In news today:
Client sues agency for outdated website
Patron Spirits International has alleged its former digital agency Reindeer is violating trademark law by continuing to promote Patron as a client on its website, despite the relationship ending in 2014. It's common for agencies to display client work on their websites, but the lawsuit questions the rights agencies have to promote client work, especially if the two parties no longer have a relationship. According to Ad Age, Patron also alleges that the New York agency over-billed it by at least $81,000.
“Death by overwork”
A Tokyo-based Dentsu employee allegedly resorted to suicide as a result of being forced to log up “punishing overtime”, according to marketinginteractive.com. The findings, by the Mita Labor Standard Inspection Office in Tokyo, said 24-year-old Japanese woman Matsuri Takahashi worked for the advertising agency’s digital account division - which was in charge of online advertising. She joined Dentsu in April 2015 and committed suicide on Christmas Day that year year, following a “drastic increase of workload starting from October”, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported. Takahashi was found to have logged around 105 hours of monthly overtime. Need help or support? Visit Beyondblue.
Ad tech co's funding boost
US online ad company C1X, which blends the approaches of premium direct and auction based advertising with data science, has raised another US$6.5 million in what it says is the first part of a Series B round of funding. According to TechCrunch,the C1X platform includes products for advertisers and publishers, offering “a full-stack platform that addresses the core issues that buyers and sellers face today”. C1X is also backed by a number of Japanese investors, including University of Tokyo Edge Capital. The business has plans to expand into the he Asia Pacific next year.
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