Expansion Follows a Pandemic-Provoked Cultural Shift

Six years after buying itself back from Omnicom Group, The XD Agency is relaunching as XD Agency (XDA), empowering a growing staff and celebrating a range of new business wins including cybersecurity platform Crowdstrike and consumer electronics brand OnePlus. In addition, the agency has been awarded expanded assignments for clients such as LEGO and Warner Media.

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XDA refreshes branding and leadership. (L to R): Rachel Hermansader, Head of Transformation; Courtney Hodges-Lanius, Head of People & Culture; Anna Mader, Head of Creative. (Photo: Business Wire)

Rapid staff expansion due to pandemic shifts—in the last 18 months staff has grown 55%—and a desire to futureproof the brand have opened this new chapter which includes a new website and positioning: “Create Better. Better experiences, stories, relationships, worlds. Everydamnday.”

The new branding was led by Head of Creative Anna Mader and Creative Director Alex Kolbe. Mader said, “This transformation has been an epic adventure in terms of what we do, how we do it and how we show up. From digging deep to redefine our values, to living them through brand actions like partnering with Ukrainian creative talent— we’re partnering with our clients to bring to life a collective desire we all share to leave this world better than we found it.”

XDA is promoting two executives who have led staff training and development: Managing Director Rachel Hermansader was named Head of Transformation, and Human Resources Director Courtney Hodges-Lanius was named Head of People & Culture.

The talent moves signal how XDA is evolving its brand and leadership team through a combination of leadership and emotional intelligence training for senior managers, plus formal mentorship and culture onboarding programs.

The ultimate goal of these moves is to “create a place so interesting you’ll never want to leave,” a vision of Founder/CEO Steve Shlansky. Hodges-Lanius said this people investment “includes upskilling in engagement technology to foster and support remote work as well as a standardization of process to support greater inclusion.”

“Our people give our agency and clients their all,” said Hermansader. “We are a community that listens, reflects and invests. Together we are creating the future we all want to see - diverse, inclusive and intentional about our work and impact in the world.”

About XDA

XD Agency (xdagency.com) is an award-winning creative agency with strong production chops designing experiences for industry-defining brands. XDA has teams strategically placed across the US with hubs in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Founded 20+ years ago, XDA is a leader in the experience design space focused on transforming stories into shared experiences. XDA’s mission: to create better work while creating a better place to work. Current clients include Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Warner Media, LEGO, Cisco Live, Dell, Bank of America, and Fiserv, among others.

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