RPA: People First

It’s not your brand if you don’t actually live and breathe it.

As RPA approached its 30th anniversary, the independent agency was at a crossroads. New business growth was lagging. New hires knew the work, but not the “why” behind how we work. The agency’s human-centered culture, emphasis on servant leadership, and belief in creating work that respected audiences, were very real. But the language wasn’t hitting.

We started by defining the agency’s mission statement: We create work that matters to people, for brands that matter to people, in an environment where people matter. Which led to much more concise distillation: People First. Two words that captured RPA’s independent DNA, the way the agency approaches work, and the culture behind it.

From there, we turned the idea into an ecosystem: a People First guide and culture book, foundational identity materials, a full digital and social redesign and relaunch, internal takeovers, and a proprietary illustration style that showed up across the agency.

The metrics spoke for themselves. Retention held strong. Top-tier candidate recruitment blew up. RFP response rates were unprecedented. And the agency would go on to experience its most impressive hot streak of business wins since its founding.

Of course, it wasn’t all because of two simple words. But it all started there.