Phillip Collins has departed bicoastal Atherton after two years as director of marketing and sales. Collins explained that he had attained key marketing goals for the shop, and agreed with Atherton’s partners that "returning to the independent rep structure is now best for the company." Atherton is currently repped by Tracy Bernard & Associates in the Midwest and by Carol Biedermann on the West Coast. Via its recently announced production agreement with Dallas-based Concrete Films (SHOOT, 1/21, p. 7), Atherton is repped in Texas and the Southeast by Concrete principal Lisa Cobb. Atherton has not yet named an East Coast rep. Prior to Atherton, Collins served as director of marketing for Industrial Light+Magic Commercial Productions, San Rafael and Los Angeles. He is currently in discussions with other companies….Cathlyn Cantone has joined Division 6, New York, as executive director/marketing and development. Division 6 is the commercial production division of New York-based National Video Center….Unleaded Music, New York, has named Yoanne Al-Hassan East Coast head of sales…. Montana Artists, Santa Monica, is repping production designers Stan Harris and Steve Kimmel for commercials and music videos….DPs Todd A. dos Reis and Steve Bernstein have finished principal photography on the independent films Down To The Last Minute and Christmas In The Clouds, respectively. Both are now available through the Lyons•Sheldon•Prosnit Agency, Los Angeles….
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