Today’s Ad Industry Innovator comes from New Marketing Labs, which you may know better if I tell you the name of its founder, Chris Brogan. Chris is the author of the NYT best seller Trust Agents and he’s in the top 3 on AdAge’s Power150.  Being some of the most recognizable social media marketers, these guys have a nice niche. Awesome alliteration, ay?

It’s fun to profile a group like New Marketing Labs because they represent those specialists who have stepped in to challenge the traditional agency model and offer unique and much needed services to brands. Anyway, Hanes, Sony, Citrix, Comcast, Molson Coors, PepsiCo, AMD and Microsoft seem to think so.

This is not Brogan!

I spoke to New Marketing Labs’ General Manager, Justin Levy about what makes their firm stand out in the marketplace. Besides his many duties keeping everyone rowing in the same direction, he is the co-organizer of their Inbound Marketing Summit and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp.  Prior to joining Brogan’s group Justin was Managing Director at an SEO public relations firm and President of Talent Network.  His answer to question # 7 practically had me weeping.  In all, it was a pleasure to get the perspective of such a well-rounded gent.

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

New Marketing Labs didn’t go through that period because we were founded to help medium and large businesses either figure out that aha moment or navigate their way through it .  We assist our clients with using these online tools to move the needles that are important to them.  We help them to enhance their communications, marketing, customer service and PR plans by using these new media tools to reach their prospects, customers and fans.

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

I am an avid reader and information junkie.  At any given time I am subscribed to a few hundred RSS feeds, read a few books per month and read the Washington Post, Boston Globe, NY Times and Wall St. Journal on a daily basis.  I love the consumption of information!

Right now I have about 15 books waiting to be read but I am currently reading the following books:

The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe
Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel
The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam

You’ll usually find me reading about marketing, business, lifestyle design, politics, productivity or food related books.

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

Dell has been doing an excellent job at using online tools to help them market to, learn from and listen to their prospects and customers.  From generating $2 million dollars with just one of their Twitter accounts, to IdeaStorm, a website where Dell allows their customers to generate new ideas for the company and then vote those ideas up and down, to how Dell uses the listening and monitoring company, Radian6, to help them be involved in conversations taking place around the web.  Dell has also done a great job at showing that they’re human.  Dell uses both corporate accounts (e.g. DellLatitude) and personal Twitter accounts with their staff (e.g. RichardatDell).  Using the employee name in the Twitter account helps to show the human side of the company and in turn, that makes stronger bonds with their customer base.

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?

The pitch/RFP process still serves a purpose in that it provides structure and the ability for the prospective client to walk down a check list to compare potential agencies who they’re interested in working with.  Where the pitch and RFP process suffer is that they don’t usually showcase the human side of both the agency and prospective client.  We have a natural tendency to want to do business with friends.  Therefore, I think agencies need to take opportunities to develop relationships with the people who make up the corporations.  Try being helpful to them in some way or connecting with them by sending a hand written note.

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

The agency of the future is more of a partner with the company that they’re working with instead of a typical agency/client relationship.  The agency of the future will need to ensure that they’re delivering value to their clients and will need to provide hard data to quantify and prove that data.  That’s not to suggest that agencies currently aren’t providing value to their clients.  But, with budgets continuing to tighten, companies are looking at what hard value they’re receiving from their vendors and agencies.  There is a difference in using new media tools that can provide hard data versus data that suggests that an approximate audience size probably saw your message.

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

Marketers need data that will help show them the value of what they’re investing their time and budget in.  Marketers need an agency that understands the complexities of their responsibilities, their department, their company and their industry and have the tools available to help navigate through it all.  Marketers want agencies that provide education, both internally and externally to help them and their staff to grow.

7. Who do you admire and why?

I admire a variety of people from many different industries and for different reasons.   If I had to choose one person though, I would choose my mom.  Unfortunately my mother lost a long battle with Lupus during my senior year in high school.  For the better part of my life my mother struggled to deal with a disabling disease.  Lupus, as well as some other factors, closed many doors for my mom at an early age.  Even while struggling with a disease that was constantly kicking her while she was down, she did everything in her power to see that her son, me, had everything I could ever need to help position me to be successful now.  Whether it was hand-written math books to work on over the Summer, pressuring me to apply myself in school, teaching me how to deal with hardship at a young age, or any of the may other life lessons she taught me.

###

Hitch is a consultancy that helps marketers hire the right marketing agency.

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.

###