The career path of a creative is far from linear.  Diana Ellis-Hill, Co-Founder of Be The Fox, obtained a Biology Degree and a Masters in Science Communication, then went on to pursue a successful career in broadcasting at the BBC. It was only then she went on to start her own agency, Be The Fox. It is a unique career path made more exceptional by the fact that data points to a slim number of female-owned agencies. US data points to just 1% of agencies owned by women, while the lack of data available in the UK does not paint a more hopeful picture. 

Yet, Ellis-Hill felt empowered by her experiences to start an agency and defy the odds. She was boosted by the support of strong female role models and colleagues. While her own strong business acumen and a robust, practically-minded approach has ensured solid growth. Ellis-Hill has turned what started as a production agency into a full-service production and creative agency,  with clients such as Hertility, Bulldog and Dri Pak.

Breaking out of broadcast

Whilst studying science at university Ellis-Hill kickstarted her career with a work experience placement at the BBC. She credits her success today in part to a female mentor; Kim Shillinglaw. Shillinglaw, who went on to be the controller of BBC2,  championed Ellis-Hill early on during the placement. “I was very lucky to have an amazing female mentor who shouted about me to the rest of the team, it was really incredible when you’re starting out and you’ve got nothing,” she explained. 

At the BBC Ellis-Hill gained the skills and the connections she needed to launch her own agency. She explained: “I stayed there for 10 years, I never left. She [Shillinglaw] even helped me with my dissertation for my Masters. She offered me a job, and I worked my way up to Director, Producer-Director as it is on documentaries, doing both jobs. Making Horizon and Wonders of the Universe with Professor Brian Cox.” This is where she met  her co-founder Megan D Price, who was also  working on Horizon.

The pair realized they could use their production and directing credentials to begin working on commercial projects. At the time, branded content was growing in popularity and Price was an integral part of the team behind Marks and Spencer's TV. 

“Meg knew a bit more about the agency landscape than me and so we connected with a few friends who worked in advertising. This glamorous world that we didn't really understand. Us having our BBC background gave us the credibility that we needed to go and enter branded content,” explains Ellis-Hill.

This is where the duo found what Ellis-Hill describes as ‘a bit of a niche’ making episodic, slightly longer form content. (At just 5 minutes long this was still much shorter than her experience of crafting hour-long documentaries.

At the BBC Ellis-Hill had been trained to self-shoot, direct and edit content. A skillset which meant the duo were ready to take on projects for brands straight away. Projects  that would eventually spiral into the fully-fledged agency, Be The Fox.

Being what you can’t see

Now as a female agency owner, reflecting on her entry to advertising Ellis-Hill remarks on the differences between broadcast and advertising. Anecdotally, she shares that during her time at the BBC, she noticed more female directors than there seem to be in advertising. “On shoots in TV, there are still more men, but in my experience, I would say producers and directors still might be women,” she explains.

It is the visibility of successful women that in turn empowers other women to achieve success. “I was very empowered from working at the BBC that I didn't see a ceiling in the same way.” she shares, “That’s a bold statement. I can’t deny all of the things women have to think about men don’t, but I was really lucky that it didn't affect me in the way that I didn't think I’d be able to get to the top jobs. Especially as my mentor had one of them. I had a lot of confidence that we’d be good but you can’t deny the statistics.” 

And yet, despite the IPA Agency Census showing a small increase in female representation in the C-Suite, Ellis Hill questions which roles are actually changing. She explains: “I’d like to know which c-suite positions because there’s a difference but pay parity still isn't there, so we are not paying c-suite women as much as men. Which positions [are women in] and who’s in charge of money? ” she asks.

The importance of having women involved in making financial decisions is a passion point for Ellis Hill. “When you’re an owner you make all the decisions about where the money goes because the profit is yours to invest. So you're deciding how much to reinvest in the company, how much to pay people, what kind of pay rises people might get, implementing the policy hiring of the senior management team,” she explains.

“Who’s controlling the money, that's the question,” says Ellis-Hill. “If it is a woman of which there aren't many, 1% of decision-makers, relative to who on the c-suite, it's their inherent bias that's going to come out in where the money goes, what is done with it and who they value.”

Equity and equality by design

A simple solution to driving equality would be to have more female-owned agencies, but that’s not something that will happen overnight. In the meantime, Ellis-Hill is focused on creating an agency environment where both women and men can thrive.

“The pressures are hard in a small agency financially to offer a particular benefit to one type of person or any benefits at all. It's hard. We have to think ok, we want client people to stay and love what they do so what's our offering to people?” she says, championing an approach in which employees are listened to and structures can be created around them to enable what is needed to produce great work.

At Be The Fox, Ellis-Hill has taken a methodical, process-driven approach that allows for flexibility while ensuring client work is taken care of. An approach which means that when employees do have life take priority they can have space in the confidence that things will not spiral out of control.

“Flexibility within these boundaries helps and also helps men. Dads in the office know that if they need to go they can get the day and don’t feel like they have to have presenteeism because they’re men. It’s making sure we are open and honest, we are parents, we know there are certain things that need to happen and making sure we’ve implemented processes to keep consistency is key” explains Ellis-Hill. 

Creating space to create

Maintaining a sense of fun and creativity alongside a robust structure is reflected in both  the working environment and in client work. “We are called Be the Fox, it started because we are agile. There's actually a saying the fox knows many things, the hedgehog only one. Even though we might have been told to specialize, actually we’ve got an overview of the whole thing quickly and we employ foxes.” says Ellis-Hill

She continued: “We make sure everyone is working and moving across to different things and everybody gets creative. Making sure everyone feels like they are contributing to what we are, which is a creative place. And then that breeds creativity, we have lots of things, a chat called Foxy Finds where people put things they've seen and think are cool or we discuss them.”

Being in touch with culture and working on projects that resonate with the team has seen the agency produce genre-defying work. An example of which can be seen in the agency’s work with Hertility. Having met one of the Founders of the brand at an event, Ellis-Hill shared the brand's passion for democratizing female health and combating medical misogyny due to her background studying science. Through the power of connections and a desire to ‘create the mother of all movements’ the project snowballed into a powerful creative expression of femininity titled: ‘Ooh someone’s hormonal’.

The film, concept, music and dance was created out of the team’s shared passion which resulted in an overall campaign oozing in creativity. “I know it's a commercial company but what we all felt that they were trying to do - like it was an important thing, closing the gender health gap, closing the pay gap. I think it was an 83% female crew. Not everyone was, a lot of people wanted to be part of it,” explains Ellis-Hill.

During the creative process Ellis-Hill shares that “some people were getting angry, we were also feeling really positive.” Evidence of the fact that when a campaign is built off a truth a team is able to channel anger into passion to make a meaningful difference.

Making meaningful change

Owning a successful agency amid a cost of living crisis,  while the odds are stacked against women, contribute to a challenging climate. Yet Ellis-Hill remains forward-thinking and passionate about creating new ways of working to keep the industry evolving.

Just one example of this is in the way Be The Fox is developing software for clients to create assets and repurpose content in a bid to combat the environmental impact of multiple shoots. In an always-on media landscape, the idea can help stretch client budgets, be more environmentally sustainable without sacrificing creativity. “I genuinely think you can still be really creative and repurpose assets that you haven't maybe used before,” she adds.

As owner of a Brighton-based agency, Ellis-Hill is passionate about seizing any positives ushered in by the covid pandemic. From remote working to the plethora of  new creative solutions the pandemic was far from a creative full stop. By championing talent, creating meaningful connections and pushing beyond the glass ceiling to find ways of working that really do work, Ellis-Hill is ensuring that process can be a pathway for creativity.