It's the way we make sense of things. We tell stories, we read stories, we watch them and listen to them. It's how we discover our world and the things we need from it.

Here at Riney, this belief is the foundation of our culture. It's a foundation that was built by a man named Hal Riney because he believed in the power of stories to communicate, and to persuade.

And while the power stories have to influence the success of brands remains unchanged, the landscape used to put a story together has become the most talked about story in decades.

As a result, we believe brand stories today need to go beyond the idea of "storytelling" and extend to what we call, "storybuilding."

These are modern stories that extend traditional storytelling principles into all interactions a brand should have with its consumers—allowing a consumer to not only bear witness, but participate and experience it.

To make this possible we took the digital expertise and experience of a purely digital agency, Modem, and merged it with the traditional, storytelling expertise of Riney. We changed the way we operate. Today we structure a story so that it can be delivered in the most effective way for our modern landscape. Traditional, contemporary, personal, social, contextual.

In one short moving day, we made a single storybuilding agency that can accommodate all of the effective story elements available today.

Welcome to Riney.

Too much advertising today believes its own hype. It's full of frivolities and ambiguities. Agencies spend too much time chasing what’s new at the expense of what works

We believe creativity is critical but it doesn't drive success—persuasive creativity does.

We're not in the business of being creative. We're in the business of using creativity as a tool that persuades people to think or do something on behalf of our brands.

To state the obvious (at least to us), advertising should help sales.

What good is "stickiness" if it isn't persuasive? How good is "engagement" if it doesn’t persuade? Does a brand really need a "discussion" if it isn’t a persuasive one?

Even with all of the new and exciting tools available to build stories, we at Riney stick to the basics. We believe that advertising should build a story that persuades people to think or do something. Every success comes from this starting point.

the better the people the better the advertising.

Here at Riney, we attract more than our fair share of the truly talented people. There’s a simple reason: do great work and great people will want to work with you. We're motivated by each other.

The people who succeed here, have fun here and get the most satisfaction from their day are people who will settle for nothing less. They will do what it takes to plant their flag on the summit of Mt. Everest because climbing a steep hill just isn't good enough.

And that's what makes us different.

It's not a talking point, a sound bite or a catchphrase. It's a culture. Our culture. And it attracts like-minded people.

• Kevin Roddy

  CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

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  Kevin Roddy heads the San Francisco office and is one of four creative leaders on the Global Creative Board of Publicis Worldwide.
  
  His creative leadership and vision has resulted in both traditional awards and awards for innovation such as the Cannes Titanium Lion, the AICP NEXT Award (four times), the first-ever AAAA's O'Toole Box Award, and many others.
  
  As a copywriter Kevin has, been recognized for creative excellence throughout his career. Twice he has been ranked in the top three of Boards Magazine's "Top 10 Copywriters Worldwide" list, and he has won every major creative award in the world several times over. In fact, Kevin is the only person in advertising history to have ever won The One Show's "Best of Show" award, twice.

• Julie Liss

  CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

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  Julie came to Riney in 2009 to lead strategy and insights. Prior to joining the team she was the Director of Account Planning for TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles, overseeing a variety of national and global clients.
  
  Julie started her advertising career with Leo Burnett in Chicago before moving to independent Rubin Postaer and Associates as SVP, Director of Planning for their Santa Monica and Chicago offices. While there she founded a stand-alone brand consultancy, The Brand Biography Group. She also served as Saatchi and Saatchi's Team One Director of Planning.
  
  Over the course of her career, Julie has worked across a wide variety of categories and brands — from Scotch, Financial Services, and Luxury Automotive to Children's Toys and Package Goods.

• Harold Sogard

  CHAIRMAN

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  Harold returned to Riney in September, 2011 after a 19 year "loan" to a Riney spin-off, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where he was Vice Chairman and Partner.
  
  During his time at GSP Harold helped lead that agency's growth from 40 employees and $40 million in billings to over 625 employees and more than $2 billion in billings. Accounts he led won nine Gold Effies for marketing effectiveness. The culmination of this success was AdWeek magazine naming GSP "Agency of the Decade" in 2010.
  
  A native of Red Wing, Minnesota, Harold earned his BA with honors at Wesleyan University and his MBA with honors at The Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.