Free Agents
1) How long have your been an independent rep? Please list the companies that you currently represent:
I made the move from producing at an animation production company to independent representation 14 years ago and am currently representing: Aspekt, Buck, Gentleman Scholar, GenPop, Hornet, Mill+, Moonbot, Nexus, Nexus Interactive Arts, Passion Pictures and Strange Beast
2) Please define your responsibilities as a rep and how they have evolved over the years.
Our role as an independent rep is twofold. We help build brands and create opportunities through strategic marketing and sales initiatives that constantly change based on each client’s work and talent. Meanwhile, our focus on original animation, artful live action and creative digital has allowed us to become a resource to our advertising agency clients. Through the years we’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing production companies looking to expand their reach into the advertising community and are always revisiting the best and most effective way to both build and share their stories. Technology has enabled us to find new exciting ways of working, but the challenge is to not overwhelm nor allow it to become a distraction.
3) How has your marketplace expanded with the advent of longer form branded content and varied platforms? While agency creatives and producers remain prime contacts, have you extended your reach to clients, smaller boutique specialty ad/marketing/digital shops, entertainment cos., etc.?
Our marketplace truly follows the evolving demands of the advertising and production communities.
Advertisers are asking more boutique / digital shops to handle specific assignments and are also creating in-house marketing teams. Yet many of our existing contacts, both creatives and producers, are moving within these shops and after years of working together we are continuing to make it effortless for them to engage with our talent. Some of our more recent inspiring work is either longer format or cross platform. The combination of our directors and artists being drawn to innovation, along with these close relationships, allow us to continue to deliver the best creative opportunities and stay on top of the ever expanding marketplace.
5) What are the advantages of being an independent rep? The drawbacks?
The reason I’m an independent rep is because it allows me to work with the friends who we admire and respect most.
Life is short. Surround yourself with amazing people and you will enjoy every minute!
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