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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