Alkemy X has hired Lee Tone as creative director. Tone will focus on leading and implementing the creative vision for the company’s branded content division, facilitating nontraditional projects spanning web series, short films, experiential and interactive. He comes to Alkemy X with a 10-year career as a creative director and copywriter in the agency world, and with extensive experience in brand storytelling that blurs the lines between entertainment and advertising. He joins the team after a successful collaboration with Alkemy X on Samsung’s “Reframe This Space”–a four-episode home decor series that seamlessly infused Samsung’s Frame TV into original entertainment, earning over 30 million online impressions through influencer amplification.
Tone comes to Alkemy X from Barbarian, where he led campaigns for agency clients like Samsung, JBL and AB InBev. Prior to that, he lent his creative expertise to projects for Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, among numerous others. Notable career highlights include his work for the Samsung Galaxy s6 Edge+ and Note5 global launches. Throughout his career, he consistently endeavors to break new grounds in brand storytelling with bold concepts such as his work for Outback Steakhouse. He shook up traditional outdoor advertising for the restaurant chain, causing a commotion (and frantic 911 calls) with the illusion of billboards on fire to promote the brand’s Wood-fire Grill offerings.
“Lee consistently tackles ambitious and bold storytelling approaches that translate into results for brands,” notes Alkemy X president and CEO Justin Wineburgh. “After such a seamless and highly successful collaboration on Samsung’s ‘Reframe This Space’ series, it was no question that he was the best person to take our branded content division to the next level.”
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