Trevor Graves is a founding principle and the GM of Nemo Design.  I got to know Trevor a bit better recently when they were on the shortlist for a recent ad agency search I conducted.

NEMO lives Youth Culture.  From its roots as a three man shop in Portland, Nemo has grown into an internationally recognized marketing/design firm, with multi-million dollar clients like Nike, HP, ESPN, Fuel Television network, Smith optics, Bell helmets, Timbers MLS soccer, Salomon and Timberline–to name a few.

When asked that makes NEMO different, Trevor says “We never make ads: advertising is fake, it’s clutter, and it’s ignored by most. We touch people through art, we communicate emotions, we engage in genuine conversation, we create real experiences that real people will find interesting, inspiring, useful and memorable. We make the cash register ring, without trying to sell anyone.”

With respect to all the recent “label” discussions about agencies, NEMO eschews labels.  They become whatever kind of agency they need to solve problem.  I like that.

To everyone who wonders about the future of agencies and whether they’ll stay around NEMO says “We are paid for having vision (we see the invisible) and a Point of View (we can explain what it looks like, what it means, and why it matters). ”  In your face, cynics.

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

Is there ever one defining AHA moment? To be relevant in culture and in business, you need to have AHA moments all the time. We live in the age of change. So, the big lofty AHA may arrive and it’s very subtle. Growing up in action sports, you’re intuitively aware of nuances and you’re constantly moving. You see everything in a shifted paradigm: what can I do with this? What can I make here? What line can I take? This awareness is hardwired into a lot of the people at Nemo and it helps us tremendously; you learn to recognize change in the world and how to creatively embrace it, how to be curious and provoke the new. Our clients constantly look to us to help them see the invisible opportunity and create an impact with it.

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

The book that is literally on my nightstand today is “Built to Last” by James Collins and Jerry Porras. One of the dangers in this industry is defining your success and what your stand for through your clients, rather than having a great sense of your own core ideology. As for blogs and such, I am ADD. The snack-sized bites coming through my Tweedeck are in the same vein as things you’d find on the Hitch blogroll.

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

The world I came from, “marketing” was a dirty word and something not to be trusted. Marketing meant fake. The real impact came from the people and brands that were all about adding to the culture: Participating, connecting, and celebrating a lifestyle. I use that filter to judge what we call “marketing” today. Is it real, is it making real change and are people feeling it? Favorite examples are the iPhone, really centering around product as message, and the Obama campaign. The simple slogans of Change and Hope, the use of a logo mark,  and the social media was game-changing.

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 am going to make a Mad Men reference, please forgive me. Season 3, Episode 7.  Don Draper is called into talk with Conrad Hilton in his Presidential suite. Conrad asks Don to take a look at some mock up of ads he has on the coffee table.

Conrad- “What do ya think”

Don- “I don’t think you would be working in the Presidential suite if you worked for free.”

Conrad, surprised- “This is friendly”

Don- “Connie, this is my profession, what do you want me to do?”

Conrad smirks, taken aback that Don didn’t just roll over and give him the free advise he desired.

Conrad- “ I want you to give me one for free.”

With a poetic pause, the camera pans low and looks up at Don as he pulls a smoke and lights it with a cool guy style. The camera pans back down to an illustrated mouse dressed in a top hat, and a marker rendering of the exterior of the Hilton Hotel. Don exhales. In a confident straightforward response, he replies.

Don- “I don’t think anybody wants to think about a mouse at a hotel.”

Conrad Hilton is startled and dazed. Don has earned Conrad’s respect and is asked to symbolically sit at the table with him to discuss the advertisements, peer to peer. This is an opportunity we as agency people are asked to do in the RFP process yet we give away our spot at the table by giving our service for free. I think many of us have read Blair Enns “Win Without Pitching” and there are some insights in the work that help the community of agencies to commiserate as victims about how unfair the RFP process can be. We can’t control the world but like Don Draper, we can control our reaction to it.

