Melanie Myers has returned to Wieden+Kennedy as global director of creative resources.
Melanie Myers has returned to Wieden+Kennedy as global director of creative resources. She spent 11 years with W+K's Portland office before leaving in 2007 and later started WNTD, a creative recruiting and consulting company. WNTD will continue to operate with Myers' former partners. Based in W+K's Portland quarters, Myers will work closely with existing creative recruiters in each office to focus globally not only to find and hire outstanding and diverse talent in all offices, but to retain people who are already in place…..La Comunidad has expanded its strategic planning capabilities to include media services and connections planning. The independent, Miami-headquartered agency has appointed David Lawlor to head the new division under executive director of global strategy, Richard Monturo. Earlier in his career he was with Crispin Porter+Bogusky where during his five year tenure he helped develop and implement media strategies for both the general and multicultural markets for Burger King, Volkswagen, Geek Squad and Jawbone….Michael Dezso has joined JWT's Atlanta office as senior partner, director of strategic planning. He comes over from BBDO where he was VP, senior account planner. In his new role, Dezso will oversee strategy and planning across the office's clients including the U.S. Marine Corps, FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program, U.S. Virgin Islands Tourism, Brother, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Nokia and SCANA Energy. He will report directly to JWT's Atlanta CEO, Ridge White. Prior to BBDO, Dezso worked at Modernista in Boston as co-leader of the strategy and planning department and served as deputy director of planning on accounts including (RED), TIAA-CREF, Budweiser and Animal Planet….
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