• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 5, 2009

Positioning itself as the media company of the future, RGM Group announced its formal entrance into the luxury publishing and advertising market.

Based in Los Angeles, the private company consists of four parts: Web media rep firm Razavi Global Media, and content portal JustLuxe.com, which launched in 2004; along with ad design business LuxeCreative, and premium ad network InterLuxe Media, which formed just last year.

The four units have operated informally as a single entity for over a year, but the timing was right to make it official, said RGM founder and CEO Kamran Razavi. "Now is a golden opportunity, as companies are folding left and right, to fill the gap," Razavi said.

Just last week, for example, Condé Nast announced plans to close Portfolio magazine and its Web site, while other glossies at the company are seen to be heading toward a similar fate.

According to Razavi, RGM has been largely unaffected by the economic downturn, which has wreaked havoc on luxury brands and publishers alike.

"A lot of people are cutting down their budgets ... but a larger breadth of clients are coming into the space," Razavi said. "Q1 '09 was our best quarter yet ... And we're poised to do even better next quarter."

On behalf of sites like Gayot.com to LuxuryRealEstate.com, RGM develops and markets a suite of custom ad offerings -- including sponsorships, podcasts, microsites, widgets, sweepstakes, and co-branded sites.

On a yearly basis, Razavi said RGM is presently doing a handful of $750,000 deals, approximately 30-40 deals worth roughly $150,000, and numerous smaller deals. Clients have included American Express, Jaguar, British Airways, Neiman Marcus, Bombay Sapphire, and Gucci, among others.

For the record, however, Razavi said he has no interest in replacing the role of ad agencies.

"We don't compete or try to replace agencies ... we partner directly with them," he said. "We are not large enough, nor do we want to focus on attaining clients ... or hand holding."

LuxeCreative -- which supports five of RGM Global's 25 employees -- has so far aligned with agencies, including Razorfish, MEC Global, Beyond Interaction, KLS Media, Moses Anshell, and Morpheus Media.

Members of the InterLuxe ad network -- which must demonstrate that 40% of their audiences have household incomes exceeding $100,000 annually -- include Frommers.com, Professional Travel Guide, HomeandAway.com, Fashionista.com.

All together, RGM Group claims a total reach of some 35 million unique users per month.

According to Web traffic measurement site Quantcast, JustLuxe.com is averaging just over 600,000 unique U.S. visitors per month, 28% of which have household incomes exceeding $100,000 annually.