AKQA has promoted Pierre Lipton to the senior role of executive creative director. In this new position, he will lead the entire creative department in the San Francisco office, which services clients such as Audi of America, Target, Visa, Xbox and YouTube. Lipton joins Brendan Dibona, based in AKQA's Washington D.C. office, as the two executive creative directors across the U.S. Both Lipton and Dibona report to chief creative officer Rei Inamoto who will continue to oversee the creative output for the U.S. and Asian markets. Since he joined AKQA in July 2010, Lipton has had a notable impact as the creative lead for several long-term accounts and new clients. In just his first year at AKQA, Lipton's creative leadership on Xbox, including overseeing Halo Reach, earned several pencils at the One Show Interactive awards, among other international accolades. For both the Xbox and YouTube accounts, Lipton has built entire creative teams of award-winning candidates. He has successfully attracted notable creatives from both traditional and digital shops across the world, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, TBWALondon, Glue Isobar, John St. and Jung Von Matt….Heather Mitchell has been h ired as post executive producer at integrated prodution studio Utopic. Her most recent position was on the agency side as sr. producer with Burrell where she worked for 10 years on such accounts as General Mills, Toyota and Procter & Gamble….
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More