Above+Beyond has appointed former Wieden+Kennedy London creative director Joe Bruce as its new executive creative director.
Bruce’s hiring completes the agency management team and sees him working alongside Jonny Ray, managing director, Dena Walker, chief strategy officer, and Laura Graham, chief production officer. Bruce will also serve as part of the management team of independent group The Beyond Collective, which counts Above+Beyond, Yonder Media, Frontier Strategy & Collective Studios among its agencies.
During his time at Wieden+Kennedy London, Bruce has led some of Nike’s most standout work–from running multiple Women’s World Cup, Euros and Berlin marathon campaigns, to launching the brand’s first ever global dance platform and winning a Cannes Titanium and Grand Prix for his social and influencer work on “Nothing Beats a Londoner.”
Prior to leading Nike, he served as creative director on Wieden+Kennedy’s Camden Town Brewery and Formula One accounts and, during his seven-year tenure at the agency, created campaigns for clients including Sainsbury’s (Christmas 2020), Bud Light (“Box Heads”) and McDonald’s Canada.
For the last few years, Bruce has also been course director of The Kennedys, an annual fully-paid, five-month creative crash course, designed to give those a chance to get into advertising who may not have otherwise had the opportunity.
Bruce’s career started at BMB, where he worked on brands such as Ikea, Yorkshire Tea and Carling. He was also responsible for helping launch the suicide prevention charity, C.A.L.M , in London. He went on to become creative director at agencies including 101 and Crispin Porter + Bogusky London, leading creative for clients including Paddy Power, Britvic, National Art Fund, Turkish Airlines and Milka.
Beyond advertising, Bruce is the co-founder of Bubble Bros Ltd, an events and wine wholesale business.
Above+Beyond’s Ray said, “Joe is a world-class creative, creative leader and team player in equal measure, and we can’t wait to work with him to grow Above+Beyond and our client brands, via the power of his creativity and our wider collective capabilities.”
Bruce stated, “This is a fun one. Above+Beyond has proper creative ambition and it has the power of the collective behind it too. Whilst bigger agencies try to catch up and reshape to replicate this model, experienced groups like The Beyond Collective are already years ahead and primed for success. They’re also a lovely bunch of human beings, with huge brains and gentle souls. Which helps.”
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