CMO Stephen Larkin Joins David&Goliath from 180LA

David&Goliath hired Stephen Larkin as chief marketing officer, effective immediately, Adweek reports. He will report directly to agency president Brian Dunbar.

Larkin joins David&Goliath from 180LA, where he has spent over three and a half years in the CMO role, working with clients such as UNICEF (including a credit on the Cannes Lion-winning “Unfairy Tales,” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Hollywood Foreign Press. Before joining 180LA, Larkin spent a year and a half as managing director at Mullen in Pittsburgh, following over five years as senior vice president, brand evangelist for the agency. Prior to Mullen he spent six years as vice president, management supervisor with Hill Holliday, which followed an earlier stint with Mullen as an account supervisor.

“We are less of a traditional agency, per say, and more of a brand with a very defined purpose so when we went looking for a CMO to champion our brand we looked everywhere,” David&Goliath founder and chairman David Angelo told Adweek. “We wanted to find someone who not only worked at great creative agencies, but also had a strong success record with like-minded clients at those agencies. Stephen fit the bill.”

“This is an agency that really knows who they are,” Larkin added. “David really has a vision for this agency, who it is, where it’s going and that really inspired me. There’s great talent here. It’s not just one person and there’s a great story at this agency. I just want to tell it.”

David&Goliath, LeBron Tout Kia as ‘Fit for a King’

David&Goliath teamed up with NBA superstar LeBron James in its latest effort for Kia, which recently extended its contract as “official automotive partner of the NBA.”

In the spot, James emerges from the Kia’s new K900 luxury sedan at some type of glitzy red carpet event. The star struck valet stumbles over his words as LeBron tosses him the keys and says “Keep it close,” followed by the taglne “Fit for a King.” Entitled “Valet,” the ad is perfectly timed, breaking today on the opening day of the NBA season. It arrives as James rides a wave of publicity for his much-discusses return to Cleveland, which was celebrated in a recent Beats campaign. At any rate, the spot aims for a stylish simplicity, letting the ride — and LeBron’s endorsement of it — mostly speak for itself. (more…)

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David&Goliath Gets Chaotic for VIZIO

David&Goliath is launching a new campaign for VIZIO, championing the brand’s P-Series Ultra HD TV, which has four times higher resolution than standard HD.

The campaign debuts tomorrow with the broadcast spot “Fallen Tree.” In the 30-second ad, a family is so captivated by their P-Series Ultra HD TV that they fail to realize a fallen tree has crashed through their window, even as a rescue team arrives. “With four times the resolution, nothing is more captivating,” says the voiceover at the spot’s conclusion. While it may not be the most innovative approach, it showcases the P-Series Ultra HD TV well and is flexible enough for a number of future variations on the theme.

A second spot, “Turkey Dinner” follows in the same formula, with a pair of dogs devouring a turkey dinner while their owners are too captivated watching football to notice. “Turkey Dinner” and a third spot, entitled “Pillow Fight” will roll out in the coming months, with all three ads airing on national cable. (more…)

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David&Goliath Founder Names New President, CCO

Brian Dunbar

David&Goliath’s founder and chief executive officer, David Angelo, has named Director for Client Services Brian Dunbar to the newly created role of president, and Executive Creative Director Colin Jeffery as the new chief creative officer. Angelo, meanwhile, will assume the newly created position of chairman while continuing to work with clients, AdAge reports.

“I’m still going to be hands-on and working with clients, but it’s a signal to the agency and everyone else that I have to share the responsibility of running an agency and its growth,” Angelo told AdAge, adding, “you can only do so much when you have growth like this. This move is less about taking a step back and more about dividing up responsibilities.” (more…)

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David&Goliath, Adriana Lima Convert Fútbol Fans for Kia

David&Goliath have a new World Cup campaign for Kia featuring Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima.

