It's not just a filtering function.

You need time and a forum to find out [the marketing staff's] philosophy and needs. You can get that through the procurement department, but it's better to have it directly from the marketing staff. Any good agency can develop ideas that are on-strategy, but you need to meet the CMO and know what kind of ideas will resonate with him.

If we can be this successful without advertising, imagine how well we can do with it.

It's better when the client doesn't have to play traffic cop.

More and more marketers are on a quest to prove that marketing is more than advertising. Senior management has often grown up with traditional communications and has to be shown the value of promotion and integrated marketing.

Echelon is not a collection system, but an extensive filtering system.