Category Archives: Innovations

posted by Cathy

Aug 17, 2010 @ 8:31am

Where interesting people congregate, interesting things happen

What's in store for the WECO?

We’ve long dreamed of converting the infamous WECO building, a former grocery store/pool hall/charity thrift (and our current home) into a creative salon. It makes sense with the Riggs Partners modular business model; it makes sense with our partnership philosophy; and quite frankly, it makes sense given the real estate we’re sitting on.

So we’re pleased as punch to (officially) announce that interactive usability consultancy firm truematter and inbound marketing specialists keelysaye.com are taking up residence with us, here, in the WECO building at 750 Meeting.

The vision of all parties is that the open, bullpen space of the building be a shared community environment in which the creatives of all three companies work in hive fashion, herman-miller-hexagon to herman-miller-hexagon. While there will undoubtedly be instances in which the companies are collaborating on projects, each remains an independent company with its own clients. And not one new wall is being built to divide the three.

We love this description from Wikipedia:

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation.

It’s a French concept we believe applies parfaitement to the way smart businesses are functioning in this new economy: connected, specialized, synergized.

you get the general idea

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posted by Teresa

Jun 22, 2010 @ 6:07pm

What’s NXT in health care?

NXT fusion

Just ask our friends at NXT, a non-profit research collaborative dedicated to advancing innovation in the delivery of patient care. We’re working with them to develop a brand  and audience engagement strategy that will allow them to facilitate some of the most exciting research initiatives we’ve come across in a long time.

For example, NXT has already successfully led two research projects sponsored by the Department of Defense: an architectural study in collaboration with the Clemson University Architecture + Healthcare program on the Patient Room of the Future, as well as an Electronic Medical Record interoperability program. Today, they’re working with MIT scientists on the development of health management tools within the hospital room that make it easier to manage multiple physician specialists, communicate with off-site family members, and access all medical records. At the same time, they’re working with Clemson architecture students on the Provider Room on the Future, exploring new layouts in room design, materials, workflow and communications within the exam room setting.

While these in-hospital communications tools and facility design projects are integral to health care today, people like Tom Jennings and Salley Whitman will tell you that real health care innovation will ultimately happen within the home: in designing tools that will directly link patients to their healthcare providers in real-time. They’re on a mission to bring together other health care planners, product development experts, facility designers, nurses, IT professionals and behavioral scientists from all over the world to make sure this kind of out-there thinking happens right here. Right now.

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posted by Apprentices

Mar 22, 2010 @ 12:36pm

Fabulous Riggs Partners stars in Vegas

On August 11, 2009, after 22 years in the industry, veteran agency Riggs Advertising announced its move from a larger agency with on-staff employees to a five-person partnership that works with a network of strategic contacts. The model was innovative, bold and ahead of its time – and it was dubbed “Riggs Partners.”

Six months later, partners Cathy Monetti and Teresa Coles presented the new Riggs model to more than 50 agency principals from across the country.

The presentation was part of a three-day seminar held by Second Wind, a business-improvement information network consisting of more than 9000 small to midsize advertising agencies, design firms and related businesses. The seminar, held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, highlighted the SMALL+SMART agency model, an idea which held an uncanny resemblance to Riggs Partners’ existing structure.

“Riggs Partners was smart to make this shift from traditional ad agency to small and smart outsourcing agency,” said Tony Mikes, managing director of Second Wind. “Their structure is a wise and timely response to economic change, overhead-weary clientele, increased freelancing and advanced technology. They have recognized an idea whose time has come.”

Monetti and Coles offerred expert advice to a number of inquiring principals attending the seminar. “It will be interesting to see how many traditional agencies now move to a smaller structure,” Monetti said. “I hope to see many follow suit, because I truly believe – especially for midsize companies – our structure is the agency model of the future.”

- Sammy Rutkowski

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posted by Cathy

Oct 23, 2009 @ 4:40pm

If a good idea becomes a mediocre idea, is it still worth launching?

I read a blog entry this morning written by Alex Bogusky that I just can’t get out of my mind. While the perspective he offered was smart from beginning to end, one section continues to whirl around in my head—so much so that I simply have to address it here before I can get on to the “the deadline is approaching” projects on my desk today.

“The market forces created by the rapid demise of mass media and traditional media models have made the real business we’re in clearer than ever. We’re in the business of . . .creating new ideas . . . so compelling and entertaining that the consumer searches them out. . . . Brilliance will be more powerful than ever, and yet everything from above average on down will become invisible. Produce ordinary ideas and nobody will ever see them.”

