Plus Company has unveiled the first chapter of its U.S. growth plan, with the addition of Brian Whipple as chair of its board and the acquisition of creative agency Mekanism, which has 200 employees across its NY headquarters and offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle.
Plus Company, established in August 2021, was born with the idea that modern day agency networks need to be built with diversity of talent, culture and technology. “When we first launched Plus Company, we set our sights on fortifying our U.S. scale and capability as our first priority, and today’s announcements are just the first steps in our ambitious plan to build on our momentum,” said Brett Marchand, Plus Company’s CEO.
Whipple, former CEO of Accenture Interactive, has joined Plus Company as an independent board member and board chair to support the company’s continued investment in senior leadership and its commitment to multidisciplinary collaboration and technology.
“With Plus Company, I can see the ambition, intelligence and creativity within one alliance, and these traits reflect my own commitment to authenticity in leadership and the human experience, for clients, their customers, and our global team members. I decided to join as the board chair to work with the great Plus leaders and to continue my small role in the continued evolution of this fascinating market space,” said Whipple who came aboard on June 1, joining the six existing board members.
Meanwhile the Mekanism team is led by co-founder and CEO Jason Harris.
“Mekanism has found the perfect partner. Plus Company wants to lift up our culture, creativity and clients. The vision of bringing creativity and technology together lines up with our ‘Soul & Science’ focus,” said Harris. “We are thrilled to join the talented group at Plus Company in the U.S. in this new interagency model made for the modern era of world-class marketing solutions.”
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