Cut The Mustard
Join our Cut The Mustard newsletter to reserve your space for our upcoming webinars, plus the latest news & insights across the experience economy.
Join our Cut The Mustard newsletter to reserve your space for our upcoming webinars, plus the latest news & insights across the experience economy.
Founded in Manchester in 2013 by experience creators Ed Norris and Robert Masterson, we’ve helped the world’s leading festivals, venues, sports teams and destination brands achieve long-term, commercial growth.
With a team of the industry's leading ticket strategists and performance marketers, Mustard has an unrivaled understanding of what it takes to fill capacities and scale experience brands.
Creative Campaign Manager
Senior Strategist
Managing Director
Head of Strategy
Head of New Business
Co-Founder
Content Executive
Senior Paid Media Manager
New Business Executive
Co-Founder & CEO
Head of Campaigns
Head of Paid Media
Senior Paid Media Manager
Senior Paid Media Manager
Paid Media Manager
Paid Media Manager
Head of Agency Marketing
Naz
Creative Campaign Manager
Lou
Senior Strategist
Sian
Managing Director
Rory
Head of Strategy
Nick
Head of New Business
Ed
Co-Founder
Temne
Content Executive
Liam
Senior Paid Media Manager
Jack
New Business Executive
Rob
Co-Founder & CEO
Callum
Head of Campaigns
Alix
Head of Paid Media
Chloe
Senior Paid Media Manager
Nicky
Senior Paid Media Manager
Ryan
Paid Media Manager
Ryan
Paid Media Manager
Alice
Head of Agency Marketing
mustard is born. Promoters around the world kept asking how we sold out our own events, Parklife Festival and The Warehouse Project. In October 2013, Rob and Ed incorporated Mustard Media to answer them: a marketing agency built by promoters, for promoters.
First office. Manchester, UK. Mustard gets its first home in Manchester. A small room, a big client problem to solve, and the start of a decade of filling capacities. Our first clients included Kendal Calling, Snowbombing and Manchester Pride - all of whom are still clients to this day!
Annie Mac presents Lost & Found. Our first festival from scratch. We headed up and co-founded AMP Lost & Found in Malta with Annie Mac and The Warehouse Project. The debut sold 8,000 tickets in days and proved the model: we could launch a festival from nothing, not just market one. It put Malta on the international festival map and paved the way for the artist-led tourism boom.
The roster takes shape. Hideout, Festival No.6, elrow and many more. The names that built the UK festival calendar start trusting Mustard with their campaigns, and the playbook sharpens with every sell-out.
The group takes shape. Mustard Group is formed, laying the structure for what comes next: an agency and a portfolio of our own experiences.
Afro Nation sells out in 48 hours. We were the full 360 marketing team for a brand-new festival in Portugal: brand, website, strategy, and paid media. Year one sold 20,000 tickets and sold out in 48 hours. Afro Nation went on to expand across 3 continents.
The year the music stopped. COVID shut down live events overnight and took Mustard to the edge of closure. We refused to go quietly: Business Keeps on Dancing became the industry's lifeline through free weekly webinars, and we went 360 on the launch of Escape to Freight Island, the UK's pioneering socially distanced venue and our first step into large-scale hospitality.
The comeback. With live events still on their knees, we helped clients sell 620,000 tickets and generate £35m in revenue in 12 months. Proof the model works even in the hardest market live entertainment has ever known.
Home in Ancoats. Mustard moves to Colony, One Silk Street, in the heart of Ancoats. The office that would carry the agency through its biggest years yet.
mustard co-creates Fisher Presents: TRIIP Festival Malta which goes on to sell out for the next 4 years.
Into sport. And gold on TikTok. Mustard enters the sports market with Aston Villa and Team GB, the start of a journey that now runs from club football to Olympic sport. The same year we become a TikTok Gold Agency Partner, with Hideout Festival the proof: TikTok outsold Meta on tickets for the first time, and TikTok published it as a success story.
Sian Bennett becomes a partner and will then go on to be the MD in 2026.
4.2m tickets. £229m in client revenue. Mustard marks 10 years of trading with a record: over 4.2m tickets sold and £229m generated for clients in just 3 years. From club nights in Manchester to Sziget, Take That's Greatest Weekend, Bongo's Bingo, and Visit Liverpool.
The Festival Republic roster. Festival Republic brings Mustard on board across its portfolio, including Wireless, Big Smoke, and its Malta festivals. The biggest names in UK live music, backed by mustard performance.
A big year! Chelsea Winter Village launches, an experience we created from scratch, and welcomes 120,000 people in its first season. We open our second office in Soho, London. Reading & Leeds wins Greatest Performance at the TikTok Ad Awards, with mustard the only independent and events based agency on a shortlist of global networks.
The growth partner for the experience economy. A new identity for a bigger ambition. Today mustard works across 50+ festivals, sports franchises, large-scale hospitality venues, attractions, tourism campaigns, competitive socialising brands, and family experiences, backed by £400m in ticket revenue across 20 countries and the booker data that comes with it. This website is part of that story.
Tapping into mustard's events industry knowledge has been invaluable in challenging us on where we can improve. They brought out the creativity of our team, with tangible plans and tools to make it happen!
Michael Fensom
Working with mustard has been great for Nozstock. Their flexibility, openness with knowledge and clear reporting allowed us to make informed decisions and significantly improve results. I would highly recommend them!
Ella Nosworthy
We’d hit a ceiling and needed a fresh perspective. mustard gave us that with a strategy we could move on straight away. Their ad creative and paid media support took it further, delivering results fast.
Carl Miller
Sign-up to reserve your space for our upcoming webinars and read the latest news & insights across the experience economy.
Mustard Media Wins Greatest Performance at the UK Tiktok Ad Awards 2025
Mustard Media Wins Liverpool’s Music Destination Campaign
'Think Like A Promoter, But Execute Like An Agency’: Festival Marketing Deep Dive With Mustard's Rob Masterson
Sign-up to reserve your space for our upcoming webinars and read the latest news & insights across the experience economy.
