull with Gomes.

For his part, Gomes is a touch more forthright; “I got into advertising because of a pair of tits,”
he deadpans. Initially studying law at university, he was taken aside one day by his dad – already successful in that field – who, Gomes recalls, said; “I’m flattered you want to do what I do, but you’re going to be useless at it, I’ll tell you that now.” “It was the best piece of advice he ever gave me,” Gomes laughs. “I did finish my degree but then ended up in London doing odd jobs and one day, on the Tube, I saw the Wonderbra ‘Hello, Boys’ poster and thought ‘I want to do that’.”

Staying small and perky

After their initial introduction at Lowe Bull Johannesburg, the pair also worked together at TBWAParis, under Erik Vervroegen and with Lowe Bull’s Matthew Bull again, this time in New York, before returning to Cape Town to set up FoxP2. When setting up the agency they wanted to make sure that they, as much as possible, avoided the bureaucracy they found at bigger, multi-national agencies. “There was always a lot of red tape,” says Whitehouse, “and it was often difficult to get your ideas in front of the client. So we decided when we started FoxP2 that we wanted a structure where everything was geared towards selling great work to clients.” “We believe that great creative work is the best way to get results,” continues Gomes, “and we’ve attracted clients who want to do that kind of work. We don’t waste a lot of time and effort trying to convince clients that that’s what they should be doing, they come to us for creative work in the first place.”

Both men agree that it can be hard to find brands in South Africa that are open to new, interesting and creative work but there are also some out there who realise the power of creativity and what it can achieve. “There are some brave marketers out there,” Gomes states. “People who realise that you can’t play in the sea of mediocrity because you just get lost in a grey mass. They know you have to stand for something, and they know we stand for something so we attract marketers who subscribe to that philosophy.”

When face to face with Whitehouse and Gomes in Cape Town they’re coy about future plans, underplaying any immediate growth to their 30-strong full-time staff and simply saying that they have no immediate set goals but are pushing for “fresh work with which we can evolve”. The lesson here though is don’t play poker with these guys because one week later they announce that the agency is spreading its wings to New York.  Continuing their long-standing association with Matthew Bull, Whitehouse is moving to The Big Apple to open The Bull-White House, a sister agency to FoxP2, while Gomes will be staying in Cape Town as ECD of FoxP2. Talking to Gomes a week after our initial meeting he explains; “When Andrew and I founded FoxP2 we always spoke about having satellite offices in New York, London and Amsterdam that would be built on the same principles as FoxP2. We have a great relationship with Matthew Bull and this is an evolution of that.”

Fox news

“Although the paperwork has just been completed, The Bull-White House has been a year in the making with a lot of thought given to how the two agencies will work together in terms of shared resources, intellectual capital, staff and clients.”

Gomes goes on to explain that Whitehouse has, over the preceding 12 months, slowly withdrawn himself from the day-to-day running of FoxP2 but that he will remain a partner in the agency.  “Although the dynamic of our relationship will change,” concludes Gomes, “Andrew and I will continue the creative relationship that has served us so well for more than a decade, albeit from different cities.” And with poker faces like that, you wouldn’t bet against them.