Sao Paulo Office of R/GA Opens

NEW YORK, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- R/GA, the agency for the digital age™, is pleased to announce the opening of R/GA Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 3, 2010—a move prompted by the agency's selection as MasterCard's global digital agency of record. R/GA has appointed Paulo Melchiori as executive creative director and promoted Paola Colombo from R/GA New York to group director, production. Both will lead the new office and are responsible for hiring a multidisciplinary team to build it, with an expected growth of 10 – 15 people by year's end. Melchiori and Colombo are also tasked with generating new business throughout Latin America.

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"Expanding into Latin America has always been part of our growth strategy, and after winning MasterCard's global business, we're thrilled to be opening an office in a region that is vital to their business," said Bob Greenberg, chairman, CEO, and global chief creative officer. "Sao Paulo is one of the most creative advertising hubs in the world, and our newly appointed agency leaders are not only native Brazilians but also skilled professionals with experience working on global brands. We're excited to promote Paola, who has been with R/GA for more than five years. Her dedication and leadership have been instrumental in helping us grow our Nokia business. Paulo's proven track record of building and growing offices in the United States and Brazil strongly positions us to achieve success."  

Melchiori has helped global brands find innovative ways to interact with their customers in the U.S. and abroad for more than 15 years. Since 2007, he served as the SVP, creative director, at Publicis Modem San Francisco and helped the agency acquire one of its largest global accounts, LG Electronics. In 2004, Melchiori moved to the U.S. to join Digitas, where he was soon after promoted to VP, associate director. In this role, he collaborated on the development of high-profile site redesigns for GM.com, AOL.com, and Delta.com, including the 2006 multimillion dollar digital campaign to relaunch Delta's brand. As the head of creative and marketing at Modem Media in Sao Paulo from 1997 to 2003, Melchiori helped grow the office from five to 70 people, and also led the development of award-winning campaigns, website redesigns, and promotions for brands, like HSBC, Peugeot, HP, Intel, Philips, and Unilever.

Colombo has more than 14 years of design and digital experience and spent the last five years at R/GA New York working her way up from senior producer to executive producer. She managed large-scale production teams and coordinated initiatives across 20 client contacts. Colombo also helped build R/GA's European presence when the agency opened its London office in 2006. In addition, she also served as the account lead during the conception and development of engagement engines and multiple digital channels, including mobile, out-of-home, and online platforms for HBO, BAM, Ad Council, and Nokia (Global, UK, and North America). Prior to R/GA, Colombo was a senior project manager at Razorfish, where she planned the development and deployment of cross-platform online marketing materials for Roche, AstraZeneca, Merck, Expedia, and ING Direct. Before that, she spent a few years in San Francisco, where she worked at ATTIK, a global creative agency, and StarMedia Broadband, a Latin American webcast portal.

R/GA is in the process of building the Sao Paulo office into a full-service digital agency and will be announcing additional key hires. 

About R/GA

R/GA is a full-service digital agency that transforms the way people interact with brands. A commitment to design, technology, strategy, and innovation defines R/GA's continuing legacy as an iconoclast in the world of communications and marketing. With a holistic range of offerings, which includes brand development, mobile, and retail, R/GA's agency model is adaptable to the ever-changing needs of consumers in the digital landscape.

Founded in 1977, R/GA has received the most prestigious creative awards for film, broadcast, design, advertising, and interactive. It was selected as Adweek's "Digital Agency of the Decade" and "Digital Agency of the Year" in 2009. Advertising Age also named R/GA one of the "Top 10 Agencies of the Decade," and included the agency on its "Digital A-List" in 2009 and "Agency A-List" in 2008. Headquartered in New York with offices located throughout the world, R/GA is part of The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), one of the world's largest advertising and marketing services organizations.

For more information on R/GA, please visit us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/rga) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/rga).

SOURCE R/GA