Instead of asking here (though it might be a good place to find an agency that has already worked in collaboration), you can try asking on Sphinn (start a discussion).

Alternatively, you can ask for recommendations from your readers. Yes, it is something you have already mentioned, but that’s a viable way, IMHO.

Who I can recommend is ACS (http://acsseo.com/services/). Muhammad Saleem is the top man in the social media industry and I believe as a team, they should be able to cover what you want.

If you think transparency is a way to achieve this consistency, then go for it. BTW, one rule I’d apply for your PR agency RFP. Be as painstakingly specific in every single stage of the review process as possible. If you do this, then as another poster suggests, you’ll have firms weeding themselves out, rather than heckling you with voice mail spam. But I also think that overall, you can set the rule for collaboration…without necessarily making the process itself transparent, particularly because there are many reasons the individual competitors in the race to win your company’s business may want to divulge their winning cards to their competitors, even in today’s exciting 2.X world. Good luck!

All publicists do the same thing, which is to get people to know about what your company has to offer them. If you question their tactics, then the best thing is to do your own PR.

You can have a great advertising agency that does great work for you but unmanaged agencies do (beautiful but) ineffective and self-indulgent work.

How you chose them doesn’t ultimately matter. Plus, why would I expose my cool ideas to Jive publically and tip my hand to my competitor?

The opinions expressed here are Martha’s and only Martha’s Not the megla-corporation she gets paid by.

You are of course correct in saying the agency system is way past broken. But is it? The situation you are describing is extremely common among the Big Dumb Agencies. I like you have spent much time rattling around in these organizations trying to suggest there is a better way. The whole voice in the wilderness thing is just that, a voice in the wilderness.

I think if you looked at some of the independent agencies, yes there are still some around, you would find a much more open and integrated approach to marketing and marketing communication. For example it is a lot more common for these small shops to have PR as an integrated service. It’s also where you will find more innovation. They aren’t burdened with NY bean counters and they need to be innovative to be profitable in the face of competitive pressure from the BDAs.

Finally, I don’t think your approach, at least as currently conceived, will net you the results your are looking for. I won’t reiterate the concerns expressed in earlier comments but I believe they are valid. If I were you (don’t you love this, you can say what you want in a comment) I would ask interested agencies to share in writing what they think about the current marketing environment, what they think about integration and how they would work differently if clients let them. It is often the client that is the root cause for the current situation. A smart marketer I know, and I am paraphrasing said, “I worked at an agency for a while and had M$ as a client. It was a great experience except the M$ part.”

Then post their submissions blind on your blog. This will level the playing field and allow the independents to compete. You will quickly get a sense for how they think and can then invite a few to make a more thorough submission after a more thorough brief.

I’m in Portland next week if you want to get a coffee.

PS - Sam and I have a date with some eggs to lobs at…. oh never mind.