Mekanism has appointed Sonal Narain to serve as chief strategy officer for its West Coast clients. She joins Ambika Pai, chief strategy officer for Mekanism’s East Coast, to lead the strategy department overall.
Narain is responsible for brand strategy, communications and innovation across the agency’s West Coast clients including Amazon, Alaska Airlines, Charles Schwab, GoodRx and Sling TV.
Prior to joining Mekanism, Narain led strategy at advertising agencies across Asia including Ogilvy & Mather Singapore and Wieden + Kennedy India. There, she helped set up Coca Cola’s first ever social media center in the APAC region, and drove teams to create work far beyond the remit of conventional advertising including interactive movies, games, music, storybooks, and even couture, all with the purpose of driving deeper commentary on and engagement and participation with the culture that consumers are surrounded by.
From helping political parties shape election communication strategies to winning Asia’s first Gold IPA Effectiveness Award, Narain brings with her an understanding of effectiveness through the lens of behavioral change and cultural insights.
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