R/GA Australia's New Office Embodies Classic Values and Fresh Thinking

As R/GA globally moves away from an office-centric model to a distributed creative model, this approach will enable R/GA and its clients to work with the best talent across the world, no matter where they are located. R/GA Australia is leading the way in this new model. 

Speaking to LBB's Delmar Terblanche, Victoria Curro, managing director of R/GA Sydney said "We could see that there was this unique opportunity to come out of the pandemic and build a new office space from scratch. We wanted to make sure that we were building it for the team, so we asked people what they wanted. And what they wanted was a workspace that could give them all the things that they couldn't get from home. Things like social opportunities, the chance to have lunches with people - not just their pet dogs - all those serendipitous 'bumping into one another moments'. 

R/GA Australia understands our clients’ need for deep expertise across a range of areas and has invested significantly in specialised talent in its Products & Experiences offering, Connected Communications, and its newest practice Brand Design & Consulting. With centres of talent in Melbourne and Sydney, R/GA Australia has built a creative powerhouse that will help elevate the R/GA network, and the Australian advertising scene worldwide. 

Michael Titshall, SVP managing director, Australia at R/GA said, “We’ve accelerated the growth of expertise in our practices with talent on the front-line, rather than investing in rigid and expensive agency executive structures - which we all know has been a frustration of clients for years. Our model enables our best talent, regardless of geography, to work on client briefs and deliver these end-to-end. This has seen R/GA Australia export creative work to the world, with brands such as Nike, Timberland, and Samsung, rather than only the other way around.”

Victoria Curro added, “This new model will enable us to become the essential partner for our clients. Our structure also allows R/GA Australia to innovate and create exciting work at the intersections of our practices as we're all under one P&L structure. We’re set up to be a lead agency to design businesses and brands positioned for an integrated and more human future that goes beyond traditional broadcast.”

She added, speaking to LBB, that "the space was inspired by three things: R/GA's philosophy of building a more human future, resimercial design, and functionality"

This, then, is a workspace intended to inspire the best work from its people, by providing them the best space possible.

As R/GA approaches its ten-year milestone of operations in Australia, the agency’s core offerings operate in the connected practices of Brand Design & Consulting, Connected Communications, Product & Experience and Brand Relationship Design. Its clients in Australia include A-Leagues, Cotton On, Mecca, TPG Telecom, Nike, Reddit, Google and Toyota. The agency has 124 staff in integrated teams of creatives, strategists, technologists and designers. R/GA Australia has grown by 30% pre-pandemic and is set to grow by 30% again in 2023.

Global Chief Executive Officer Sean Lyons said, “We are at our best when we are very intentional about our creative expertise. It’s easy for creative companies to get lost in the concept of integration without being an expert in the things you are trying to integrate. Our clients come to us for our deep expertise along with our ability to embrace where creativity and technology intersect. In our business technology is often used purely for efficiency when it has tremendous creative potential. This benefits not only our Australian clients but also global clients who rely on our talent here to bring their ingenuity and creativity to their work. Our new model, embracing distributed creativity, will only make this faster and easier.”