Dancing in Utah
By Andrew Laurich
There’s a certain sense of irony that Hollywood’s hottest properties are discovered in one of America’s coldest bastions. I think it was 9 degrees when I arrived at the Slamdance Film Festival. Even still, Main Street was brimming with activity. Parties poured from thumping clubs onto snow-covered sidewalks, and there were more skirts and high-heels than snow pants and parkas. It’s like there’s an invisible heated bubble around Park City. It must be the electricity of the festival–the fact that all of these filmmakers suspend the L.A. grind for one week to come together in that little town and embrace their communal love of film. There’s an inescapable energy, and it makes you feel…warm. I had a helluva time–even if the commercial director is a bit of a fish out of water.
At film fests, “advertising” is typically reserved for outside events or sponsors. HP hosted a party lodge, for example, and Blackmagic Design demoed their new camera in the filmmaker lounge. The films themselves, however, are usually devoid of any branding. So I was surprised when the creative director of Carhartt announced that the four-minute corporate documentary I directed for them, Made By Hand, would receive a special screening. Granted, Carhartt is a major Slamdance sponsor so pulling strings probably wasn’t advanced puppetry. But interestingly (and thankfully) the piece seemed to fit. There was a brief introduction by festival president, Peter Baxter, and a Q and A following. Questions focused not on how we positioned the brand or targeted the marketing, but on how it was shot and the nature of the performances. In short, it was received as a film, even though the piece is distinctly commercial.
As viewers become savvier, brands need to find ways to sift through the noise and establish meaningful connections with consumers. I’m certainly no industry sage but if Carhartt is an effective case study, then story-driven, character-centric narratives are offering more and more popular platforms for advertising. Branding without selling. Sure, this is nothing new, but it certainly seems like the crossover is trending, and certainly for the better.
After the Q and A, they cued up the next film: a short documentary titled Good Karma $1. It stars ad icon Alex Bogusky and chronicles his exploration of homeless signs…as marketing. Yes, advertising will always look to Park City for talent, but maybe this little ski town is starting to look back. Here’s hoping.
Director Andrew Laurich is repped by ContagiousLA which has recently partnered with The Outhouse.
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