Minneapolis-based creative agency mono is opening an office in San Francisco. The agency’s director of new business Jeffrey Gorder, group account director Jane Delworth and creative director Paula Biondich will lead the S.F. shop. Gorder and Delworth will be elevated to managing directors of mono San Francisco; Biondich will be upped to managing creative director of the new office. The westward expansion is a reflection of mono’s ongoing growth. Last year the agency added clients Sperry, Propel, The North Face, Mozilla and Smashberger, experienced a revenue increase of 49 percent, and nearly doubled its staff to more than 100 employees….
Seed Media Arts has added comedy director Larry Ziegelman to its roster. His humor reel includes a Funyuns campaign consisting of a short film and five spots. He also has several short films to his credit, including Check Please, You Shouldn’t Have, Fitting, Boom Boom and Little Man of Steel which have gained exposure and accolades on the festival circuit. Ziegelman first established himself on the agency side as a creative before settling into the director’s chair. His move to Seed Media Arts, headquartered in Chicago with an office in L.A., unites him with his long-time friend, company EP Roy Skillicorn….
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