Independent creative agency MONO has appointed Chris Woolford as commercial director, bringing more than two decades of client-services and agency growth experience into its leadership team.
Woolford, whose appointment took effect on September 1, spent more than a decade at Search Laboratory and Havas Market, leading multidisciplinary teams and working with founders, CEOs and senior marketers on growth, transformation and change.
His clients have included Sony, HSBC, Moonpig and giffgaff, with work spanning search, social, analytics and data science.
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Before joining Leeds-based MONO, Woolford launched a consultancy advising digital agency founders. He said the experience helped clarify his ambition to help build a business again and introduced him to MONO founder Richard Bassett.
“This doesn’t feel like simply going back to agency life,” said Woolford. “It feels more like the next version of it. Rich has real ambition, curiosity and belief in the work, and MONO already has the ingredients of something worth building. I’m not here to run growth in isolation – I want to help build the business.”
The appointment comes as MONO looks to build on work for clients including Liberty Global, Banks Homes and Cromwell.
For Liberty Global, the agency helped launch a new business, Blume, developing its “Freedom to grow” positioning, name, visual identity, brand film, communications and workplace branding.
Its work for Banks Homes brings together property, brand and business growth, while the Cromwell brief covered brand development, messaging, website, campaigns, packaging and brand film.
Woolford also highlighted the implications of AI and changes in digital marketing for creative agencies.
“The easier it becomes to make something, the harder it becomes to make something worth noticing,” he said.
“We believe that in the fast-changing, AI-led world, brands will only be able to stand out through more genuine content and a truly differentiated positioning. Bringing my skills and experience into the MONO team offers clients a unique proposition. A new style of agency that delivers exceptional performance through strategic positioning, high quality design and ongoing digital marketing.”
Bassett said: “With his performance background, Chris brings a level of strategic and commercial leadership to the business that we’ve been looking for – and it’s exactly what we need at this stage of our journey. He understands that a brand has to perform, and it has to react as fast as the business around it. That’s the thinking running through everything we do, connecting brand creation and activation so we can meet clients’ wider needs with real, joined-up performance branding. I’m looking forward to working with Chris and building MONO’s next chapter together.”
