| Type | Subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies |
|---|---|
| Industry | Advertising, marketing |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | New York, United States |
| Number of locations | Eight offices in six countries |
| Area served | World Wide |
| Key people | Bob Greenberg, Chairman, CEO and Global Chief Creative Officer |
| Employees | 1,130[1] |
| Website | http://www.rga.com |
R/GA Media Group Inc. is an advertising agency headquartered in New York — with additional offices in San Francisco, Chicago, London, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Singapore, and Stockholm. The agency is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG), one of four global advertising holding companies. R/GA creates advertising and marketing products based in technology and design.
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R/GA operates under an advertising agency model that emphasizes cross-agency collaboration. Its agency model, which has been written about in publications such as Communication Arts and Adweek, is designed to be flexible in order to change with clients’ business needs.[2]
Ad Council, American Eagle Outfitters, Ameriprise Financial, Avaya, Barnes & Noble, Chanel, Goldman Sachs, Grey Goose, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal Paris, MasterCard, McCormick, Nike (including Converse), Nokia, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, Reuters, S.C. Johnson, Verizon, Walmart, and Zain.
R/GA, formerly R/Greenberg Associates, was founded in 1977, by two brothers, Richard and Robert Greenberg with $15,000 of capital.[3] Richard was the designer, while Robert was the producer and cameraman. It has restructured its business model every nine years—from a computer-assisted film-making company to a digital studio to an interactive advertising agency, and, presently, to an advertising agency with a digital focus.[4][5]
R/GA was founded as a design company that focused on motion graphics, live-action film, and video production. By incorporating computers into the film-making process, R/GA created the first integrated computer-assisted production process. The company became known for creating the opening title sequence for Superman in 1978.[5] R/GA’s commercial work also includes trailers, special effects, and promotions for feature films like, Alien,[4] Xanadu, Zelig, The World According to Garp, Altered States, Weird Science, Predator, Beverly Hills Cop, and Ghostbusters.[3]
R/GA created a digital studio that combined three separate media—print, television commercials, and feature films—under one roof. During the period R/GA was doing this, its body of work spanned approximately 400 feature films, including The Untouchables, Seven, Braveheart, Silence of the Lambs, Home Alone, Goodfellas, Die Hard, and Dirty Dancing, and 4,000 television commercials, including Diet Coke and Reebok.[6] In 1986, R/GA won a technical Academy Award,[7] and Richard Greenberg left the company to pursue other interests.[4]
In its third nine-year cycle, R/GA changed into an interactive advertising agency and secured IBM as a client. At the time, IBM was consolidating advertising agencies and selected R/GA to redesign the company's five-million-page website.[8] The agency also developed websites for companies such as Levi Strauss & Co.[9] and Ellis Island Museum. In 2001, R/GA expanded its client roster by becoming the Interactive Agency of Record for Nike and Verizon in 2003.[10][11] The agency also started a retail practice and built location-based interactive displays for the flagship Original Levi's Store in New York City in 1996.
R/GA changed its agency model to account for the changing business needs of its clients in the digital age. The agency expanded globally, and built a more diverse offering including mobile, social, digital advertising, and brand development. R/GA also created digital marketing options for its clients and developed the Nike+ platform.[12] The agency expanded its client roster to include Nokia (2004),[13] L'Oréal Paris (2006),[13] Walmart (2009),[14] MasterCard (2009),[15] Ameriprise Financial (2009),[16] and Taco Bell (2009).[17]
Created the opening title sequence for Superman by visually enhancing each name so it appears to be flying into the screen. The Warner Bros. Studios sequence was set to Superman's original film score, composed by John Williams. The visual imagery and special effects developed for this film launched R/GA (then known as R/Greenberg Associates) as a visual-effects company.
Created an online brand platform that gives runners a tool to record, track, and share their running data. Nike+ connects runners to an online community and archives their training history to measure progress over time. In 2007, Nike+ won top honors at six separate shows, including Titanium and Cyber Grand Prix awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Black Pencil at D&AD, GRANDY at The International ANDY Awards, Grand Clio at The Clio Awards, and Best of Show at One Show Interactive. In 2009, Adweek named Nike+ "Digital Campaign of the Decade”,[18] Campaign named it the "number one digital ad of the Noughties",[19] and Advertising Age named it one of the “Best Non-TV Campaigns of the Decade."[20]
R/GA has received numerous industry honors including Adweek's "Digital Agency of the Decade"[21] and "Digital Agency of the Year" in 2009.[22] Adweek also named R/GA its Digital/Interactive Agency of the Year in 2008,[23] 2006,[24] 2004, 2002, and 2000.
Advertising Age chose R/GA as one of its "Agencies of the Decade" in 2009 and featured the agency on its "Digital A-List" in 2009, 2008 and 2007.[25] R/GA was also selected as OMMA's "Digital Agency of the Year" for 2009[25] and Creativity’s "Interactive Agency of the Year" for 2007.