Managing Partner, Chief Creative Officer
David&Goliath
1) What stands out most to me is the impact brand ambassadors can have—not just on a brand, but also on a brand’s bottom line. While most brands continue to spread their message through traditional and social media, it is also being shared just as much through one of the newest, most powerful platforms this industry has ever seen: real people. Every day, countless brand loyalists and influencers do the work of what used to be reserved to hundreds of network television stations. They provide brands with millions of dollars’ worth of media for almost nothing. Give them a half-off coupon and you just bought yourself a couple thousand gross impressions.
The proliferation of screens and the availability of numerous platforms to consume and broadcast information have turned the entire population into an army of creative content providers. We’ve been exposed to “user generated content” before. But never like this. And for me, it’s incredibly exciting and actually very liberating, to know that if you put great content out there, people will come. And like. And share.
2) I wouldn’t say we’ve really had to adjust. Our bench of smart, independent thinkers has always been pretty deep. Our size has allowed us to recruit and hire people who aren’t siloed in terms of their experience and how they think. We just needed the opportunity to flex those muscles. Which I’m proud to say that with collaborative partners like Kia and Jack in the Box, just to name a couple, we’ve been able to leverage those opportunities and venture into untested waters. Telling our clients’ stories in ways that are completely new, exciting and engaging. And that, at times, make us a bit nervous. That’s what keeps this business so interesting.
3) Of course I love our work for last year’s Super Bowl with Christopher Walken. Who doesn’t love Christopher Walken. But one campaign that I’m particularly fond of is the work for the Kia Forte. It drafts off the insight that humans have an average attention span of about eight seconds. Wait, what was I talking about? We leveraged that insight as a proof point as to why Kia’s advanced active safety technology is such a huge innovation. I’m a sucker for simple, smart executions based on a very real human truth and that campaign nails that. I also love the Jack in the Box Brewhouse Burger spot. Again, a simple, clean execution of what makes this burger unique. It’s classic
Jack portrayed in a contemporary way that leans into pop culture. Plus, you gotta admit, seeing Jack with a mustache the size of a 3-year-old is pretty damn funny.
4) Virtual reality. Pure and simple. Although I’d suggest a co-op with Dramamine.
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