David&Goliath Shows Different Side of Blake Griffin for VIZIO

David&Goliath launched a new campaign for VIZIO featuring Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin cast in a different light.

Griffin spends the spots dishing out poetry on subjects like the mouthguard, tear-away pants and bobbleheads in what looks like a slam poetry cafe. Griffin’s “Slam Dunk Poetry” features an elementary rhyming scheme as he tackles his goofy subjects with apparent earnestness/seriousness, leading into the “see the beauty in everything” tagline. The campaign is timed to get basketball fans excited for the new season, which starts in October (and convince them to upgrade to a VIZIO Ultra HD). The videos launched on YouTube and VIZIO’s website Monday, and GIFS of Griffin’s performances are also available via Tumblr. (more…)

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Innocean Debuts New Work for NRG

NRG recently announced that the energy company has chosen Innocean as its full-service advertising partner, and the agency debuted its first campaign for the brand in time for the opening of the NFL season.

Its 30-second broadcast spot imagines an old-time football team — complete with leather helmets — preparing to take on the (modern day) Philadelphia Eagles. “Let’s go out there and give ‘em heck,” says the team’s captain, adding “We’re going to go out there and really give them the business.” When the team, emerges from the locker room and sees their competitors, however, they quickly turn and run. “The old game just can’t compete,” says the voiceover, “especially when it comes to energy. Solar power is here.”

It’s not a bad analogy for old forms of energy, many of which have been around since the leather helmet days, in comparison with clean solar energy. The basic concept and approach also seem pretty adaptable to future applications, so more in this same vein from Innocean in the future.

“NRG chose Innocean because they understood that we aren’t bound by convention,” said Brad Fogel, chief operating officer, Innocean USA. “We are young and agile enough to break rules and create a spot-on integrated brand campaign that shows consumers, you actually have a choice in who you want to supply the energy to power up your day-to-day lives. And if you have that choice, why don’t you choose a company that believes in doing the right thing instead of the same thing?”

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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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Blake Griffin, Jack McBrayer Don Superhero Tights for Kia

With a new NBA season comes new spots for Kia from David&Goliath starring L.A. Clippers superstar Blake Griffin. This season, though, Blake, aka “The Endorser” as he’s known in other campaigns, is joined by a small sidekick, Jack McBrayer, who is best known for playing the bizarre but sweet NBC page on 30 Rock.

While this spot, “Trailer,” adorably portrays Griffin and McBrayer as a noble superhero team saving citizens from purchasing non-Kia vehicles, it lacks what has made Grffin’s spots for Kia so memorable over the years: Blake’s inherent weirdness. Not once does Blake open his mouth to tell the camera something strange while giving his off-putting stare. Neither does McBrayer, whose unhinged 30 Rock performance allowed him to frequently stand out amidst a large cast filled with other unhinged individuals.

I certainly hope that “Trailer” is aptly named, released only to build excitement for forthcoming “feature presentations.” If we never get to see two superpowers of weird actually interact with each other, then all may be lost. The next spot, “Zipline” is slated to come out early next month. Credits after the jump.

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California Lottery Drops Balls On the Golden State’s True Believers

“What do women’s rights, a one-armed surfer, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the first man on the moon have to do with the California Lottery?” begins an actual press release for a new TV spot from David&Goliath. “None of them could have been possible without this single word: Believe. Because in order to achieve the seemingly unfeasible, you must truly believe that big things are possible.”

In an event that easily trumps women’s rights, one-armed surfers, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Powerball is coming to California. From the Redwood forest of Humboldt county to the beaches of San Diego, Californians lifted their arms to the sky and shouted in unison, “We believe!” Hearing their confession of faith, God opened up the heavens and began pelting his children, mouths agape, with millions of white balls.

Some wept, some sang praises, and some lucky dude got a red ball. It was truly the greatest thing that ever happened to anyone. Credits after the jump.

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