Trailer Park has acquired goodness Mfg., a creative and strategy boutique based in Venice, CA. Beginning next week, goodness Mfg will combine their staff with Trailer Park, an integrated communications and postproduction company with nearly 300 employees.
The combined agency will pursue advertising business under the goodness Mfg. banner with Trailer Park serving as the calling card for its entertainment clients (as it has since Trailer Park launched in 1994). The terms of the deal are undisclosed.
Founded by five former execs at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), goodness Mfg. recently gained a higher profile based on its online campaign and website launch for Google’s Nexus One smartphone. Additional goodness Mfg. clients include LucasArts, Nestle and American Cancer Society.
Prior to forming goodness Mfg, the three creative leaders of the agency–Paul Keister, Tom Adams and Bob Cianfrone–were best known for their contributions to groundbreaking campaigns at CP+B such as Burger King’s Subservient Chicken, the anti-tobacco campaign Truth, IKEA’s Lamp, and the launch of MINI. The trio, who will continue to lead creative at the combined agency, find themselves reunited with former CP+B colleague Matt Bonin. Formerly VP/integrated head of production at CP+B in Boulder, Colo., Bonin came aboard Trailer Park last September as senior VP/director of integrated production.
“Traditionally, thinking and doing have been very separate entities in advertising. It’s that separation that creates wasted time and missed opportunities,” said goodness Mfg. executive creative director, Tom Adams. “With goodness Mfg. joining Trailer Park, it enables collaboration much earlier in the process. As a result, we get creative alignment sooner–ensuring the work goes to market faster. This is especially critical as communications evolve into hundreds of micro-interactions, not just one big campaign.”
Trailer Park CEO Rick Eiserman added, “As marketers look to new partners to ensure their brand communications are keeping pace with increasingly demanding consumers and an evolving media landscape, Trailer Park and goodness Mfg. are really well situated. Our ability to provide unparalleled creative and production capabilities, without all the inefficiencies of an old world model, is a game-changer.”
Eiserman cited Goodness’ consumer insights practice and creative talent coupled with Trailer Park’s offerings spanning digital, design, postproduction and advanced content. These combined resources, he said, facilitates the creation of relevant content across multiple platforms.
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