Adam Williams

Does size matter? Debunking PivotStack’s Top 50 Ad Agencies Ranking

on August 6, 2014 10:15 AM

Apparently, size does matter. In fact, it’s all that matters according to Canadian ad agency PivotStack. Adweek recently reported that PivotStack has created a new ranking (because we aren’t self-congratulatory enough as a society) that lists agencies based on the size of their social media followings.

The Top 50 Ad Agencies list asks:

“Ever wonder how good your ad agency really is? If you’re trusting them with your brand’s online presence, make sure you know how they’re handling their own.”

Okay. So I love that PivotStack is trying to generate leads for their business by grabbing headlines with this list. However, I’ve got issues with how they rank agencies and see a great learning opportunity.

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Business

Open letter to Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley #killswarmapp

By Adam Williams

on July 25, 2014 10:37 PM

Recently, Foursquare released Swarm App, which breaks the native Foursquare experience by requiring users to use Swarm to check-in to places. In other words, they took the functionality of one app and split it into two.

My biggest issue is that Foursquare has not created a value proposition for two apps that earns them the right to more of my time, more space on my phone and more data about me.

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Dad in anti-gambling ad picked Germany to win the World Cup, oops

By Adam Williams

on July 18, 2014 6:41 PM

Singapore’s National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) thought that an anti-gambling ad focused on the World Cup would be great idea considering the wide reach of the games (and probably excessive gambling tied to the games). Unfortunately, the bad dad in the ad who bet his kid’s savings picked Germany to win it all and of course would now be quite rich.

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Verizon Wireless made a very memorable Slim Jim commercial

By Adam Williams

on July 15, 2014 8:57 AM

Verizon recently aired a new commercial set during a robbery. Maybe you’ve seen it. If you did, you may remember it more as a Slim Jim commercial. I did.

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Customer Service

Guide: How to get a refund from a difficult company

By Adam Williams

on July 10, 2014 11:31 AM

We’ve all had those moments when trying to get good service or a refund from a company and we can’t seem to get anywhere. Either the customer service reps haven’t been empowered to solve your problem or they are just borderline incompetent. So what do you do?

It can feel great to just get angry and yell at the reps. I’ve certainly taken that approach at times. Which can sometimes work but often doesn’t yield as good of a result as you could be getting.

Recently, I had the displeasure of having a miserable service experience with a company that I was paying several thousand dollars. The short of it was that they suffered from an inability to communicate and keep their commitments. They also overcharged me by nearly $700!

I’m not going to go into who they are because I’m happy with the end result and the objective of this post is to talk about how to work with difficult service organizations, not my one experience.

My result: I was able to get the service level I needed, a refund of my $700 and a 25% discount off the total I had spent.

Let me teach you how to do it.

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Marketing

Why what you know about Brand Loyalty is wrong and what to do about it

By Adam Williams

on May 13, 2014 10:49 PM

What you’ve been taught about brand loyalty is wrong.

Why? Because the consumer behaviors that marketers call brand loyalty are not the result of a deep-seated love of your brand. They’re really not that into you.

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Marketing

Pinterest appears to be testing what you see in notifications [Updated]

By Adam Williams

on April 29, 2014 8:38 AM

Update: My notifications have returned to normal. I hope that it has for others as well.

The notifications section, on both the mobile and tablet apps and the desktop site, of my Pinterest account changed about two weeks ago – and not for the better.

To put it bluntly, the change appears self-serving and lacks an understanding of a fundamental reason Pinterest is addicting – validation. But more on that in a moment.

Previous to the change, each notification showed the specific pin of mine being repinned by others. Now, each notification shows the repinner’s board to which the pin has been repinned. In other words, I have no idea what pin was repinned.

How infuriating!

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