Cathleen Kisich named EP of L.A. shop
U.K.-based production house Knucklehead is opening its first U.S. office this month. The Los Angeles shop will be headed by Cathleen Kisich who becomes Knucklehead’s first U.S. executive producer. The stateside launch comes at a time when Knucklehead has already made inroads into the American ad market, working with such agencies as Wieden+Kennedy, Droga5, TBWAChiatDay, McCann, Leo Burnett and Team Detroit.
Kisich began her career as an agency producer before making the jump to executive producer in 2010 when she joined Caviar, representing such notable directors as AG Rojas and Keith Schofield. Kisich also brings along producer Lauren Small to the new Knucklehead U.S. Small previously worked at Partizan, and at Caviar, where she and Kisich met.
Established in 2005 by EP/managing partners Tim Katz and Matthew Brown, Knucklehead has made its creative mark internationally with a body of work that most recently includes: director Siri Bunford’s documentary-style film 1000 Years of Less Ordinary Wisdom for Finlandia Vodka; Charlie Crane’s short film about the life of an expedition doctor in Greenland for IKEA’s “There’s No Bed Like Home” campaign; and director Chris Hewitt’s new emotion-driven ad for Dunlop. Other Knucklehead fare includes a pair of Rob Leggatt-directed campaign films for VO5; William Armstrong’s nighttime “Run More” spot for Adidas; and choreographer-turned-director Holly Blakey’s monochromatic dance performance video for Gwilym Gold’s “Triumph.”
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