Social Deviant, a Chicago-based, full-service creative agency, continues to add creative and strategic talent as it attracts a slew of new business this year from the likes of The Disney Channel, CareerBuilder, Hanna Andersson, Columbia College Chicago and the National Restaurant Association Show.
On the creative side, its ninth hire this year is Lauren Haberman, who was most recently at Doner where she applied her copywriting talents to the Minute Maid and Peapod accounts. Haberman, who studied at the Chicago Portfolio School and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is joining Social Deviant as a sr. copywriter.
Additionally, Darren Coon has joined the agency as a sr. designer from Pivet Design, with expertise in videography, content editing and motion graphics design.
On the strategy side, Christine Cotter joined the Social Deviant team in May as a business and account lead. She was previously at DDB Chicago as a VP/account director. With degrees from American University and Georgetown University, Cotter began her career at VivaKi before moving to Ketchum and then DDB
In addition, Graham Spector, social media and digital strategy director at Aeronaut Brewing, has joined Social Deviant as a content planner and strategist.
“We are always on the lookout for the very best talent–smart, diligent, and kind. With our annual revenues projected to nearly double in 2018, we’re delighted to be adding quality members to our already amazing team,” said agency founder and CEO Marc Landsberg. “We’re building a well-rounded group of talent from both the agency and brand side as we focus on helping our clients do more with less.”
Currently, Social Deviant is recruiting to fill three additional positions. It plans to host a Portfolio Night at its Chicago headquarters on October 24 to identify and help guide promising talent in the Chicago marketplace.
“Whether they end up with a job at Social Deviant or not, we’re committed to playing our part in cementing Chicago’s reputation as one of the world’s great creative cities,” said Landsberg.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More