Havas Group has acquired Langoor, an independent ad agency in India. A full-service digital shop led and driven bycreative technologists, Langoor has grown steadily since being founded in 2010, and is now present across India, the Middle East and Australia. Its team of 170 specialists provide meaningful digital experiences and connections to multi-national corporations, local brands and start-ups across strategy, online marketing, website planning and development, data analytics, marketing automation, e-commerce and SEO. Langoor will be rebranded as Langoor Havas and be led by its co-founder Venugopal Ganganna who will take on the newly created position of chief digital officer, Havas Group India, reporting to Rana Barua, group CEO, Havas Group India. Langoor Havas will have three key focus areas–health, business and vernacular–and will expand their services to markets outside of India in the coming months….
Brooklyn-based production company Ghost Robot has added the mono-monikered Nieto to its directorial roster. The Paris-based helmer began his career in the U.S. with viral work for Burger King (Crispin Porter+Bogusky) and Nike (Wieden+Kennedy) before taking on spots for Sprint (Goodby Silverstein & Partners), Oreo (The Martin Agency), Lenovo (Ogilvy) and LensCrafters (Marcel). International clients include Coca-Cola, Ikea, Perrier, and Argos. Ghost Robot and its directors, including Nieto, are handled in the U.S. by indie rep firm Free Agents, a Patricia Claire company….
New Land, an award-winning Scandinavian production house, is launching in the U.K. The company, which is based in Stockholm and Copenhagen, will open a new office in London to represent its roster of directors The new central London office will be headed up by Trine Pillay, a former executive producer at Smuggler London. New Land’s directorial roster includes Laerke Herthoni whose Volvo EVA film won a Grand Prix in Creative Strategy at Cannes 2019. She has also worked with CHOC children’s hospital, and brands including Arla, and jeweler Georg Jensen. Sheila Johansson joined New Land Stockholm after starting out as an art director at McCann in New York. Her commercials credits include Mercedes-Benz, Swedish telco Telia, and fashion brand Weekday. She took the prestigious Roy Awards in Sweden by storm in 2018 by winning Best Director (first time for a female director), Best Film and Best Music Video. New Land’s three co-founders all continue to be working directors, including Gustav Johansson, who works worldwide on campaigns for brands including Volvo ("Moments"), H&M ("Lady Like"), HBO, Levi’s, Vogue and Nike. His work has won numerous awards including Cannes Lions, Clios and D&AD awards. Co-founder Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen works across commercials, music videos and narrative films. His “The Family” film for Ford won a Gold Lion at Cannes in 2016 and his short film Next Stop was nominated for a Danish Academy Award. His short film “The Lift” for shoe brand Bianco won two Bronzes and one Silver Lion at Cannes in 2019 as well as two Clio awards. Casper Balslev is also a co-founder, and is known internationally for his commercials, music videos and narrative content. His short film for fashion brand Han Kjøbenhavn was selected for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase. His awards include Cannes Lions and Eurobest awards. He has also directed music videos for acclaimed artists, including Alt-J, Marina & The Diamonds and The Presets. His commercials include work for brands such as Vodafone, Mercedes and Volkswagen. Niclas Larsson works across commercials and narrative films. His commercial work includes clients such as Volvo, Samsung and Chase Bank to name a few. Larsson was awarded the grand jury prize and the audience award at Gothenburg International Film Festival for his first short film, Vatten. Since then, Larsson has written and directed the short film series Magic Diner for Vogue, starring Alicia Vikander and Anna Wintour, and his recent emotive work for Mercedes has won numerous awards at Cannes, D&AD and the Clios The remaining roster comprises Tore Frandsen, Sandra Winther, Jan Gleie, Indra Hero Wide and Olivia Kastebring….
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