Let’s look at the RFP process from the client side and see where we as the agency can have our own Don Draper moments. The average relationship between agency and client is about 4 years. What that means for the client is that they are not practiced or even up to speed on what agencies are out there, who is a good fit for their band and even practice on how to “court” a great agency. Like Mr. Hilton, the client can be a bit unsure and wants to avoid what Enns calls Buyer’s Remorse. They don’t want to hire the wrong firm. They ask the agency to pitch free ideas because the execution is very literal and makes it easier for them to compare agency to agency. I get it. What Nemo has done is set up a routine or process around qualifying the lead.

1. Is this client a good match for Nemo? Nemo is an Action agency and it makes sense for a client to come to us to us for our expertise. A Hotel like the Hilton might not be a good fit for Nemo however a resort like the Black Pearl resort in the Caymen Island would be a good fit for Nemo, http://www.blackpearl.ky/
2. Budget. If they are not willing to go over a scope of work and budget then they are showing signs of a bad client and we would put up a red flag at this point. If they have a small budget, we ask to work around an actual contest of pitching. Our margin gets sucked up in handing out free work when there isn’t more money to offset the pitch once and if we win the account. $500k is a budget that pitching starts to make sense for Nemo. Smaller than that is a project and handled differently.
3. We ask whom else are they asking to pitch. I am not sure why all the secrecy around this topic but it is fair to know the landscape. If a client is asking for something for free, I want transparency of who else is on the short list. This is because if we perceive any of the competition is a better fit for the client’s needs, we are the first to endorse their service and save ourselves all the expense and inefficiency of pitching.
4. If the client has a smaller budget and the work lines up and the client is still in the “Buyer’s Remorse” mode, we suggest doing a small, real project to see how the relationship works first hand. We have also done in depth case study reviews to help clients understand how we have worked with other clients and how we might work together.
5. We try to have the actual stakeholders present rather than just the marketing department. The territory is not the map.

What does the agency of the future look like?

The agency model I see reflects our vision of what Nemo was born to do. Fast, smart, passionate and well connected. We keep our core team full time to insure our branded look and service, then ramp up around them with experts and freelancers when needed. There are so many talented creatives in the market; it makes managing a business much smarter. We can hand pick a SWAT team of experts to tap for consulting in short bursts. Hollywood works this way.

I also see the best creative agencies contributing more to culture; making their own brands and content, taking more risks and sharing the rewards, collaborating and experimenting. Who wants to play?

What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

Marketers need their agencies to offer emerging rates for services that they want to grow into. The old cliché states that you can’t get the job without the experience and you cant get the experience without the job. Your agency understands your brand and with the ability to expand that service you both win. For an example, if you were an interactive shop, extending into a social media service wouldn’t be a huge leap of faith. It is fair to pay that firm less for them to gain the experience on your brand and in return you as the marketers get a deeper service at a discounted rate. A win-win for both parties.

Who do you admire and why?

Amelia Graves. She is our 5-year daughter. I guess I am getting to maturity to be able to observe her world and how she might see it. She is imaginative, curious about the world, she lives in the present with no concern for the future, she has no concept of money, she breaks out in song and dance with no fear of being ridiculed. When she plays with her toys, she is lost in an endless imaginary world. My selfish side wants to bottle that energy up and use it to further my agenda in the real world of constantly needing to invent more creative for clients. The other side of me admires this innocence for what it is and knows that she can own that space and time.

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” - Pablo Picasso

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I started getting to know HL2 in a recent ad agency search I conducted for a client in the Pacific Northwest.  Their clients include HTC, SBC, Microsoft, HR Block, ATT Wireless, Hotels.com

There were a few different long chats with Don Low, one of the founding partners which gave me a lot of insight into this group of 70 creative professionals, but I really started to get HL2 watching the pieces in the 4th chamber–more so than seeing their work.

I’d like to hang out at a Fat Burger or shoot hoops with them (I think I could stuff the TaxCut box) –but apparently they’re also pretty good at that marketing thing.  Founded in 1994, they’re more fun than most 15 year olds you know–and they won’t talk back or steal your car.  OK, they won’t steal your car.

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

My business partner, Tom Horton says, “Only through suffering do we become wise”. While we love new business wins, it usually takes a major loss for us to get pissed off and make dramatic changes. Two years ago we lost a major pitch and in the ‘loser’ call we heard, “We loved HL2 but the other agency just had a stronger analytics methodology”. We now have an analytics group of 8 and every campaign in the office has accompanying KPI’s with a corresponding dashboard for reporting. It’s transformed our business and the new business effort has never been stronger.

