Alan Pafenbach, whose work includes the lauded Volkswagen “Drivers Wanted” campaign back when he was managing partner/executive creative director at Arnold Worldwide, Boston, is joining SapientNitro as a creative director in Boston. He comes aboard the Boston office on the heels of it winning all digital duties globally across Chrysler’s Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands.
Pafenbach will report to SapientNitro VP Eric Healy and will partner with fellow creative director Barry Fiske on overseeing creative for the Chrysler account.
Prior to SapientNitro, Pafenbach managed the global creative efforts for Yahoo! while at OgilvyOne New York. Before that, he worked as a Boston creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, with responsibility for the Hewlett-Packard business. Earlier he led creative at Arnold Worldwide, serving as exec creative director on VW.
“I’ve gotten to know the SapientNitro team over the last couple of months, and they truly get where the market is headed,” Pafenbach said. “From TV advertising to online video to social–and all the technology in between–SapientNitro is ahead of the curve, as the world becomes increasingly digital and channels inter-connected. We’re going to deliver fresh ideas and business results to our clients, and hopefully win some awards in the process.”
SapientNitro Boston is hiring 17 people this spring, primarily creative and information-architect positions. SapientNitro was formed last year following Sapient’s acquisition of Nitro Group. Headquartered in Boston, SapientNitro works with many New England clients, including CVS, Liberty Mutual, PerkinElmer, Staples, and Talbots. SapientNitro was recently named to Unilever’s global digital roster and tapped as lead agency for Target’s new e-commerce platform.
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