Each spot features Adriana Lima slow-motion walking onto the scene to convert new fans to soccer. In “Man Cave” (featured above) for example, some guys are chilling and watching baseball in their garage man cave when Lima shows up, exits her Kia, changes the channel to soccer and replaces all football and baseball memorabilia with soccer stuff. Because this is Adriana Lima, the guys involved just sit wide-eyed instead of complaining about trespassing/stolen property or wondering how exactly she got her hands on their garage door opener, ending with the tagline, “For One Month, Let’s All Be Fútbol Fans.” You can expect similarly ridiculous scenarios on the gridiron (“Football Vs. Fútbol”) and at a sports bar (“Adriana Lima Brings Fútbol to a Sports Bar”). The three spots will launch in both Hispanic media and general market TV on Thursday 6/12, running on all ESPN properties for six weeks. In addition to the broadcast spots, the campaign also includes radio, print, digital banners, point-of-sale, a dedicated FIFA landing page and social media elements. Stick around for “Football Vs. Fútbol” and “Adriana Lima Brings Fútbol to a Sports Bar,” along with credits, after the jump. continued…

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David&Goliath Puts On Live AR Experience for California Lottery

David&Goliath wanted to do something a little different to promote the California Lottery’s California Black Exclusive Scratchers tickets as part of their “Luck Will Find You” campaign. So the El Segundo, CA-based agency teamed up with production company V Squared Labs to create the “first-ever real-time, augmented reality experience.”

Utilizing “a mix of live TV production and augmented reality,” David&Goliath and V Squared Labs brought Lady Luck to life on a massive LED screen at L.A. live on February 9th. Select bystanders were given the opportunity to dance and interact with Lady Luck in real time. Pulling off the augmented reality experience was made more difficult by having “set times to go live and nail the performance before the next advertisement went on,” combining some of the more difficult aspects of live television with those associated with creating a believable experience out of augmented reality technology. After each performance, the scene was reset and the crew went through the whole process all over again. It’s exhausting just thinking about it. In order to account for any mishaps, and to make the experience as seamless as possible, V Squared Labs “created a custom software platform to react to real-time interactions,” including any possible mishaps.

“It was all about creating a fun, engaging, interactive piece of entertainment,” says David Angelo, founder/CCO of David&Goliath, and it seems the agency was willing to pull out all the stops to make it happen. Check out the video above to see how the whole thing came together, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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David&Goliath, Kia Reveal Extended Version of Super Bowl Spot, ‘The Truth’

Yesterday, we brought you news of David&Goliath’s teaser for their big game spot, “The Truth,” promoting the all-new 2015 K900, Kia’s first-ever luxury car. Today, David&Goliath and Kia revealed the extended, 90 second version of their Super Bowl ad, designed to “dispel the notion that tradition and history are what makes a luxury sedan,” according to Michael Sprague, executive vice president of marketing & communications, KMA.

“The Truth” features Laurence Fishburne reprising his role as Morpheus from The Matrix. Morpheus offers a couple waiting for the valet outside a restaurant a choice: “Take the blue key, you go back to the luxury you know. Take the red key, and you’ll never look at luxury the same again.” (Spoiler alert: They take the red key.)  Fishburne repeats the word “luxury” ad nauseum during the spot’s first 30 seconds or so, really hammering home that Kia is now offering a luxury vehicle. The spot manages to contain a lot of the Matrix references you’d expect, like a bending spoon and an explosion filled action sequence. But at the same time, “The Truth,” via Fishburne, manages at least one big surprise.

The 60 second version of “The Truth” will debut during the third quarter of the Super Bowl this Sunday, Feb. 2, launching the Kia’s campaign for the 2015 K900 in earnest, and marking Kia’s fifth consecutive year advertising in the big game. You can expect more Matrix-themed advertising from David&Goliath and Kia. Before and after the Super Bowl, David&Goliath’s integrated campaign “will incorporate TV, cinema, digital, print, experiential, social media and CRM components, all drawing heavily on imagery and ideas from the films.” Credits after the jump. continued…

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David&Goliath Reveals Teaser for Kia K900 Super Bowl Ad

With the big game less than a week away, the folks at El Segundo, CA-based David&Goliath have released a teaser for their Kia K900 Super Bowl spot.

