R/GA San Francisco is moving to some new digs on 35 South
Park Street in the South of Market district. Meanwhile, Lamar Advertising is moving back into downtown Toledo, which is a lovely little city.

Just take a second out of your busy day, please? The top image is a picture of the street view of R/GA's new office. The bottom is Lamar's new headquarters. If you watch the video announcing Lamar's ground breaking, you'll see that the architectural drawings have the building looking bigger, but no better. Yes, these two companies do different things, but Lamar runs 150 outdoor advertising companies. Surely, employee morale and appearance count for something. They're in the sales game, too.

Thanks commenter luvsemlots, for bringing to our attention R/GA's hiring situation. A quick check to their Web site reveals that they're really, really looking for people.

Fourty-eight of them, in fact. Yeah, 48. Not 4-8 or 4+8=12 anything like that. They're looking for everything from interns to Senior Planners. Huzzah.

R/GA's chairman Robert Greenberg has been thanked along with
influential entertainers for their contributions to New York's entertainment industry by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Weird right? Bob along with the actor Jesse L. Martin (who is on Law & Order) and Rachael Ray.

In other odd and tangentially related news, another Robert Greenberg who is the CEO of Skechers, has his identity stolen by a man in Racine named Lance Coleman. Last month, Coleman pleaded guilty to calling computer company Dell and telling them that Skechers was relocating to an address. Coleman provided Skechers' tax identification number and ordered computers and televisions worth about $44,000 to an address that matched Coleman's apartment. Really, really? That's how your going to go out?

There are so few perks in the advertising business. R/GA has a coffee bar and lounge of their very own where they play a mixture of bad music and have a fabulous affable lead barista named Jacqueline. Other than the fact that it may be nice that you don't have to trot down to Starbucks to grab a cup of joe, wondering if there are any other perks to their office? Great health care program? Structured bonus system? Something... The agency got a B+ this year from Adweek and had me wishing that the report cards would also rate employee compensation, satisfaction and benefits. Aren't those things also key to the health of an agency? Yes, Dr. Watson. They are. They are.

Gawd bless R/GA. While other bigwigs are sucking their thumbs and whining, Bob Greenberg is talking action paction baby. Brian Morrissey over at Adweek reports that the shop has expanded its emerging media practice to focus on mobile applications that play on social media with their newly named Mobile and Emerging Platforms Group.

Someone had to do it and it looks at those R/GA is going to be the leader in what is arguably, one of the hottest tracks out there - mobility.

Mobile is a serious focus for R/GA, CEO Bob Greenberg said, since the launch of the iPhone points to the medium leaping ahead in terms of functionality. Eventually, it will be "bigger than the Web," he believes.

We loved R/GA's campaign for Nike Plus, which allowed runners to record their mileage and then, upload it on a social networking site. This concept provides a service to the consumer, which is now an important and extremely valuable concept for any brand to decode. Nike is making the consumer's life easier, while further weaseling their way into their lives rather than just peddling sneakers with some nice footage. And through mobility? And social networks? How many trends are we going to nail here?

Nice work. Nice work.

R/GA, the IPG-owned global digital agency, has hired AKQA's Jim Moffatt as the managing director of its two-year-old London office.

Moffatt, the former director of integration at AKQA, joined that agency in 2006. Before that, he worked at Nike for five years, first as the deputy head of brand communications in the UK, before being promoted to the director of brand communications in France. Nike happens to be one of both AKQA & R/GA's biggest clients.

Moffatt's brief is to manage R/GA London's day-to-day operations, meet financial targets and grow the business.

At present, there are more than 30 full-time employees in the London office, and clients include John Lewis, SC Johnson and Nokia.

The agency has been on the hunt for someone local to run R/GA London for some time. In the interim, the office has been overseen by Yuri Salnikoff, who will now revert to his role as the managing director of the global Nokia account.

Moffatt will take up his role on 28 July, reporting to Bob Greenberg, the chairman, chief executive and global chief creative officer.

It is a smart move by Bob -- get a guy who has successful in-house experience with one of your largest clients (Nike) while both hurting your biggest competition (AKQA) -- check & mate!

So, R/GA is opening an office in San Francisco! Hot. Hmmm... and why would they do that? WE HEAR THAT... R/GA has won a brand spanking new account. The name of the client is being withheld, because apparently, the incumbent has no idea that they are on the shit end of the stick. Possible scandal! Love it!

Shall we guess? Um, they're stealing from Goodby and it's HP? Anyone want to give a guess, too?

Okay, Creativity named R/GA as their interactive agency of the year, and so far, we're saying they've got the best interactive holiday greeting of 2007.

Go tattoo Santa with whatever message you like. We choose 'AS4EVER!' for Mr. Claus's bad ass knuckles. Love it and boy, it's well done.

Make your own card here.

Creativity has selected Droga5 as their agency of the year.

"Now our readers are not typically an overly critical bunch, but if they were, some of them would point out that D5's work, yes, is a touch New York-centric, and that a lot rides on the brazen, unproven Honeyshed, and well, they'd be right. But the agency proved too big a creative presence to pass by this year."

The magazine goes on to defend their selection, profile key staffers and provide video highlights of Droga's work this year. Get the whole story here.

Creativity has selected R/GA as its interactive agency of the year.

"Though it's been a formidable presence in the digital advertising space for three decades—in various forms—R/GA has truly arrived in its current iteration as a top tier interactive agency, or in R/GA parlance, an "agency for the digital age."

Read that story in full here.