Nick Gordon, Sally Campbell and Tim Nash have teamed to launch London production house Somesuch & Co.
Nick Gordon, Sally Campbell and Tim Nash have teamed to launch London production house Somesuch & Co. Director Gordon and producer Campbell were both formerly with Academy Films. Nash was most recently with Atlantic Records as video commissioner; prior to that he was head of music videos at Academy. Gordon heads the directorial roster at Somesuch, which has secured stateside representation via Caviar. Conversely, select directors at Caviar such as Keith Schofield pick up U.K. representation via Somesuch…..Still photographer Kate Powers has wrapped her first live-action TV directing gig with a pair of :30 spots for SHN, the official site of Broadway in San Francisco. The spots thread together a series of black-and-white testimonials from passionate theatergoers, from the woman who's seen Wicked 18 times to the man who keeps a box stuffed with the ticket stubs of every Broadway show he's ever seen, creating a dynamic portrait of SHN's diverse and passionate fan base. Production/post house Teak secured the assignment for Powers, which came out of agency Addis Creson. The spots were cut by Teak's Sean Shafer….Digital studio Radium/Reel FX, Santa Monica/Dallas has brought aboard veteran executive producer Dan Bryant, who will based in the Santa Monica studio. Bryant comes to Radium/Reel FX after a successful run as a freelance producer for advertising agencies DDB Worldwide, Euro RSCG and GSD&M, and digital studios Blind, Buck, Digital Kitchen, Shilo and Troika. Highlighting his freelance producing career are numerous Super Bowl commercials for Budweiser and Bud Light, including the Budweiser Clydesdale spot “Team,” which was voted the #1 Super Bowl spot of 2008 in the USA Today readers' poll. Bryant previously served as executive producer for Area 51 Films, The Joneses, Swietlik Editorial (now Cut + Run), and Backyard Productions. At Radium/Reel FX, he will oversee the studio's West Coast commercial business….San Francisco editorial/post shop Barbary Post has promoted Daniel Truog to editor. He has been with the company since its inception in 2006, first as an assistant editor to owner/editor Bob Spector, then as senior assistant/junior editor. Originally from Chicago, Truog has recently cut spots and web films for Doritos, Haagen Dazs and Sprint through Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, and Comcast Sports Network through BBDO West…
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