Post production facility The Mill is to expand its offering to incorporate creative strategy and ideation, production, and experiential marketing in addition to its visual effects capabilities.
The Mill will now operate across three business sectors: Creative Production, Experiences and Visual Effects. The facility said the capabilities are designed to “reimagine content for brands that want to create cultural moments” with virtual, augmented and physical experiences.
The Mill has made several new senior appointments to support the business evolution including Chief Experience Officer, Chief Brand Officer, Global Strategy Director and Global Director of Creative Technology.
Alex Wills joins as Chief Experience Officer and will be responsible for defining The Mill’s future role in developing transformative experiences for audiences, brands and fan cultures. He has held senior leadership roles at R/GA and AKQA, partnering with brands such as Nike, Google, Guinness and Beats by Dre.
Alex Schneider joins The Mill from Wednesday Agency Group, where he was Global CEO, as Chief Brand Officer. Prior to joining Wednesday, Schneider was the Managing Director of R/GA Portland, and held senior leadership roles at Deutsch LA and 72andSunny. In his new role, Schneider will work with brand partners across the gaming, fashion, automotive, technology and lifestyle industries. He will also lead global expansion plans as The Mill explores new territories.
Anna Fogg, newly appointed Global Strategy Director, will be working with clients to define the trends in culture and behavioural shifts impacting modern audiences as they migrate into new spaces online. Fogg has 15 years of strategic experience in creative agencies working for VCCP, Cheill and Naked Communications before joining The Mill.
Aleissia Laidacker has joined The Mill with a focus on developing the company’s offering across Augmented/Virtual Reality, AI, Game Development and Immersive Technologies. Previously at Magic Leap and Ubisoft, Laidacker has over 20 years of experience at the forefront of technology-based media and entertainment.
CEO Josh Mandel said: “The expansion of our business offering comes in response to the new challenges faced by brands looking to reach and engage audiences in new and emerging spaces online and virtually. These spaces are creating new opportunities to shape a consumer experience that demands the latest in visual effects and tech enhanced storytelling.”
The Mill has already been working directly with brands such as HBO, EA, Amazon and Spotify on campaigns across the interactive and experiential marketing space.
Alex Wills, Chief Experience Officer, said: “Emerging technology allows brands, products, and entertainment properties to move ever closer to their audience in new ways. We’ll be building out our capabilities to work across every medium from filters and real-time avatars through AR and VR to magical full-blown location-based experiences. We have actively been building an Experimental Design Studio and Real-Time 3D powered Creative Technology team, in order to rapidly scale our offering to further bring our world class CG craft into interactive experiences, enabling us to deliver next generation audience experiences.”
The Mill is a Technicolor Creative Studios company.
Jon Creamer
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