We had the good fortune of connecting with Rebecca Rosoff and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rebecca, you love what you do. It’s clear to anyone who knows you. Why and what about your work do you love so much?
I love creating, as a musician, composer, visual artist, and writer but I’ve never much liked the idea of starving, so I’ve always prioritized longterm career goals even when I was in bands or more heavily involved in creative pursuits. I started my career in the music industry, where I thought I’d remain forever. When I realized how much creative help consumer brands needed when it came to borrowing principles of art and entertainment to maximize their presence in the lives of customers, it made sense to pursue a career in advertising and marketing . The KIMBA Group’s philosophy is, no matter what, the work should be original. Make it a creation and that way it is undeniably and forever yours. I think you have to be some type of an artist to truly succeed in marketing and advertising services. You have to be able to envision mundane messages and ideas in new contexts. Most industries have only 3-4 leaders and you’ll see, almost without exception, they always develop a pretty homogeneous look. That’s because all the brands at the top copy each other. When we can bring fresh looks, communication styles, and emotionally rooted ideas to homogenous fields, there’s real opportunity for innovation. Consumer brands are experts in their product lines, but we are their experts in how to bring that product to life in a way that resonates with consumers and makes them think things like, “wait, was that just an ad I watched? That was cool AF. I’m going to follow that brand on social now, or try their product for the first time.” These types of go-to-market creative challenges are always collaborative vs. transactional. And I am NOT a sales person so it works out well!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I’m really proud of the agency we’ve built over the past seven years. We are progressive thinkers by design, not as a reaction to trend and it shows in our work. Marketing and Advertising is still very much a man’s world — it’s no Mad Men, but Mad Men was definitely its origin story — and we work with a lot of men’s brands. We’ve been able to partner with some incredible brands that are open-minded and know they need to disrupt and progress not just because “that’s what you do to be successful” but because they have a longterm vision for their brand and know how small DTC startup companies are disrupting almost every industry. As I mentioned previously, when we founded The KIMBA Group, we abandoned the traditional agency playbook and always looked more towards the management consulting and production models. In essence, we founded as an act of defiance against “agency.” As a business, we’ve cut out all the agency fat — the over attentive bloated account/client services teams, the paper pushing, the fluffy sales materials sent to all clients — and get straight to the heart of our client’s highly particular needs. We’re really the left brain/management consulting business problem diagnostics plus the right brain creative development and production savvy. That dexterity and polymathematical discipline is absolutely essential with mediums and consumer behavior shifting constantly.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a Los Angeles native. Actual Los Angeles — what’s now called “The Beverly/Grove” area and I love LA’s viewspots, especially ones above Sunset Blvd. There are some hikes in Brentwood where you can see from Downtown LA to the ocean. Griffith Observatory is incredible. In a COVID world, I’m not sure what will be fair game in the near term but once live music is back, venues like The Troubadour and the Greek are part of LA’s DNA for me.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Because my passions across the arts and in business are varied, I’ve never sought out a single mentor. Sometimes I regret that. I think about Renaissance painters and how these guys were able to devote every waking moment to a single craft always starting with an apprenticeship. I never had one of those. I see that most people who devote their life to a singular creative path had, at some point in their formative years, a major champion. I did not. My inspiration to be independent minded and stay true to myself first came by way of Ani DiFranco when I was probably thirteen. She was a prolific musician and poet who, at the age of nineteen, had incorporated her own record label and was releasing close to an LP a year. Not only did she have the guts to venture out on her own commercially, but her style and skill as a performer was so fresh and uncharted. Still now, she is always experimenting, collaborating, and bringing new sounds and instruments into her compositions. Heck, her guitar tuning repertoire is the most complex and varied of any professional guitarist to walk the planet.

Website: www.kimbagroup.com
Instagram: @thekimbagroup