Rizuto, Wang & Warren Launch New Creative Company TBD

Highly-decorated creative Rafael Rizuto joins innovation strategist Virginia Wang and industry veteran Jordan Warren to launch TBD, a creative company that is challenging the agency model through a philosophy of constant evolution. Based in San Francisco, TBD will combine business and innovation strategy, creative communications and experience design with an agile approach to problem solving rather than a prescriptive set of solutions, marrying the vast expertise of Rizuto, Wang and Warren.

The trio’s confidence in combining forces is rooted in their mission towards radical diversity - that the best ideas come from a diverse collection of minds and experiences. Tackling brand challenges end-to-end from consulting to creation, TBD harnesses its varied collective muscle to keep the clients they work with ahead of the ever-changing curve.

As a seasoned marketing leader and entrepreneur, Warren founded and built two of the top creative agencies in San Francisco, ARGONAUT and Eleven. After he started ARGONAUT from scratch in 2012, the agency gained industry attention when it broke its first work on the Super Bowl for VW. Within its first three years, ARGONAUT grew to over 80 employees and $20 million in revenue, attracting clients like AT&T, MetLife, Fitbit, Google, Hershey’s, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Gruppo Campari and Fiat Chrysler. 

Rizuto joins from 180LA where, as executive creative director, he helmed the creative output that led the agency to become the most awarded in the TBWA global network, including 20 Cannes Lions in the last two years. While strategist Wang has led future forward, strategic initiatives for a wide spectrum of industries through extended stretches at IDEO, MTV, Electronic Arts, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and DDB New York. Across consulting, client, and agency worlds, she has an established track record of translating human centered insight and market understanding into award winning, creative solutions and tangible business impact.

"More than our name and philosophy, TBD is an act of defiance," says Rizuto, chief creative officer. "It’s about not following predetermined ways of doing things. It’s about putting ideas before execution and building a diverse creative team that allows you to unlock unexpected solutions that deliver authentically on our clients’ values. We develop programs for our clients that not only fundamentally improve their businesses but also do good for the world and influence culture.”

"In times of constant change and disruption, only uncertainty is certain," says Warren, chief executive officer. "Let’s face it, we’ve seen our industry struggle to keep up with change. Creative agencies have tried to embrace digital, digital agencies have tried to become storytellers, and now consultancies are trying to become agencies. The only way to be relevant today and tomorrow is through adaptability. We will always be a work in progress.” 

  

“TBD is for brave, forward-looking companies that want to disrupt markets or themselves to stay ahead of change,” continues Warren. “We are a new kind of partnership that goes beyond advertising to develop end-to-end insights and solutions. We join data with human intuition to tell us not just the what, but also the why. We move fast, ideate constantly, and prototype and test until we get it right. And we proactively lean into the future to help our clients get there faster.” 

"We came together because we see a gap between innovation vision and its realized impact," says Wang, chief strategy officer. "Business strategy is too often separated from creative strategy, and the translation between these can be extremely difficult. This disconnect not only slows agility but dulls efficacy. TBD is about flux and responsiveness to the increasing rate of change, closing this critical gap.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, TBD is globally diverse from birth, with a culture that celebrates different talents and points of view. While the founding team has experience working in the U.S., South America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, the agency has formed a strategic partnership with minority investor hasan & partners Group, based in Helsinki, with offices in Finland and Sweden. 

“When you meet a superstar team that has experience disrupting the advertising landscape - not just once, but several times before, and is determined to do it again - you jump at the chance to be part of it,” says Ami Hasan, founder and chairman of hasan & partners Group and president of Art Directors’ Club of Europe. “TBD is starting where most agencies aspire to be, but are too big or stuck in their ways to get there. They are creating a new model for the future of our industry, and we’re excited to be helping them with that.”  

Some of the founding team’s past clients include AAA, Airbnb, Apple, Asics, AT&T, Boost Mobile, Coca-Cola, Dollar Shave Club, eBay, Electronic Arts, Expedia, Fitbit, Google, Kraft, Mitsubishi Motors, MTV, Nike, P&G, UNICEF and Unilever.