Fox Tales is all about building community, telling the stories of our friends, partners and customers, and offering insights into the world of media. And on occasion, we like to highlight our own people, so that readers get to know us not just as business acquaintances, but as people, with families, avocations, experiences, and principles that drive how we approach our work.
As always, our goal is to use this channel for you to get to know us a little bit better. With our “Getting To Know A Fox” series, we focus on one member at a time, with a brief, engaging semi-biography.
Last November, our first installment featured our CEO and founder, Marlys Fox, the industry icon and pioneer who launched this company in 1968. With our February 2023 issue, we chatted with Executive Vice President and COO Steve Schwanz, who’s the longest-serving employee other than Marlys Fox herself. In April, we chatted with Tina Riley, one of our frontline sellers, who carries the official title of vice president and senior account director at the company.
Jack Friend.
Now we’d like to introduce Vice President and Senior Account Director Jack Friend. Here’s Jack’s take on a variety of business and biographical details. We’re very pleased to share it with the extended Fox Associates family.
Fox Tales: Tell us about your approach to relationship building, and whether you can quantify the value of it—in size of an annual spend, in lifetime value, in trust.
Jack Friend: We try to be consultants, trying to find the best media options for each prospective advertiser. We strive to become a trusted advisor and marketing partner, not the pushy salesperson they’re used to. Whenever possible, it’s desirable to develop relationships with the people who buy from us. They appreciate that we try to help them do their jobs better by working closely to see that they find the best media options to match their marketing needs. When you have a relaxed relationship, you get to know them and they get to know you, and trust develops, which helps everyone.
Fox Tales: How has the art and science of media sales evolved over the course of your career?
Friend: There have been challenges as new media opportunities become available. Where we used to sell just magazine space, now we have to understand a vast number of digital-media offerings. The Fox team depends on one another to work together whenever we find ourselves in uncharted territory.
Fox Tales: What are some surprising requests for media campaigns you’ve gotten from prospects and customers? How have you responded?
Friend: When you walk into your office and turn on your computer in the morning, you never know what’s going to pop up. Each day is an adventure, and most days you have at least one win, and one or more interesting or unusual phone calls or e-mail exchanges. It’s rarely boring!
Fox Tales: In a few sentences, tell us about the Fox Associates USP and sales ethos.
Friend: As I’ve explained to many new hires over the years, Fox Associates has a truly unique corporate culture. What I especially like is the variety of assignments. Over the years we’ve worked in almost every field and sold nearly every type of media. I also like that we do a lot of trade shows. There’s no better way to find out about a company than visiting their booth in a big expo hall.
Fox Tales: Tell us about yourself. Where have you lived, where do you live now and what do you like best about those places?
Friend: I was born and raised in the Chicago area. I was working in downtown Chicago when I decided to move to Los Angeles to try to get into the movie business.
Chicago and L.A. are both big cities with a lot of cultural and entertainment opportunities. The two big differences are the weather (I hate Chicago winters) and family (most were in the Chicago area when I moved away). So, I still have roots in Chicago but I’m afraid I’m a diehard Californian now, despite the occasional earthquake. I currently live northwest of Los Angeles with two cats.
Fox Tales: How long have you been with the company?
Friend: I flew to Chicago to be interviewed by Marlys and four or five other people, and was offered the job that same day. That was 26 years ago. As a bonus, whenever there’s a Fox meeting in Chicago I’ve been able to visit with my family.
Fox Tales: What are some of your avocations?
Friend: When not working, I spend time with friends, talk to family, and have recently returned to a childhood hobby, collecting stamps. I’ve also gotten into genealogy and created an extended family tree, with the additional benefit of getting to know some distant cousins.
Fox Tales: Tell us something about yourself that is sort of surprising—a skill, an experience, etc.
Friend: I worked at one of the major Hollywood movie studios until they had one of their periodic management changes, leaving me and many others out of a job.
I had been managing the department that placed movie ads in newspapers across the country. Within a few weeks of the word getting out that I was leaving the studio, I received three offers to work in advertising sales. They were all part-time, commissioned positions, so I took all three. That was how I got into ad sales.
A year or so later, one of the independent ad salespeople I had met asked me if I wanted to work with him on a new magazine about video games. This was just when the Nintendo craze was taking off. We sold a ton of advertising over the next two years. When that roller coaster eventually stopped, I needed to find another job. I answered an ad to work at a rep firm, and Steve Schwanz interviewed me for Fox Associates. The company had just gotten a new assignment to work on a video game magazine, so I had the experience they needed.