TeamCMO is today’s Ad Industry Innovator.  I first read about Tim’s group in the St Louis Post Dispatch story of his company’s  launch.  Tim previously worked for a little beer company called Anheuser-Busch InBev.

What makes Team CMO an innovator is the space they occupy.  They’re not an agency and not a consulting firm, rather they embed themselves in mid-level organizations who could not otherwise afford to hire a CMO (or in many cases an agency).  Tim is joined by a diverse group of industry veterans, among them, David English and Mark Greenspahn.

Team CMO’s vision is to bridge the gap between that of outsourced strategic expert and in house cuturalist.  Their level of involvement allows Tim’s group a point-of-view that an outside partner may never have; because, as any one who’s been on the agency side will tell you, even the best clients have trouble committing to full transparency with their partners.  There always seems to be some secrets they just won’t tell.

So TeamCMO functions not as an employee who, at times, may be either too close to the problem or too tied to established company goals be able to take risks and they’re not guns for hire, in that they often get a higher level of access to the C Suite.

Their’s is a unique space and another wrinkle to a model where smart marketers are moving higher up the food chain in organizations, as companies continue to shift what they value (and will pay for)to  strategic rather than executional expertise.  People like Tim have realized that the real value of marketing partners is evolving and they aim to be at the center of that shift.

What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been”?

A:  After working for over 25+ years in one of the most sophisticated and creative marketing environments in the CPG world, it was obvious that start-up and mid-size companies with potentially powerful brands just couldn’t afford or access the marketing expertise.  Combined with market dynamics (i.e., over-abundance of talent) and the economic conditions, the TeamCMO concept will work for many potential partners.

What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader

A:  Simple, Sports Business Journal and Hollywood Reporter, outside of family, what else is there in life?

Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.

A:  It’s difficult to pinpoint one marketing example, because “marketing” is a sequence of excellent strategy; solid planning; resource allocation; brilliant creative and flawless execution.  Two of the best examples are the iPod and iPhone because Apple maximizes the power of marketing on all levels.

We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken.  Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches.  Do you see an alternative to this process?

A:  Yes, the RFP process is not solution based.  It typically introduces the “engagement” of brands, but doesn’t extend to activation, execution and ROI.  Companies and brands want and need cost-effective solutions that encompass all marketing aspects, the group that can deliver wins!

What does the agency of the future look like?

A:  Virtual, flexible, experienced, efficient and able to attract the right talent at the right time…this is exactly what TeamCMO is building.

What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

A:  Marketing organizations have been gutted; they need the expertise and management strength to fill the gaps that have been created by this economic downturn.

Who do you admire and why?

A:  I admire any organization that has the vision and discipline to drive a good idea to a success story.

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About the Ad Industry Innovators series: Every few weeks we examine the shift taking place in marketing today by talking directly with the people bringing the change. Specifically, we watch the agency world. As the definition of ad agency continues to evolve, we could just as easily call this marketing innovators, or idea shops, or a myriad of other buzzwords but since collectively, the industry still refers to itself that way, we will too, for now.

We appreciate your input. If you like what you read, subscribe or share it. If you’re considering an agency search in 2010, let us know, we’d welcome the chance to chat more about that. If you’re an agency and you’d like to be on our radar, get in touch as well.

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I think I first heard Charlene Li say it at last year’s SXSWi in Austin:  Web search will continue to move toward real time. Today, Google made it a reality with the announcement of Real Time Search.

Just one of the many tectonic shifts continuing to happen in communications.  Everything is integrated and the  Google fellows give more detail on their blog than I can ever hope to explain here.

Real time search:  it’s exciting.  It’s cool.  It’s amazing.  But I do have 2 gnawing questions:

This is an excerpt from a guest post on B2B Bloggers.com.  To read entire post, click here.

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Today’s Friday Philosophy comes from the best selling book Clients for Life by Jagdish Sheth and Andrew Sobel and I choose to see it as a formula for marketing success with your ad agency partner.

Insight X Collaborative Relationship = Client Value.

..and I’d submit to you, that value is not only for client but for agency as well.  In this scenario, everybody wins.

Have a great weekend.

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Citrus is a northwest ad marketing agency with 26 people with offices in Portland – Bend – Whitefish, MT (yup, handles the Lottery plus) and soon Memphis. Peter Levitan is its founder. I first met Peter in a recent ad agency search I conducted.

