Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has hired Thierry Albert and Faustin Claverie as creative directors. They come over from VCCP London where in just seven months they won the Macmillan Cancer Nurse and McLaren Automotive accounts, and created the O2 “Priority Sports” campaign.
Albert and Claverie joined forces in 2011 at Mother London where they wrote the Stella Artois “9 Step Pouring Ritual” campaign, and won the Butlins and HTC accounts for the agency.
Thierry’s experience spans Publicis Paris and Montreal, BDDP&Fils, and seven years in London at DDB and Mother, during which time he created award-winning work for Marmite, Harvey Nichols, Coca-Cola and the Financial Times among others.
Faustin began his advertising career at the V agency, before spending four years in DDB Paris and a year at Publicis, from where he answered Thierry’s call to come to London and work at Mother in 2011. During that time he produced multi award-winning work for Brandt, Stihl, GQ, Greenpeace and Volkswagen.
As a team they’re also the brains behind Surrender Monkeys, a collective of creatives, directors and designers, established to direct music promos and films for artists like the Pet Shop Boys and the Kooks.
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