About Us

Our Story

 

In September 2005, two successful agencies met, fell in love and merged. Call it fate.

When Carter Ryley Thomas and Patrice Tanaka & Company joined forces, something unique happened. From out of the union of everyone's collective minds and souls sprang forth a small, but very powerful thinking spirit. It represented not one thought, but many. Not one dream, but all of them.

And this spirit began to whisper. It was one of those sounds that everyone assumed was just in the back of their head - barely audible, just a personal thought. But then someone finally asked, "do you hear it? Sounds like'what can be'." Everyone agreed, they heard it too.

CRT/tanaka is the brainchild of Carter Ryley Thomas, a mid-sized PR firm located in Richmond, and Patrice Tanaka & Company, a consumer specialty agency in New York City. They shared a common history, having both bought themselves back from top 20 advertising agencies, and now share the same vision for the future. We work to achieve goodness, genius and greatness for ourselves, our clients and our communities by always asking "what can be?"

We'll let our leaders tell you the rest.

Mark Raper, CEO and Chairman -
"It was very obvious that Patrice and her group shared our philosophy - that in the process of being a great company you also have to be great people. She was the epitome of that, a beacon for the industry to be reminded of individual integrity as well as professional responsibility. Through the Lumin collaborative think tank, we began to work with Patrice in 2002 and the experience was great."

Patrice Tanaka, Vice Chair, Chief Creative Officer -
"We had been aware of Carter Ryley Thomas for some time because we were always interested in other likeminded agencies who were committed to creating a great workplace community.  When Mark invited us and three other PR agencies whom we also admired to their headquarters in Richmond in 2002 to discuss the possibility of working together, I was intrigued.  And, I was hooked from the moment Mark opened the meeting by saying that ‘we at Carter Ryley Thomas believe in the abundance mentality approach to business.’  I remember thinking, ‘I definitely wanna play in the sandbox with these folks.'"

Mark -
"I knew I wanted to work with Patrice through her company's ads. In fact, I held up one of her ads at a staff meeting and said, 'These people are ripping us off.' I felt a kinship with her - even though I'm twice her height."

Patrice -
“Mark and I are eternal optimists.  Although the integration of two companies and two cultures has not been without its challenges at times we have always been able to laugh together and remain confident in the knowledge that we will ultimately be even more successful together in our new company than either of us were independently.”

Mark -
"We're not trying to be like other agencies. We're building a communication consultancy based on innovation and consumer behavior and "what can be." We are moving forward with great dispatch. We want to enlarge our sandbox - there's a universe of wonderful people, smart entrepreneurs, excellent leaders and honorable marketers out there who we can hero."

Patrice -
“The main reasons Carter Ryley Thomas and Patrice Tanaka & Company decided to ‘get married’ was that we shared similar values, most importantly the commitment to creating a great workplace community, which we both believe to be integral to and linked to creating great work for clients.”