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

Soldier of the Great War by Helprin, A Distant Mirror by Tuchman and biographies of Mark Twain and Einstein. My personal reading takes precedent when I get home.  But I’m also working through a book called Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe. At work I spend time with a few key blogs – Seth Godin, the Dachis Group, Ad age and the Web Analytics blog.

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

Sprint is giving it a good go. Coke media is extremely focused and disciplined. I like the traction that Bing is getting as a start up brand.  The Nike+ Join the Race campaign is experiential and inspirational.  Each of these brands has deployed a multi-disciplined approach that spans TV to event promotion and social media.

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

I actually believe that, for many companies, the RFP levels the playing field and brings new agencies to the table. I believe you win the work you deserve. Either you’re digging deep, investing and setting up your agency to win or your coasting. The RFP process has allowed HL2 access to clients we never would have met on our own.

However, all clients don’t need to go through this formal process (especially the clients we’re currently pitching). Meet with 4-6 select agencies, get to know their culture, see their work, learn how they think and narrow to two. Then ask for proposals and presentations. While this is more legwork for the client initially, the long-term relationship is more likely to stick. It makes no sense to sit in a room and review 20 written proposals in today’s marketing world.

What does the ad agency of the future look like?

Lean, mean, smart, resourceful, marketing saavy, focused on the numbers, uber-creative.

Yes. That about sums it up. With a really cool space and an interest in the client that goes beyond billable work.

The agency of the future will need to spend more time looking for ways to tell stories and exploit technology to deliver great experiences, participate in the conversation and bring real value to consumer.

What do marketers need that ad agencies are not giving them?

Love. They’re not giving them love. Unconditional, immutable love. I’m-waking-up-in-the-morning-thinking-about-your-business kind of love. As agencies are working to wean their business model away from large media commissions and making their nut on fees, they are squeezed for talent–creative, account, planning, production, analytics talent. Larger agencies are no longer able to over-service accounts like they used to because there just isn’t enough money there. Clients stop feeling the love. Today’s agency is learning to be more nimble and is working to create a culture where the every employee is working to deliver superior strategy, creative and service.

Whom do you admire and why?

Winston Churchill. Primarily because he is proof that you can lead when you get old…. (Many historians now think he was suffering from pre-senile dementia while he was the PM. I think Winston; either drunk or affected was better than the rest of us with all our wits). Churchill is history’s portrait of resilience. A drive that never quit, unwillingness to compromise and foresight that saved the world.

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Thanks for waiting patiently on the next installment of Ad Industry Innovators.  It was a busy summer  for Hitch as I finished up new projects and started new ones.

Today’s Ad Industry Innovator # 16 is Norfolk, Virginia-based, Grow Interactive.  Grow got on my radar thanks to my old friend, Alan at Platt Hollow Road.  While they do work directly with clients, the bulk of their work is done for agency partners.  Digging in a bit you’ll see they’ve worked with nearly everyone from Goodby, Silverstein & Parners and Wieden + Kennedy, to Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and Mother.  These guys are good, and everybody knows it.

Grow has racked up their share of awards and recognition lately, including a 2009, Cannes Lion, two One Show Pencils, two Webbys, and a Clio shortlist.  They were also listed as one of the top 10 interactive production companies by Creativity in Aug 2008.

Everyone, meet Drew Ungvarsky, President of Grow Interactive.  Drew, meet everyone:

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

A few years ago, we made a conscious decision to take more risks – both in our work and in our efforts to connect with bigger clients and projects.  We’d done plenty of solid (but safe) local and regional work at that point, but we thought if we could just put ourselves in the game by any means possible, we had the talent to compete on a much larger level.

I later heard a better summation of that mindset, which was: “Do what you’ve done and you’ll get what you’ve got.”  We keep that in mind with each opportunity we get and try to constantly remind ourselves not to become complacent.

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

At last check, I’ve got 85 sites in my RSS.  Beyond keeping up with the latest and greatest digital advertising, I follow tech and culture blogs to spot emerging technologies, trends, and cross-platform ideas we can bring into future projects.

