Justin Booth-Clibborn is leaving bicoastal production, design and animation studio Psyop to join BBH New York as head of integrated production. His last day at Psyop, where he’s served as managing partner and CMO, will be April 5, ending an 11-year tenure that began shortly after the company was founded.
Booth-Clibborn joined Psyop as a producer and helped the company to grow from a 14-person NY shop to 180 employees across two offices. He led Psyop’s reinvention of the production company/post-production model, integrating design, animation, live action and VFX. Over the years, Psyop turned out assorted pieces of notable work, including the lauded Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory” for Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam, Coke’s “Heist” for W+K, Portland, which won the primetime commercial Emmy Award in 2009, and more recently, Twinings’ “Gets You Back To You,” a spot for AMV BBDO, London, which topped SHOOT‘s quarterly Top Ten VFX/Animation Chart in fall 2011 and finished number two in our year-end Chart. At Psyop, Booth-Clibborn also helped launch VFX boutique MassMarket, Psyop sister company Blacklist and Psyop’s West Coast studio.
At BBH NY, Booth-Clibborn will oversee the agency’s integrated production team and build out the shop’s integrated production capabilities, reporting to chief creative officer John Patroulis.
“Justin has spent the last 11 years helping to grow a fantastic company built on technology, storytelling and creativity. Every idea and every person–from our creative department, our production partners, and our clients–will benefit from his unique understanding of the process, as well as his hunger to do great work,” said Patroulis.
Psyop CEO Rob Walston stated, “We will miss Justin but at the same time we are very excited for him. We look forward to working with Justin in his new role and will continue to deliver ground breaking, innovative highly creative work to our clients around the world.”
Lucia Grillo, managing director for Psyop’s New York office, added “Our teams on both coasts are filled with incredible, seasoned people–people who Justin helped attract–so though we are sad to see him go, we look forward to our continued growth and the creative opportunities ahead.”
Spurring that growth, Grillo will handle operations on the East Coast, while Neysa Horsburgh will oversee business on the West Coast from Psyop’s Venice, Calif. studio. Psyop COO Mark Tobin will continue to manage global operations.
Booth-Clibborn began his career as an agency account executive and planner in London before moving into live-action production and postproduction. Prior to joining Psyop, he worked in L.A. as a freelance producer for Method Studios, and as a director/producer for the since shuttered Propaganda Films.
Last fall, Booth-Clibborn completed a year’s service on the national board of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers and two years as VP of the AICP’s Digital Chapter.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More