• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 8, 2007

R/GA has appointed one of its own, Chris Colborn, as chief experience officer--a new position within the agency, and one that is growing more popular industrywide. Colborn previously served as executive vice president, worldwide creative director.

Still reporting to R/GA CEO Bob Greenberg, Colborn is shifting his focus from client issues to consumer brand experience.

"Before, I was a creative director looking for ways to solve client problems like making a product better understood," said Colborn. "Now, I'm asking where's the gap of understanding from the consumer side."

Added Colborn: "As R/GA branches out into more traditional work, I'm trying to make sure R/GA doesn't lose its consumer focus."

Creative responsibilities will now be divided between Colborn and Nick Law, R/GA's executive vice president and chief creative officer, who oversees visual design, copy, and interaction design.

The role of chief experience officer is relatively new, but growing in popularity on Madison Avenue. JWT last year hired Organic Chief Creative Officer Colleen DeCourcy as its own chief experience officer.

"Creating the position of CXO adds a critical component to our new agency model, reinforcing the importance of customer experience," said Greenberg. "As our engagements become more complex, we must seamlessly blend outbound communications with inbound customer interactions to create transformative brand experiences."

And experience officer is not the only newfangled title sweeping the industry. Just this week, Wieden+Kennedy brought on Jordi Martinez as its creative technology director, a newly created position. Most recently, Martinez served as senior Flash developer for Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he oversaw creative interactive projects.

In his prior role, Colborn was responsible for providing strategic counsel to Nokia's Multimedia business group and for promoting creative integration on the account. He also helped align creative work across agencies and domains to ensure coherent cross-channel marketing and communications programs for Nokia's Nseries.

Previously, Colborn established R/GA's interaction design department and led the discipline for six years.

Along with reinvigorating accounts stateside, Colborn will work to develop more robust client relationships through R/GA's London office, working closely with Barry Wacksman, executive vice president, chief growth officer.

Colborn will also be collaborating with R/GA's planning team under Anne Benvenuto, executive vice president of strategic services, to better understand consumer behavior, and to support R/GA's MEMA (Mobile and Emerging Media/Applications) group led by Richard Ting, vice president, executive creative director.

Also this week, R/GA opened a new facility to accommodate the agency's growing in-house digital studio. Steven Ford, head of production for the digital studio, will oversee the day-to-day operations, and will report directly to Stephen Plumlee, R/GA's executive vice president and chief operating officer.