Great Guns, the international production company headed by founder/chairman Laura Gregory, has grown its global footprint with the opening of shops in Shanghai, Singapore and Mumbai. These offices join the company’s continuing operations in London, Bangkok, and Venice, Calif.
As part of the deal facilitating the Mumbai launch, Great Guns has entered into a joint venture with Sajiv Kurup’s Crocodile Films, an Indian film production company with representatives in Kuala Lumpur and the Middle East. Crocodile has produced notable campaigns for Appy Fizz and Grappo Fizz, the Frooti “Mango Theme” commercial, and the Medimix relaunch campaign.
To oversee its expansion, Great Guns has appointed Janene Fitzgerald as head of the Asia Pacific region. Based in Shanghai where she has most recently been producing with Black + Cameron, she will work closely with Kurup. Sheridan Thomas is head of production in London and Kojo Abban has been promoted to head of sales for the U.K. and Europe.
The move to expand globally comes at a time when more clients and agencies seek an international approach to communications, demanding multi-disciplinary directors that can operate in different markets.
To further support its expansion, Great Guns has signed exclusive deals with established directors based in Asia, including Bo Krabbe, Marco Pinesi and Squid. Krabbe, Pinesi and Squid will also be repped out of the London office. Additionally Great Guns has secured animation and design collective MIE for exclusive Asia representation while signing K-Roll from Gang Films, Paris. K-Roll directs both music videos and advertising, having recently helmed a Nina Ricci ad. As part of a crossover deal with Gang Films, the Paris house will be representing Great Guns Paul Shearer and Roar Uthang in France.
Shearer directed Volvo’s Blind Preview, a short film which earned SHOOT Top Spot (11/27/09) distinction. Out of Euro RSCG 4D, Amsterdam, the short introduced the new Volvo S60 without showing the car–instead offering detailed drawings and a painting by blind Turkish artist Eşref Armağan.
As for greatguns:USA under the aegis of managing partner Tom Korsan, the company recently had a hand in a Gold Lion and a Bronze Lion in the Cannes International Advertising Festival’s Direct Lions and Cyber Lions competitions, respectively, as well as a D&AD Yellow Pencil–all for the Virgin Australia “4320LA/SYD” initiative out of Droga5, Sydney. Greatguns: USA and Goodoil Films, Sydney, teamed on the job, which was billed as Australia’s first Twitter-based campaign, giving three Aussies the chance to travel to L.A. for three jam-packed days. The catch: they had to Tweet every minute of the trip, generating buzz for Virgin Australia’s “3 Day L.A. Deals.”
David Nobay was executive creative director for Droga5, with Ben Akers serving as senior copywriter, Ben Smith as senior art director, Paul Johnston as agency producer and John McLean as digital producer.
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 โ 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