CLIO AWARDS HONORS R/GA’s BOB GREENBERG WITH 2006 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

SOUTH BEACH, MIAMI — Bob Greenberg, chairman, CEO and chief creative officer, R/GA, has been selected by the international Clio Awards and Festival to receive its distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for 2006. The sixth annual award, in recognition of outstanding and ongoing contribution by an individual who is leading the industry forward, was presented Sunday night during the 47th Annual Clio Festival in Miami’s South Beach, May 13-16, 2006.
“Bob Greenberg is a leader in every sense of the word, continually anticipating change and transitioning his business long before most others,” said Ami Brophy, executive director, Clio Awards. “His ongoing commitment to integrated communications and ‘best-of-breed’ collaboration place him at the forefront of the industry, where R/GA leads the way in developing multi-disciplinary advertising that successfully engages today’s empowered consumer in new ways.”
Greenberg, along with his brother Richard, founded R/Greenberg Associates (R/GA) in 1977 with the idea of creating a company that valued design, while focusing on developing leading-edge motion graphics and live-action film and video production. He later evolved the firm into a completely integrated digital studio, bringing together the disparate areas of print, television commercials and feature film work. At that point, R/GA had contributed ground-breaking visual effects to more than 4,000 commercials and 400 feature films, including Alien, Predator, Seven and Zelig.
More recently, Greenberg successfully transformed R/GA into a third model: a multiplatform advertising agency that has transformed the way brands like Nike, Subaru, Nokia, Verizon, Purina and Target use digital media to engage their customers and tell dynamic brand stories. His belief in the powers of collaboration has led to a unique interdisciplinary approach, providing clients with teams of creative talent that work alongside highly skilled software developers, strategists and project managers.
The agency, which has been named interactive agency of the year by both Adweek and Advertising Age, has more than 400 people in New York and London, and is part of The Interpublic Group.
Greenberg has won numerous awards for creativity, including an Academy Award in 1986 for pioneering work in computer-assisted film making technology and hundreds of industry awards such as Clios and Cannes Lions. He received the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Communications in 2003 and the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, which was accompanied by a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art of R/GA’s work.
In addition to being indefatigably enthusiastic about the work of his own agency, Greenberg has always been passionate about education. As an active board member of several educational institutions, he has the opportunity to develop programs that reflect many aspects of the evolving advertising industry. These schools include NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), which embraces creativity and technology; Parsons School of Design, which focuses on creative design; and the VCU Adcenter, which trains students about advertising and marketing strategies that involve the changing consumer landscape.
According to Brophy, the selection of Greenberg clearly reflects the essence of Clio: to recognize the people and programs at the ever-changing vanguard. “As the industry progresses, the Clio Awards has evolved, recognizing the new dynamics of the ad marketplace and rewarding the work that is leading the industry forward,” she said. “Bob Greenberg has been and continues to be exemplary in that area.”
He joins an impressive list of past Clio Lifetime Achievement Award honorees, including John Hegarty, chairman/worldwide creative director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH); Lee Clow, chairman/chief creative officer, TBWA\Worldwide; Neil French, former worldwide creative director at Ogilvy and WPP; David Abbott, cofounder of Abbott Mead Vickers, and Tony Kaye, a pioneering director and cinematographer.