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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Arnold, Jack Daniel’s Bring Back King Bee, This Time with a Swarm

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Whiskey has been repped by King Bee for a while now, with the insect always fiercely flying, always backed by rock and roll. In the latest spot, King Bee is followed by his swarm, representing the followers the brand has gained in the last year.

Pre-released on Twitter and Facebook, “Swarm” amassed over 10 million impressions before launching on TV. Though it was apparently carefully calibrated to get the right lighting and “a gritty feeling” (essential for any American whiskey brand), the spot’s not exactly rife with excitement or engagement. It works for exactly 30 seconds, though, and with the accompanying copywriting- “Like any good night out, things get interesting when there’s a swarm.” and “Fly straight. Drink responsibly,” King Bee and his crew get get an A for effort.

Credits after the jump

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Progressive Knows Bad Drivers Want to Make Out with Your Car

From Arnold comes the latest TV spot for Progressive, “Rate Suckers,” helmed by director Ruben Fleischer (of  pretty great Zombieland and pretty terrible Gangster Squad fame). Depicting bad drivers as the soul-sucking, rate-hiking leeches they are, the ad also introduces Progressive’s new “Snapshot” technology.

“Snapshot,” a little device that sticks underneath your dashboard, ostensibly counts how many times a driver slams on the brakes, calculates the time of day and how many miles a car has driven. Then it rewards good drivers with Pez or something, but as the spot doesn’t say what the hell it is, none of this really matters now does it?

Noticeably absent from this spot is Flo, Progressive’s chipper apron-ed spokesperson. I know that we, the car insurance-purchasing consumers, were always supposed to really like Flo because everyone in Progressive’s ads sure did. However, the Flo-lessness of this spot reminds me that I kind of hate Flo, and I hope to never see her ever again. Credits after the jump.

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