Locally-based marketing company bucking recession trends

The Rimm-Kaufman Group, an Albemarle County-based online marketing company, is staffing up, expanding its offerings and relocating its headquarters to downtown Charlottesville.

The company, which launched in 2003, has long specialized in paid search advertising, the practice of running ads that appear based on Internet search results. The company is now seeking to expand its core business and focus also on online display advertising and search-engine optimization consulting.

“Everyone’s seeing the need in our industry for integrated solutions,” said George Michie, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “We think there’s an opportunity for us to be the high-quality service provider in this space.”

As RKG expands, Michie said, the company is poised to outpace its digital marketing industry competitors, including Boston-based iProspect, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Efficient Frontier and New York-based 360i and iCrossing.

“There’s no reason we can’t eat their lunch,” Michie said.

Rimm-Kaufman employs about 62 staffers, is preparing to hire an additional 10 and is close to acquiring a top search-engine optimization firm that employs 18.

A year and a half ago, the company moved its headquarters from Commonwealth Drive to a nearby 11,000-square-foot office on Greenbrier Drive.

“We’re bursting at the seams here,” Michie said. “We have 10 more people starting in the next month-and-a-half and we have nowhere to put them.”

On Friday, the company will relocate to a 23,000-square-foot space on the second floor of the LexisNexis building downtown.

Chris Engel, assistant director of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development, said the city provided the company assistance in finding a suitable space but did not provide any tax incentives. The company’s relocation, he added, will prove a boon to downtown Charlottesville

“The additional workers will add to the growing number of downtown employees and likely increase demand for restaurant, retail and other service businesses,” Engel said. “We may see some employees choosing to live nearby and take advantage of the city’s walkable urban environment. The RKG culture is a good fit for downtown Charlottesville.”

Michie declined to divulge any financial details about the company, but said revenues are up 32 percent year over year and said the company has been profitable since its founding. The company has grown solely on its revenues, unlike much of its venture capital-backed competition, he added.

“That’s led us to be very smart with money, both our clients’ and our own,” he said.

As part of its efforts to reach the next level, Rimm-Kaufman two weeks ago hired Paul Wilson as executive vice president of client development, luring him from iProspect. Wilson’s job will be to drum up additional clients looking to advertise online.

The company also hired John Shea from Google Inc. as vice president for strategy. Shea, who is based in Boston and is opening the company’s office there, said he left Google for Rimm-Kaufman because he saw potential in the company.

“While at Google, I had the unique opportunity to train, consult and evaluate the largest buyers of online advertising in the world — digital ad agencies,” he said. “After four years of collaboration with the agency community and internal teams at Google, I recognized that RKG had developed the most effective solution for online advertising and became interested in a closer partnership.”

The online ad industry is poised to grow substantially as media consumption continues to migrate online, Shea said, thereby presenting an opportunity for companies such as Rimm-Kaufman.

In his new post, he said, he will focus on building partnerships with sizable companies, expand display advertising and boost the company’s ad services on Facebook.