Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam, has brought Mark Bernath aboard as creative director on the Electronic Arts (EA) business. He joins current creative director Eric Quennoy to head up the EA creative team.
Bernath comes over from Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where he served as group creative director, spearheading the creative teams for Miller Brewing, Foster’s Lager and Time Warner Cable. During his Ogilvy tenure, Bernath created the noted “Beer Ref” campaign for Miller Lite and picked up a Gold Pencil at The One Show 2007 for the digital re-launch of Foster’s.
Prior to this, Bernath worked at Publicis in New York where he won the agency’s first Cannes Lion with creative work for Fujifilm. He also developed his creative approach by freelancing in New York and Los Angeles for shops such as Kirshenbaum Bond and Partners, TBWAChiatDay, BBDO and WongDoody.
Bernath described Wieden+Kennedy as presenting “an ideal situation to work in. With W+K, you have an agency that was built on redefining what advertising could be. And with EA, you’re speaking to consumers who are forcing advertising to continue redefining itself. That’s a lot of good energy.”
His partnering with Quennoy represents a reunion for the two, who had occasion to work together while at Publicis, New York.
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