NEW YORK Two-and-a-half years after buying Razorfish, aQuantive has consolidated its Web operations at a single location: the former
New York office of Google.
The 300 employees of Avenue A/Razorfish have moved into three connected floors of office space in Times Square, replacing three separate locations the agency previously occupied in Manhattan.
At 80,000 square feet, the location is 45 percent larger than its previous office space. A central atrium provides an aura of connectivity that reflects the agency’s fusion of media and Web services since i-shop Razorfish was merged with media agency Avenue A in 2004, said Bob Lord, president of Avenue A/Razorfish East.
“Our clients are asking for online consumer digital strategy and all of our services are under one roof,” he said. “No longer are clients asking for media campaigns or Web sites. They’re asking us to understand the minds of the online consumer.”
Avenue A/Razorfish has added 70 employees so far this year in New York, the company said. A Merrill Lynch research note last week projected a 24 percent rise in aQuantive’s revenue in 2007. (In addition to its core agency business, the company operates related service and performance media units.)
Moving forward, the company plans to use a “hotel-ing” system popular with consulting firms whose employees spend much of their time at client locations. This system would allow them to hook up to any available computer and phone, rather than remain at a set location, enabling Avenue A/Razorfish to accommodate further expansion, Lord said.
The real estate opened up in October, when Google relocated to a sprawling space in the city’s Chelsea district.
Lord said there are worse omens than following in Google’s footsteps. “Hopefully some of that charm will stay with us,” he said.
Avenue A/Razorfish Expands in N.Y.