In their capabilities presentation, they were the only firm who actually sent in questions for the prospective client to consider. That was impressive. Let’s see if their answers to our 7 questions are equally impressive. I have to admit, I like the answer to question # 4 and no coaching was required! I also loved their “Dear Agency“ self promo piece.

What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been?”

We didn’t have an “a ha” moment so much as an “a ha” evolution.

In recent weeks, we have gone thorough an internal agency positioning review. We’re finally taking the time to do for ourselves what we do for our clients. This is not easy in the advertising/marketing/digital space because agencies tend to say the same things. Seems like it’s always the same blah blah. I suspect no one knows this better than Hitch.

During this process, we examined a range of positions that came from our brains as well as from the craniums (crania?) of other agencies. We also did quantitative online research with clients and learned that most think that all agencies are full of it. Just kidding. Well, sort of. Truth is, many clients and prospects think all agencies sound the same—no matter what we say.

So we decided to do something bold. Something different. Something a little crazy. We decided to tell the truth. We decided to tell the world what we really do for our clients: We move people. We move people through rational and emotional messaging. We move people from apathy to emotion, inertia to action (a purchase is among our clients’ favorite actions).

I guess you could say that our “a ha” moment revolves around the concept of MOVE.

What books are on your night stand or great blogs on your Google reader.

I believe I’m part of a dying breed: the magazine reader. I am committed—to the point of being slavish—to reading at least 30% of all New Yorker issues (near-impossible if you work), The Atlantic, The Economist, the last issue of Gourmet and stolen copies of Communication Arts.

The last great book I read was, in fact, a picture book. It was a look at how Avedon shot his famous series and book “In the American West.”

Works from the Blogosphere include Jeff Jarvis’s BuzzMachine (we invented the Internet together), random Blogs from the AdAge Power 150 blog list and “Things marketing people love.”

Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why?

I always admire the speed of New York umbrella salespeople to hit just the right intersections when it starts to rain. Super targeted. Well-timed. Compellingly stated. Isn’t this what we all strive for?

We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?

I’d like to make three points on pitching, all of which are derived from years of pitching as director of Saatchi’s business development group and now as the owner of a small agency.

First, most clients don’t have a clue about what they’re really looking for. It’s not their fault. They’re just trying to select an ad agency based on what are ultimately subjective criteria. Do I think that the agency is smart? Do I believe that the work is strong? Do I like them? Unless we’re talking about digital or direct response agencies that can deliver quantitative stories that directly relate sales increases to marketing activities, these traits don’t help selection a whole helluva lot. Ditto most case histories.

Point two: clients should use an agency search consultant. Selecting an ad agency is an important decision. Chances are, Bob in sales or Margo in procurement just aren’t going to cut it. (No offense, Bob and Margo.) Neither will a CMO who does a search every ten years. Hire an expert, please. I beg of you.

Finally, a note to agencies: Get. Over. It. Most industries use RFP’s. Just get past your egos and decide if pitching the potential client is a sound business decision. Determine if you have a chance based on your work and category experience. Look at the odds and decide if it makes financial sense. Did it make any financial or rationale sense for 1,284 agencies to pitch Zappos?

What does the agency of the future look like?

The agency of the future employs robots and goes to meetings in flying cars. Kidding.

Here’s something I’ve been thinking through for a while. I live in Portland. Portland has one of the highest populations of strategists, creative thinkers, copywriters, art directors and digital magicians in the country—maybe the world. What if we found a way to harness this creative and strategic power under the umbrella of brilliant management to deliver the new agency: Portland, Inc. I’d love to pitch Portland against Goodby, Weiden, Crispin and Ogilvy. Why not— they all use Portland freelancers anyway!

What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

Marketers need more smart ideas that will drive sales.

This dearth of sales-driven thinking isn’t due to agencies’ oversight. Marketers have made their own bed by deflating agency profit margins and reducing timeframes. (I just had a major hotel chain ask for a proposal to develop a new website for launch “late this year.” Um, its mid-October [when I'm writing this].) Simply put, clients have reduced our ability to spend the time required to develop the big ideas that are required to really win in today’s complex media space. Period.

Who do you admire and why?

Paris Hilton. I mean it. I have never seen someone build such a strong brand on so little. It was magical.

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