Reinventing the Reel

By: Danielle SacksWed Dec 19, 2007 at 8:24 AM

The phrase "interactive advertising" is everywhere. Bob Greenberg actually makes it.

Brut Force Bob Greenberg at his office in Hell's Kitchen. His collection of "art brut" is now worth millions.

Virtual Milestone R/GA's Web site creates an interactive world for runners using a sensor-equipped Nike+ sneaker and an iPod. More than 1,000 runners are signing on daily.

2007 Masters of Design

"Over the years, Bob has always been out there pursuing something that didn't seem as obvious as it does in hindsight," says Jon Kamen, founder of @radical.media, who has known Greenberg for 30 years. Kamen says his colleague's strategic foresight is uncanny, pointing to his reinventions of R/GA and his purchase of the Hell's Kitchen offices--once a truck depot--back when drug dealers and prostitutes swarmed the block. Even Greenberg's 1,500-piece collection of "art brut," created by people locked up in asylums and institutions, sets him apart from his peers, Kamen says. "He collected it when it barely had a name, and he picked it from the trash." Now millions of dollars' worth of the paintings line the walls of R/GA, a reminder to Greenberg's staff of the importance of imagination, however raw and unschooled. "At the time, people may think he's out of his mind," Kamen says, "but he always gets the last laugh."

We designed a lot of the equipment, Greenberg says, so we could create things nobody else had seen or done before.

In recent months, Microsoft, Google, WPP, and Publicis have spent billions scooping up digital ad shops, and annual online ad revenue is expected to blow past its current $19.5 billion to hit $36.5 billion by 2011. Meanwhile, R/GA has become a favored poaching ground for companies from Adobe to Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Greenberg says demand for his people is so hot that he spends much of his time on retention. But there are worse predicaments. He's planning to open R/GA's doors in Mumbai, Shanghai, São Paolo, and Moscow over the next few years. His vision, it seems, just keeps getting sharper.

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