Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) has added to its roster of data and technology-fueled marketing service providers with the launch of Performance Art, a global agency that brings together deep data, technology and CRM expertise with notable creative talent. CEO Andrea Cook, chief creative officer Ian Mackenzie, and chief operating officer Elizabeth Sellors, the leadership team that helped build FCB/SIX, will take the helm at Performance Art in analogous roles. The agency will partner closely with a range of IPG companies and build on the company’s foundational data and technology layers at Acxiom and Kinesso in order to provide clients with data-driven marketing solutions. Performance Art will build on a founding roster of existing talent and clients, including BMW, CIBC, and Black & Abroad. The team at Performance Art is known for its ability to combine data and technology with platform-level creative ideas for clients–producing global work that has been widely lauded. Notably, FCB/SIX Toronto’s “Go Back to Africa” initiative for Black & Abroad won the Creative Data Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2019. The campaign used AI and data to reframe the way people think about Africa and created a platform that displaces the hate surrounding the racial slur. Separately, FCB/SIX, part of the IPG family, will continue to operate as an integrated global unit within the FCB network, reporting into Tina Allan, FCB’s newly appointed global partner, data science and connections….
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