R/GA–a New York-based advertising agency handling interactive work for accounts that include Nike, Circuit City, Intel, Subaru, Johnson & Johnson, and Purina–has opened a London office, expanding its presence into Europe.
Robert Greenberg, R/GA’s founder, explained that the move was a direct result of winning the Nokia Multimedia account business. This account–earned with fellow Interpublic companies Lowe & Partners, Draft and Jack Morton–covers the gamut of marketing, including Web, mobile, exhibition and point of purchase.
“Our goal is to first support Nokia, and second to look at other global clients,” Greenberg explained. “We’ll grow London the way we grew R/GA in New York–we’re not looking at a particular size. We’ll wind up as large as the business we need to support.”
The London office opens its doors this month with about five employees, backed up by roughly 400 R/GA employees in the U.S. Greenberg views the base initially as a regional office, but “down the line we will convert it to an interactive agency in the London market. We are looking for other clients [in Europe] that we already do business with, and talking to them about opportunities. That is a natural for us.”
To achieve his goal, R/GA is already building its communications infrastructure that includes a VPN (virtual private network) to connect the London office to its New York headquarters.
The visionary Greenberg predicted a strong future for interactivity in advertising, driven by the basic principle that it offers “a measurable way to interact with customers and brands–it is much more effective.”
Mobile content is on the R/GA agenda, particularly in Europe where mobile has taken off faster than in the U.S. Greenberg declined to detail what is in the works for Nokia in this area, but discussed in broad strokes what he sees as opportunities for advertisers, notably, “quick response codes that allow you to go to a digital sign and get additional info on a product.
“[To this end] we think retail will be a big part of our business,” Greenberg related. “When customers go into a store, one thing they will have with them is their cell phones. [Mobile content] allows them to get coupons and get information on a product.
“We haven’t figured out if games are an opportunity for interactive advertising, but I think it’s something that will be figured out over the next year or so.”
The R/GA founder believes many other aspects of the business will see change as well. “I think the production business is going to shrink, and more and more agencies are going to bring production inside,” said Greenberg, whose company was once a more traditional commercial production shop. “[Production] is going to become completely digital. I don’t see any great future for a large production company based in film–In the next few years we’ll see everything converted to HD and digital–and film go away completely.”
Greenberg also opined that agencies with a focus on interactive work will begin to take on more general agency and production work. “There is so much content that has to be produced for billboard, Web, print, radio, mobile–a lot of this will be done in-house at the agencies,” he suggested.
“It’s going to be an interesting time over the next few years,” Greenberg concluded. “It’s all about clients wanting to reach their clients in the best way.”