Sadly, my attention span is too short for books right now, but I’ve been trying out audiobooks recently.  I’m currently listening to Ken Robinson’s “The Element” about the great things that can come when your work is your passion.

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

Whopper Sacrifice was definitely a favorite this year.  It was a perfect execution that clearly stood out on an otherwise crowded platform.  A close second was Boone Oakley’s YouTube site.  With both of those sites, I knew they were hits the moment I saw them.  I also really liked Dunkin Run as a great example of utility marketing, and it worked perfectly for the brand.

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?

The pitch process works best when the relationship is open and everyone’s respecting each other’s time and effort.  If a potential client gives us clear expectations and transparency regarding the obstacles we’re going to face, it then falls fairly on us to decide how much time and effort we can afford to put towards a potential engagement… and everyone can sleep well at night.

What does the agency of the future look like?

The strongest agencies are the ones who are embracing digital as an axis to their campaigns instead of just another outlet within them.  Whenever we can work with agencies as partners and help shape a concept from the beginning (as opposed to just jumping in to execute), the resulting work is always stronger and more cohesive with the technology.

What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

We’re lucky enough to work with a number of the agencies who I think “get it”, so I’ve got a bit of a skewed view in saying things are pretty good.  If anything, I’d say that we sometimes see people putting the technological cart before the horse – be that an app, a widget, or the other buzzword of that day.  Clients need strong ideas, and they need to live in the spaces most suitable to their brands.

Who do you admire and why?

I’m constantly trying to be a better leader for my company, so I soak up inspiration and ideas anywhere I can get them.  Recently, I’ve been trying to steal from the playbooks of Tony Hsieh and Steve Jobs, both of whom demand great respect in different ways.  I admire anyone who can earn the respect and trust of their employees.

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Well, it’s been an exciting and busy summer.  I’m talking to lots of agencies lately who are hearing the phones starting to ring again–which is good news for everybody.  That’s partly why it’s been nearly a month since a new Ad Industry Innovators series, everybody’s busy, including me.  I’m a little over two weeks from finishing up the first Hitch search–with a few other interesting potentials on the horizon so stay tuned for exciting news!

Today’s Ad Industry Innovator is a shout out to the Emerald City with a Seattle agency called Creature.  New Business Director, Barton Bodell described Creature as their clients’ wild card agency.  The folks clients go to when they don’t want same old same old.  I thought that was a great description, so I’m going with it.

I interviewed Robson Grieve, who is Creature’s Managing Director.  He came to the agency after being a Creature client con Corbis.  ( 5 pts for reading that correctly out loud.)

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

The big “aha” moment for Creature happened back in Amsterdam, when Matt and Jim (co-creative directors) were talking about starting an agency. After working in a couple of the biggest and best agencies in the US (Wieden & Kennedy and Goodby Silverstein), they went to Europe and saw a different way of doing things. This old world+new world experience led the guys to the simple philosophy that “the best media space you can buy is in someone’s mind.” That idea really defines how we look at the changing relationship between consumers and brands, and it has shaped how we do our work on a day-to-day basis. The evolution from a “broadcast” model where advertisers were telling people what to think, to more of a cooperative model where we are starting a conversation with people and incorporating them in to the brand development process.

The truth is, however, that we are having “aha” moments all the time and we look at our model as a work in progress. We are constantly studying our capabilities and looking for ways to make Creature more relevant to current and future clients. Every year we seem to undertake one or two big changes, and we are constantly challenging the status quo and updating our business model. Essentially, we look at the search for “aha” moments as an every day part of the job.

2. What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader?

I almost never read about advertising or business, because I find most business popular books to be a little too orderly in their analysis.  There are a few notable exceptions, of course, but in general I try to find interesting/thought provoking books rather than books about business.  I’m working on a pretty scary book right now – it’s called “Global Catastrophes and Trends.”  It is a comprehensive look at the risks we face in the next 50 years by a university professor named Vaclav Smil.  Smil has written a lot about energy and the environment, and has a very data driven perspective on projecting the future of the world.  Before that, I read “The Black Swan: The impact of the Highly Improbable,” which was a really inspiring book that basically reinforced my belief that it is more important to be open to new things than it is to be expert at pattern recognition.

