Every year, one of the most exciting aspects of a new season of The X Factor (besides those hilarious opening rounds of course) is seeing what TalkTalk and their partners will have come up with for their annual interactive idents. This year, for the tenth year, the mobile phone carrier is not letting us down by continuing its epic, audience-friendly sponsorship with “FX Star,” an ambitious new twist on its popular user-generated idents campaigns. Created once again by CHI&Partners, this year’s idents feature performances created at home by X Factor fans, using TalkTalk’s “FX Star” app, which allows users to create their own music videos, lip-syncing along to their favourite tracks, and adding a splash of glamour or comedy to their performances with some wacky filters. The best videos to be submitted by the general public each week will then be selected to air on TV during The X Factor ad breaks.
The app, which was designed and built together by CHI&Partners and MPC Creative, launched in the App Store and Google Play last weekend, with five filters and three tracks: Zara Larsson’s “Lush Life,” Sigala’s “Give Me Your Love” and Birdy’s “Wild Horses.” The app allows groups of up to four people to feature in the same music video, meaning users can create and submit thousands of different combinations in a bid to star on TV in the X Factor ad breaks. It's a fresh spin on a familiar concept and the app itself is surprisingly flexible. Even if you don't give a monkey's uncle about The X Factor it's worth playing around with for an afternoon.
Jim Bolton, Deputy Executive Creative Director at CHI&Partners, said: “TalkTalk has brought some great user-generated content to the big screen over the past ten years. We wanted to build on that and make this year’s X Factor sponsorship big, special and memorable. Filters deserve to be shared and extended to the TV platform – after all, who doesn’t want to be a comic book character singing Lush Life with their mum and dad?” Andre Assalino, Interactive Creative Director at MPC Creative, added: “It’s been a pleasure to work with CHI&Partners on TalkTalk’s X Factor idents once again. This year’s filter-based idea was technically ambitious, and relied on seamlessly integrating real-time face-tracking, 3D rendering and video recording. We had a lot of fun making it, and we’re sure it’ll be a big hit with X Factor fans of all ages getting involved with the show at home.”
