EVP, Sales & Development
Bullitt
1) Last year reinforced for me that creativity and inspiration can come from everywhere and anywhere, and because of this there are no limits to the forms marketing can take. It’s all about ingenuity and originality, which is both utterly freeing and can be a little scary. It’s an open brief where the only limits are your imagination. For us at Bullitt, I view this as a positive – not just for our creative industry but also for audiences.
2) With the inspiration living everywhere, so too are the connections. In the last year we have been asked to create custom entertainment solutions that carry brand messages from the marketplace. So we are continuing to evolve how we approach branded content, and forging partnerships across platforms, genres, industries, technologies and with people who share our drive to be at the center of this upheaval. The road maps are being abandoned, there won’t be one path to take, and this will lead us to opportunity.
3) With our talent partners in both advertising and entertainment we will work with brands to help them navigate the current landscape and develop special projects to align with those conversations and strategies.
4) It’s early yet so I cannot say too much; however we are about to embark on a multi-platform project to focus attention on a health crisis that is ravaging this country. It’s intense work, but one that we hope will help shape the conversation about how to address something complex and terrible.
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