Adam Kleinberg

Adam Kleinberg

CEO/Co-Founder at Traction Corporation, San Francisco
San Francisco, United States

About me

MediaPost named me an OMMA All-Star in 2013, an award given to the three most influential digital creatives in the U.S. each year. I was called one of the Top 25 Most Innovative Marketers in Digital in 2012 by iMedia Connection. In 2014, Traction was named Independent Agency of the Year by iMedia. In 2013, Traction, the award-winning agency I co-founded and run nabbed Silver for Ad Age Small Agency of the Year on the West Coast, was a finalist for iMedia's Small Agency of the Year, and won Interactive Agency of the Year from BtoB Magazine (for the second time).

Here's why.

In 6th grade, I was programming video games on a PET computer. In 1997, I started my first blog. In 1998, I was the resident Flash guy at a hot integrated agency. Then, I hopped around several agencies—both digital and traditional—for a few years.

In 2001, some friends and I started Traction.

Traction calls itself an interactive agency, but we believe everything is interactive. We are part advertising agency, part innovation consultancy. We are exceptionally good at aligning psychology and technology to create ideas that solve business problems. It's the reason we've been named the top interactive agency in the country.

It's the reason we work with the best brands in the world. And it's our goal to be a leader in designing innovative brand experiences that align business challenges with the needs, desires and behaviors of the people they serve.

Specialties: agency, san francisco agency, innovation consultant, innovation, interactive agency, creative agency, advertising agency, brand strategy, advertising, online advertising, innovative marketers, experiential marketing, direct marketing agency, design thinking, digital branding, traditional advertising, new business pitches

Positions

CEO/Co-Founder
San Francisco, United States
May 2001 - Present (23 years 6 months)
Traction was named Independent Agency of the Year by iMedia in 2014 and won Silver for Ad Age Small Agency of the Year, West Coast in 2013. We were a finalist for iMedia Small Agency of the Year in 2013, 14 and 15. We were also rated the #1 interactive agency in the U.S. by BtoB Magazine in 2013 and 2009—and runner up for that award in 2010 and 2011. Traction was on the 2013 list of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in San Francisco Bay Area and was previously #1217 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America. We've also been called one of the top 10 digital agencies in SF by TheNextWeb.

Traction's core competencies are strategy, advertising and innovation and we've been fortunate to provide those services to some pretty terrific brands including Apple, Adobe, Alibaba.com, Kelly Moore Paints, Lenovo, Dolby, Walmart.com, Virgin Mobile, Livescribe, CamelBak, Robert Half International, Bank of America, California Bank & Trust, Vino Volo, SAP, Clos du Bois, Bonny Doon Vineyards, VirtuStream, SolarCity, LinkedIn, Intel, Charles Schwab, Pacific Fruit & Beverage Company, Shutterfly, Intuit and DriversEd.com.
Advisor
Genee
March 2014 - August 2016 (2 years 5 months)
Acted as advisor to this AI messaging and calendaring start-up from stealth to successful exit through an acquisition by Microsoft. In this role, I provided guidance and introductions that helped drive the branding, experience design, go-to-market strategy and product roadmap.
Sr. Art Director
San Francisco, United States
2002 - 2003 (1 year)
Senior creative brought in to pitch new business and develop integrated online ad campaigns for clients like Microsoft and AMD. Developed creative to help win Avaya and MSN accounts.
Interactive Director
San Francisco, United States
March 2001 - May 2002 (1 year 2 months)
Oversaw creative and production for a dozen clients concurrently. At one point, juggled 31 projects at the same time and got them all done on time, on budget and without compromising creative.
Art Director
Tribal DDB
January 2000 - March 2001 (1 year 2 months)
Founded San Francisco office of interactive ad agency. Developed groundbreaking work for the Clorox family of brands that helped define the role of consumer products on the Web. Created "Web 2.0" community website and marketing program for client Marketocracy seven years before the term "social media" was part of the digital lexicon.
Lead Interaction Designer
Think New Ideas
1997 - 2000 (3 years)
Was the lone "Flash guy" at an agency of sixty people during the heyday of the Dot Com era. Concepted and designed cross channel integrated experiences from branding to e-commerce. Clients included Silicon Graphics, Getty Images, HP, Avery and TurboLinux.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Consumer Economics

1989 - 1992 (3 years)

1985 - 1988 (3 years)

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