Canadian Advertising Community’s 2012 Resolutions.

We all make them. We all break them. And the Canadian advertising industry is no ...

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

By on October 6, 2011 in Advertising, Branding, Creativity, Innovation, Just in case

I was working away tonight and had turned off all distractions when I got a text from my girlfriend. “Did you hear Steve Jobs died?” I didn’t know him. Never met him. I didn’t even have the opportunity to actually ever see him in person. He wasn’t Canadian. He didn’t attend my university. He didn’t [...]

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Do you hear what I hear? Listen closely, brands.

By on October 5, 2011 in Customer Service, Social Media

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Vancouver after delivering a keynote to a great group from RBC. I’m no BC resident but I’m there enough to know what a Japa Dog is, when to avoid post-game hockey demonstrations and most importantly, where to stay. Normally, I stay at [...]

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Warning!!! These ads will shock you.

By on September 5, 2011 in Branding, Social Media

Challenged with a cluttered marketplace, bad marketers (like the ones behind this ad for Fluid Hair Salon in Edmonton), shamefully take a marketing short cut by just shocking consumers to achieve breakthrough. Am I offended? Absolutely. But I’m offended as a marketer. First of all, I totally can appreciate that this ad offends some people. [...]

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Technology does not = innovation. Just ask a parking lot.

By on August 25, 2011 in Customer Service, Innovation

The other day, I had a meeting in an office tower I hadn’t been to. Don’t tell David Suzuki, but I drove. Luckily, there was parking in the building. You all know how parking lots work: Pave or dig land and rent out the space for brief periods of time. (It’s like a short term [...]

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Don't be a Polaroid

Don’t be a Polaroid.

By on August 24, 2011 in Branding, Innovation, Technology

I still remember the day. I was wearing Montreal Alouette sneakers, a hand-me-down Adidas T-shirt, short-shorts, and an Expos hat on top of a homemade Lego haircut. It was the mid-70s and my mom gathered us four kids to take a picture. But she wasn’t just using a camera. She was using a Polaroid. I [...]

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This 71 year old knows more about social media than you and I do.

By on August 9, 2011 in Innovation, Interviews, Social Media

While various social media apps can help you be more effective or more productive or more accurate, a passionate desire to connect is far more powerful than any software package. A brand that has a genuine willingness to engage with their customers will trump one that doesn’t, regardless of the budget, websites, widgets or tools [...]

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KLM gets it. Luckily, their passengers do, too.

By on August 7, 2011 in Customer Service, Social Media

When companies want to thank their loyal customers, the first thought is to bombard them with trinkets and trash – little gifts companies buy in mass quantities complete with logos, corporate colours and sadly, almost no value to the customer whatsoever. In the past, it was really difficult to really get to know individual customer [...]

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Pizza Nova gets it. Pizza Pizza doesn’t.

By on August 3, 2011 in Customer Service, Social Media

Yesterday, I wrote about the customer service issue that Cammi Pham experienced with  Canadian pizza retailer Pizza Pizza. Here’s Pizza Pizza’s response: Good Afternoon Ron, We’ve read your blog in regards to the social media driven, customer service issue. This customer’s complaint was handled immediately, complying several hours in advance of our 24 hour response guarantee.  At this point, we are not able [...]

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Please tweet responsibly.

By on July 26, 2011 in Customer Service, Social Media

As we’ve seen, social media can be an unbelievable force that can help topple a dictatorship, expose a napping TTC driver or even just convince an airline to improve their customer service. We citizens literally have the ability to change the world right in the palm of our hand. If you’ve been treated poorly or [...]

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Rupert Murdoch should apologize for his apology ad.

By on July 24, 2011 in Advertising

News Corp’s CEO’s apology ad isn’t as good as the competition. While every “OMG! We’re soooooo sorry…” corporate response is unique to specific crises, we can always look forward to the apology ad that we know will run soon after any organizational “Ooops” has been discovered. Toyota did it. BP did it. Exxon did it. Maple [...]

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