In terms of blogs, I read Mark Cuban’s blogmaverick.com a lot because he is such a firebrand, and has the ability to separate the hype from reality in new media.  For social media stuff I read Logic+Emotion.  He has a nice theory-based approach to explaining social structures online.  I am also a bit of an economic news junky, and my jumping off point there is a blog called “calculated risk” which has some interesting articles, and a wealth of links to top econ authors.

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

Michael Jackson. Look at how popular he is all of a sudden. Tough way to do it, but you have to give the guy credit for his commitment to the brand.

Seriously, this is a really difficult question to answer because some of the most examples that people use as great “marketing companies” aren’t marketing companies at all – they just make great products that people love. I would say that I have been pretty impressed with Fed Ex and how they have incorporated golf in to their brand. They created a great event with the PGA (The Fed Ex Cup), and they have succeeded in making the connection between golf and fed ex very natural through their advertising.

4. 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 think it is convenient to complain about the RFP process. Is it fun to put a bunch of resources in to a high risk endeavor, with disappointment the most statistically likely outcome? Of course not, but I don’t see how the industry could come together and invent a method for pitching could be set up that would solve all the problems. Competitive bidding is a part of almost every industry’s procurement process, so agencies aren’t alone in being disappointed because they didn’t get a piece of business. Watch “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Life isn’t fair.

The thing agencies need to decide is how much they are willing to give in this process. This is an individual and situational decision. For example, at one extreme, some clients are demanding ownership of all ideas created for the pitch, and agencies just need to decide if they are willing to go that far. In some cases, the answer will be yes, in some cases it will be no.

There have been some crazy pitches the last few months (the famous “twitterfp” and Zappos are on people’s minds) that have people buzzing, and I would say that if they agencies don’t like the process, they should sit out. Or better yet, if agencies don’t like the process they should work with the client to shape the right process.

5. What does the agency of the future look like?

It is interesting to try to predict what the agency of the future looks like, because we are likely to be mostly wrong no matter what we predict. I think it is safe to say that it is likely we will be more similar to strategy consultants like Bain or McKinsey than we will be to old-line Madison Avenue agencies. I also think it is safe to say that we are going to need to be “cross trained” at every level, because the world isn’t going to be neatly organized by media like it has been in the past.

I do think that a lot of the speculation around ownership of ideas that has gone on is a little misleading. Big brands don’t need to share risk with agencies, so the expectation that they share rewards in a significant way is probably unfounded. Pay-for-performance is coming in some way, but I think it is going to end up being more of a cost cutting measure by corporations than it will be a chance for agencies to grow their piece of the pie.

6. What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

Marketers need agencies to solve problems – not just make ads. Too often agencies decide to make ads, even when they know that won’t solve the underlying problem. Our clients need us to be ready and willing to look at each engagement as a chance to solve an important problem – sometimes that will be through ads, sometimes it will be through something entirely unexpected.

7. Who do you admire and why?

I would say that I admire my business partners, Matt and Jim. They have had a lot of fortitude and foresight as entrepreneurs, and I am fortunate to get to work with them on a day-to-day basis.

In the agency business, I admire the guys at Goodby Silverstien. They have managed to reinvent themselves over and over, and that is no small feat in any industry.

I look at Tiger Woods as a role model from a competitive perspective. He has such great focus, and usually finds a way to be win even when he isn’t at his best.

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Hitch and some bright folks from the agency world have put together 2 panels for the 2010 South By Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin.

30% of our vote comes from the public. We’d appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes to register then vote for our panels. 

Details are at the following 2 pages.

1. http://tinyurl.com/hitch-sxsw-1-dinosaur

2. http://tinyurl.com/hitch-sxsw-2-hearse

Register then check yes (or no)–but we’d appreciate the yes! Then make plans to head to Austin, TX in March! SXSW is a great week of interactive know how.

Voting stays open from August 17 – Sept 4th.  In the words of 2 old ad pitchmen “Thanks, and we appreciate your support!”

Thank you~

David Wiggs (Hitch), Spike Jones (Brains on Fire), Tim Hayden (GamePlan), Adam Kleinberg (Traction) and Pete Lerma (Click Here)