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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To those of you who’ve been participating or just following along as Hitch comes to life, I appreciate your eyeballs and interest and the countless discussions, phone calls, emails & meetings over coffee and beers.

It’s a wonderful experience to involve so many bright minds from the across the country (and literally across the world) in intellectually stimulating and challenging discussions; both philosophical & practical about the nature of marketing.  We’ve shared books, blogs, pdfs, videos, tweets and text messages.

What’s come out of these discussions is a new kind of marketing resource for companies.  Hitch connects you with your marketing dream team:  specialists ranging from brand strategists, ad agencies, experiential marketers, word of mouth firms, branded entertainment, digital conversationalists, app/widget developers and more.  At their core, Hitch and its growing roster of companies share a pioneering spirit and a penchant for calculated risks as well as a commitment to accompany marketers through this evolving media environment. 

A new breed of marketer is evolving from the ashes of traditional models. Together, brand and customer become futurists and innovators who support, encourage, and engage the collaborative discussions and co-creation happening in online communities, coffee shops, dorm rooms and board rooms around the world.

Business relationships are gold so I’ll do my part to keep up the conversations we’ve begun; I ask you to do the same. This dialogue can only benefit all of us and the trade of marketing we all love. 

Thank you for your input and suggestions.  Thanks also for challenging me and cheering me on.  I’m off to SXSW Interactive in a few short weeks and back to put the finishing touches on Hitch.

Stay tuned.

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6 years ago Cleve Langton* recapped the first AAAA New Business summit.  450 senior level people ranging from advertising executives, search consultants and marketing clients weighed in.  Their findings bear repeating.     

Notice bullet point #1 and the reference to the tight economy.

“Ok-so what are the “pitch killers?” Here’s the consensus:

• “Pitch everything that walks.”—It might seem counter-intuitive but in a tight economy, prospect selectivity is more critical than ever. Pitch to win rather than pitch to pitch.
• “Too much about us (the ad agency).”—not enough about them (the client).”—Kill the credentials because they kill the pitch.
• Not doing enough homework. The client expects you to know and understand their key business issues, even in the first meeting.
• “Knowing too much, too soon.”—Failure to listen to—and absorb—the client’s issues and problems before offering solutions.
• Failure to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Think of the pitched as a play—the more you rehearse, the better the production—the more spontaneous you appear.
• Going overtime in the pitch..”—Perception is that if the ad agency can’t manage its time in the pitch, they won’t be able to manage the account.
• Strategic/creative “disconnects”. — Failure to establish the clear linkage between the strategic solution and the creative execution is a “tragic flaw” which knocks advertising agencies out of a pitch.
• Overemphasis on “Unique”, “proprietary” agency tools and systems. They are generally not “unique” and most bore the hell out of prospects.
• Failure to build “chemistry”. Prospects hire advertising agencies and people they respect—but first they want people they enjoy working with.
• High tech vs. “high touch”..”—Death by PowerPoint!

Not surprisingly, the “pitch winners” are the flip side of the killers listed above.

Overall, the biggest complaint prospects have about most ad agency presentations is that we don’t take the time to learn.”—and understand.”—their business. They also say that we bore them with our credentials, we bore and confuse them with “agency speak” (use jargon) and we over-promise the value of our “unique”, “proprietary” agency tools and systems.

The sooner we, as an industry, learn that “it’s about them, not us”, the sooner we will raise industry standards and, thereby, prospective client respect.”

*Cleve Langton has forgotten more about the ad biz and advertising new business pitches than most of us will ever know.  He’s the former Director of DDB’s Worldwide Business Development and was responsible for directing DDB’s U.S. multi-office pursuits and multi-regional pitches worldwide.  Cleve is also the founding Chairman of the AAAA New Business Committee.

And he’s got a new book out called New Business Lessons from Madison Avenue .

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This post began as a comment on a post at Agency Spy.

But because I didn’t want to get on soapbox on their comments boards I posted it here.  This will explain the bulletpoints.  Read on people:

Small business has and will always be the backbone of US business.  Advertising is no different.  And as such there is still a ton of business out there to be had.  So the industry shrinks 10%. 15% 20%. That still leaves billions in advertising spending in this country.  Yes, even in this economy, good, creative marketing happens every day.  And pitches go to the ones who can demonstrate the smartest use and best value for their client’s dollars.

• Budgets are being cut: true
• Clients need to do more with less: true. By the way, they have no choice. Don’t you think they’d rather have $2 million for that campaign instead of $900K?
• If you wait around to be invited to a pitch by the large search firms you’re SOL: Mostly true – if you’re a small to midsized agency–you’re the first to go.

Advertising is changing (again).  Agencies need to change with it.  Smaller agencies are better positioned to be able to shift rapidly.  Adaptable, smaller agencies will see a disproportionate number of wins coming at them that before may have looked only at the large shops.

Historically agencies have done a really crappy job, operationally, of making meaningful changes that will position them to prosper when budgets constrict.  As agency people we don’t take our own advice!  If a client wouldn’t hear this–we’d declare them idiots and institutionally slow.

It also helps to have some perspective. 10 years ago when the dot com bubble burst, people were prognosticating doom and seeing whole revenue streams dry up.  What happened was new revenue streams began.  Even at a trickle it’s a great time to get on board with a client who you may have indentified in the past as not offering a big enough piece of pie to be worthy of your time.  Let the big guys kill each other over the multi million dollar accounts.  If a $25 million account is all you’re interested in, it may be a long time before you eat!

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Hitch is on Alltop, the magazine rack of everything happening on the web.  Check it out!  

We’re all the way at the bottom (around # 240) on the right, but we’re there, baby!  Very cool.  And in good company!

Use Alltop to find the top, cutting edge, most current content on the web–for any topic you can imagine!

Thanks Neenz, Guy and everyone at Alltop!  You rock.  Our pledge will be to stay relevent to our readers and worthy of the shout-out.

Hitch helps companies shift from traditional marketing to interactive, by finding the best resources to carry out their project(s).  We can also collaboratively develop marketing strategy and project manage the teams as needed.

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