The “Official K900 Game Day 2014 Teaser” sees Laurence Fishburne reprising his role as Morpheus from The Matrix trilogy. Morpheus returns to the Construct, where he fiddles with a classic Radiola TV set in an attempt to kick back with some chips and watch the big game. The trailer doesn’t really let us know what to expect on Sunday, other than Fishburne as Morpheus sometime in the third quarter, as it’s designed to keep us guessing. The spot won’t be the first featuring Fishburne promoting the K900, as he narrated December’s “Preconceived Notions” ad, which may offer more clues to the Super Bowl spot than the teaser itself. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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D&G’s New Blake Griffin/Jack McBrayer Spots for Kia Fail to Deliver

Back in October, we brought you news of David&Goliath’s new campaign for Kia Optima starring L.A. Clippers power forward Blake Griffin and Jack McBrayer (an actor best known for his work on 30 Rock) as a superhero team saving people from non-Kia purchases. We were a bit disappointed with the initial spot, but hoped that the spot’s title “Trailer” indicated it was just a teaser for things to come. Now, David&Goliath have released two new spots for the campaign, “Zipline” (featured above) and “Apologize to You.” Unfortunately, both fail to live up to the potential of the premise.

“Zipline” features Blake Griffin and sidekick Jack McBrayer crashing in on a lame Internet shopping session. They present the Optima as a better option, to a man who is understandably freaked out by this series of events. Griffin and McBrayer have good chemistry together, but the spot fails to capitalize on it and ultimately falls flat. It might help if the two interacted more, instead of seemingly splitting screen time in separate shots.

That “Zipline” is actually the better of the two spots should tell you something about “Apologize to You.” The spot features Griffin and a fire extinguisher-wielding McBrayer demanding a passerby apologize for not selecting the Optima. It’s repetitive to say the least, lacking any real substance in exchange for a failed attempt at cheap laughs. Hopefully, the folks over at David&Goliath can rebound from these efforts, as we still think this campaign has the potential to be funny. Credits and “Apologize to You” after the jump. continued…

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David&Goliath Crafts New ‘Beautifully Simple’ Campaign for VIZIO

LA-based agency David&Goliath has crafted a new campaign promoting VIZIO’s M-Series Smart TV and VIZIO Sound Bar, complete with the new tagline, “Beautifully Simple.”

The TV campaign contains three new spots: “So Easy,” “My Station” and “Tiny Dancer.” Each of these was directed by Michael Downing, with cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi (who has worked on Silver Linings Playbook and Babel). Together, the spots form a kind of narrative, beginning with “So Easy” (featured above). This spot, and the campaign as a whole, play on the fact that children often understand new technology better than their parents. In “So Easy” a young girl helps her dad through problems with his laptop and smartphone. The father then jumps at the opportunity to help his daughter pick a program on VIZIO’s M-Series Smart TV. A cute idea, that is unfortunately followed by the theme-line ”So easy, even an adult can figure it out.” This wouldn’t be a problem, if it wasn’t for the fact that Geico ruined the lines “So easy, even a…” for everyone, forever.

The next spot, “My Station,” is probably my favorite of the bunch, featuring the dad discovering his daughter’s Pandora station. “Tiny Dancer” concludes the series by upping the cute factor, as well as the father’s competence with the M-Series Smart TV. David&Goliath’s approach of creating a series of ads meant to be viewed in a certain order is interesting, and they pull it off by making each of them able to stand alone as well. I just wish they’d get rid of that theme-line.

Clearly targeted at dads, the campaign will run through the college football season on ESPN’s networks and Hulu into early 2014. Stay tuned for the final two spots, as well as credits, after the jump.  continued…

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