Hoytyboy Pictures has signed director Eric Steinman for exclusive commercial representation in the U.S. He has already booked his first job under the Hoytyboy banner, a project slated to shoot in mid-December promoting an undisclosed client for Young & Rubicam, New York.
The Y&R job is line with Steinman’s desire to get back to the American ad arena. “I want to get re-entrenched in this country, after having done numerous international spot campaigns the past two years,” he said. Steinman was referring to commercials recently completed in Milan, Singapore and Moscow.
Although the director is known more for comedic dialogue, Steinman points to more humanity-centric spots as part of his repertoire. “Casting, timing, performance, detail and design are constants in my work,” he said. Recent projects in the U.S. include work for Florida Power and Light (out of agency Machado/Garcia/Serra, Miami) and a pharmaceutical campaign for Zostavax (via DDB New York).
Steinman started in the business on the agency side, making his first mark as a copywriter at now defunct Allen & Dorward, San Francisco (the predecessor to such former Bay Area shops as Chiat/Day/Mojo and Goldberg Moser O’Neill). From there, he migrated to Young & Rubicam, New York, where he spent four years writing for varied clients, including AT&T. Next came three years at BBDO New York, where Steinman’s reputation as a creative blossomed on accounts like Pepsi, HBO and Pizza Hut.
He then moved over to the production house side as a full fledged director, working out of such shops as GARTNER, Headquarters, Trio Films and most recently Crossroads. Over the years he has helmed campaigns for such clients as Sony, Mazda, Citigold and LG. Steinman-directed spots for Astro Mobile garnered a Silver at the London International Awards and were shortlisted at the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He also directed award-winning PSAs for Big Brothers of America and the Partnership for a Drug Free America.
The Big Brothers work was originally a spec piece he directed while on staff at BBDO New York. The PSA went on to gain regional air time and was initially honored in the spec category of the AICP Show in ’94, the first year in which that competition recognized spec fare.
Steinman joins a Hoytyboy directorial roster that includes Steve “Spaz” Williams, Richard Kizu-Blair, John Kricfalusi, Rob Schneider and animation house Little Fluffy Clouds. Clint Goldman is Hoytyboy’s exec producer.
Google Witness At Antitrust Trial Says Government Underestimates Competition For Online Advertising
Federal regulators who say Google holds an illegal monopoly over the technology that matches online advertisers to publishers are vastly underestimating the competition the tech giant faces, an expert hired by Google testified Thursday.
Mark Israel, an economist who prepared an expert report on Google's behalf, said the government's claims that Google holds a monopoly over advertising technology are improperly focused on a narrow market the government defines as "open web display advertising," essentially the rectangular ads that appear on the top and along the right hand side of a web page when a consumer browses the web on a desktop computer.
But the government's case fails to account for a variety of competition that occurs beyond those rectangular boxes, Israel said. In the real world, advertisers have dramatically shifted where they spend money to social media companies like Facebook and TikTok, and online retailers like Amazon.
When you account for all online display advertising, not just the narrow segment defined by the government's case, Google gets just 10% of the U.S. market share as of 2022, he said. That's down from roughly 15% a decade ago.
In addition, advertisers have moved away from placing their ads on the screens of desktop and laptop computers where Google is alleged to control the market, with money migrating to ads placed on apps and mobile device screens. Israel cited marketing data showing display ad spending on desktop and laptop devices has decreased from 71% in 2013 to 17% in 2022.
The government's case "seems to miss where the competition is today," Israel said.
His testimony comes as Google wraps up its defense in the third week of an antitrust trial that began earlier this month in Alexandria,... Read More