Co-founder and managing director, XYZ
Passionate, hands-on and inclusive are words that come up time and time again from clients, colleagues and fellow agency leads describing XYZ’s Mould. It is not surprising, then, that brands such as Nike, Converse and Apple have chosen to work with the agency he founded in 2012 to deliver creative and impactful brand experiences.
Mould started out in PR and events, working on the launch of Windows 95 and Nintendo 65, before founding Slice in the 1990s, originally a music promotions agency with Run-DMC as its first client. The much-admired agency had a quick ascendance, cementing Mould’s credentials as a culturally astute creator of live experiences. Pan-European campaigns for Levi’s, Xbox, Nike, Ericsson, Huawei and Casio followed, with the Slice years providing valuable insights that helped to shape XYZ.
Since XYZ’s launch in 2012, Mould has been instrumental in driving year-on-year growth at the agency, which culminated in a record 115 activations produced in just 10 months last year. New clients included New Era, Tanqueray and Major League Baseball, which helped the agency hit its 2020 goal of £10m turnover a year early. ±±¾©Èü³µpk10s have also been delivered in new territories, including Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Madrid and Zurich. The agency continues to have a strong foothold in sport and lifestyle but has been expanding steadily in the retail, automotive and travel sectors.
Mould’s drive to build a strong and inclusive agency has shone through – staff churn is at an incredible 0% for the sixth consecutive year, BAME employees represent 35% of the XYZ agency, with female employees at 80%. Parental-leave policies and mental-health initiatives have all been bolstered to ensure that the independent SME shop can be just as competitive as larger agencies when it comes to attracting the best talent.
The judges praised Mould’s employee-focused leadership, high productivity and long-term approach, plus his commitment to inclusion, with one saying: "Will is clearly dedicated to building a strong, future-facing and inclusive business."
Mould has, in seven short years, created one of the most impressive creative shops in the brand experience space.Â
With his relentless approach to making XYZ utterly representative of modern Britain, it’s little wonder that this is the experience agency that the brightest new talent is choosing to make their home.