by Randy Mitchell, Creative Director It’s lunchtime. A hectic marketing agency breathes a collective sigh. In the break room, an art director, content writer, account executive and programmer are gathered around the electronic glare of the microwave. As everyone waits patiently for some frozen pizza to thaw, an intriguing discussion breaks out. Let’s listen in. Account executive: We had our status call this morning, and our client Jennie was in a strangely philosophical mood. You’ll never guess what she asked me. Art director: Oh, I don’t know. Something involving the nature of the universe, free will and a tree falling in the woods. Account executive: No, I didn’t mean that type of philosophy. We were talking

by Gary Mattes, CEO When Amazon opened up the opportunity to cities to be the location for its next North American headquarters, of course every community hoped they had a shot. Why not? There aren’t many opportunities to change the fortunes of a city in one fell swoop. The problem is that most cities are expending resources on this “pitch” when they are already hemorrhaging money, without much opportunity to increase revenues. It doesn’t take a bookie to see these are bad odds—it just takes someone in the agency business.  The process of choosing an ad agency has often entailed the “agency pitch”—not too dissimilar to the city pitch. But when an opportunity