This is a very real and incredibly powerful shift in the business of marketing. In years past, if we produced work that was average (or God forbid, below average), we could still produce some modicum of impact because it could be forced on unsuspecting consumers via mass media interruption. Some sort of intellectual or emotional exchange would still take place. But today, the penalty for generic is this: It goes completely unnoticed.

I spend a lot of time these days talking with clients about the need to develop content so irresistible consumers are attracted to it. It is our goal on every project to produce something magnetic; an idea or execution so educational, or funny, or emotionally powerful they seek it out, rather than the other way around. This is a tall order. And it is made even more difficult—make that impossible—when the idea is compromised as it makes its journey from concept to marketplace. The result is often just what Bogusky warned—invisibility.

It is a core value at RP to listen generously as suggestions are offered along any creative path, and I believe many a good idea was made better through collaborative input. But it is our professional responsibility to stand tall for ideas worth protecting. And that is a truth worth remembering.

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posted by Cathy

Aug 15, 2009 @ 8:40pm

Excitement. And exhaustion.

IMG_1272So there were no nightly updates because we worked like dogs. I have come home from the Digital Creative Direction intensive at Brandcenter with an intense passion for JUST FRIGGIN’ DO IT and with bronchitis. Mike Hughes (The Martin Agency),summed it up in his opening night presentation. “None of us knows how to do digital media,” he said. “You just have to find new human, wonderful ways to do creative in this realm. You have to push to figure it out.”

His sentiments were echoed by every speaker throughout the week, ending with Jeff Benjamin, CCO of digital at Crispin. (Yes, we all bowed when he walked in.) “There is no ‘right way’ to do any of it,” he said. We (Crispin) make it up as we go along and believe me, there are lots of failures.”

So, instead of a blog entry a day, here’s a blog entry with A Lesson A Day:

Monday

Mike Hughes. The Martin Agency
Get your creative team, and your client, to see what’s possible.

Tuesday

Lisa Bennett, DDB West
To effectively bring digital to the center, you will have to reinvent your current model. (Needless to say I LOVED hearing that one.)

Rick Webb, The Barbarian Group
Align with what internet builders care about: Build cool shit people want.

Rick Boyco, Brandcenter
Mistakes are not failure. Be prepared to be wrong.

Wednesday

Mark Avant, Brandcenter
Stop thinking “event” and start thinking “customer journey.”

Ji Lee, Google
(on ‘Open Source’) Sharing is rewarding. Give something to the world and you will get so much back.

Peter Coughter, Brandcenter
(on ‘presenting’) You are your message.

Thursday

Lars Bastholm, Ogilvy
The digital toolbox becomes broader, deeper and wider everyday. The dilemma is: We can do anything. It’s wonderful for people who are adventurous and terrifying to those who aren’t.

Pella and Calle Sjonell, BBH
1. Do. Don’t talk.
2. You must collaborate. And if you must, force collaboration.

Heidi Ehlers, Black Bag Recruitment
Most people have vivid fears and vague dreams.

Jeri Ward, Audi
The world belongs to the brave.

Friday

Jeff Benjamin, Crispin Porter
Consider yourself an inventor.

Kelly O’Keefe, Brandcenter
Have a point of view. Take a stand, and don’t let go of it.

So it is Saturday afternoon. I have been to the doc, begun a round of serious antibiotics (along with two other prescriptions) and am already feeling better. I can’t wait to get to work on Monday to enter the new world that is Riggs Partners. Anything is possible!

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posted by Cathy

Aug 09, 2009 @ 10:23am

Speaking of World Class

All this week, I’ll be studying in the Digital Creative Direction intensive at VCU’s Brandcenter. I attended the inaugural CD school four or five years ago and it was a life-changing experience. It’s an incredible honor to be a part of this class of exceptional CDs and to study directly under the tutelage of our industry’s most prolific creatives. Getting to do it for an entire week?  Wow.

Faculty:
Jeff Benjamin, Executive Interactive Creative Director, Crispin Porter
Jeff Gillette, CD, Google
Rick Webb, Co-Founder, The Barbarian Group
Lisa Bennett, Chief Creative Officer, DDB West
Pella and Calle Sjonell, Creative Directors, BBH
Lars Bastholm, Chief Digital Creative Officer, Ogilvy
Stan Joosten, Innovation Manager, P&G

It’s my plan to provide daily (errrr. . .nightly) updates here, so long as I don’t just collapse into bed after the group assignments and wine-soaked dinners. Hope to meet you here—

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