The X Factor is back – and so too is its headline sponsorship by TalkTalk.

The idents are created by CHI & Partners, and feature people with TV screens replacing their heads.

Working with TalkTalk and CHI on the campaign were MPC and The App Business, which helped deliver an integrated digital campaign with user generated content (UGC) at its core.  Part of the rationale for the campaign was to alert the widest possible audience to the launch of TalkTalk TV.

According to MPC, the CHI creative team developed the idea of 15 bespoke music videos, designed to work together as if on a TalkTalk branded music channel.  Each music promo was designed to have dancers and singers with TV screens as heads, which could be filled with content from the public.

Neil Goodlad, CHI creative says: “The biggest challenge was making sure we created something millions of fans would want to be part of – while still landing TalkTalk TV.  What’;s been refreshing about this project is working with companies like MPC and The App Business from the beginning. Together, they’;ve helped us create probably the most ambitious and technically challenging TalkTalk X Factor campaign to date.”

The videos are hosted on a bespoke TalkTalk X Factor website where the public can record and upload their own footage to appear inside the heads. To add to the user experience people are able to combine a selected music video, preferred track and their footage to fill the TV heads.  The personalized promos can then be shared via social media platforms such as Facebook, and submitted for selection for the TV idents.  Each week new music video templates are added to the site.

Ben Cyzer, MPC Head of Creative Strategy says: “It was important that we worked on the user experience up-front.  Key was MPC working together with The App Business to develop the technology to enable the compositing of videos to happen in software rather than post production”.

The website needed to be fun yet simple to participate in.  Daniel Joseph, Founder, at The App Business said “we knew audiences would love the idea of seeing themselves comped into these pop promos.  But the experience had to be lightening fast, across mobile, social and desktop”.

Geremy & Georgie of Legs in New York, the duo who directed, said: “This project let us live out our pop music video fantasies: It was like creating our own little promo circus, cramming in as many genre ideas as possible all the while our amazing performers kept their cool with giant flat screen TVs balanced on their heads.  This whole project hinged on being able to merge viewer’;s webcam heads onto these slick pop bodies. A tall order but MPC made it seamless and beautifully surreal”.

MPC & The App Business undertook research & development into how the comps would work and what data was required from Nuke and Flame to create the comp in software.  All tacking data was supplied in Mocha, while all mattes and reflection passes of the screens as JPEG sequences.

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