On August 30th Avante's Gavin Hill and Stephen Melling travelled to Hampden Park for a hush-hush shoot with Adidas, using "green screen" technology combined with a special software.
The pair filmed top football stars like Charlie Adam, Kenny Miller and Darren Fletcher.
The result has been a stunning marketing campaign in sportswear stores throughout the world where images of football star can be dropped into any location or pop up from the floor to shock and amaze customers. Adidas's own film of the project is here.
An image of Darren Fletcher "pops up" in store
Augmented Reality, is a new buzzword in video and marketing. So far it has been used most successfully in a Lynx guerilla marketing campaign, including an event in March 2011 at London's Victoria Station, when an angel appeared to fall out of the sky.
You can learn more about the process here. Essentially Augmented Reality (or AR) is old technology - green screen and chromakey - given a new lease of life by the addition of relatively sophisticated software. But pioneers experimenting with a whole range of new hardware and software claim the possibilities are limitless.
Right now, for example, you can try on "virtual" glasses via your laptop without going to shop. Imagine the joy of armies of men who will be able to tell their partners that instead of trailing them around the fashion stores all Saturday the girls can wriggle into a range of AR dresses and frocks online!
Analysts are saying that what is already a $100m industry will soon be a $3 billion market. The key is getting a product into the hands of (or up close and personal to) a customer, even if that product is "virtual". Research shows that a significant percentage of customers will buy if they have actually touched or felt the product, even as an AR image.
So after you have met a life size AR image of your favourite football star jumping out into a shop aisle displaying a new piece of kit, what next?
A "virtual" Bet Lynch popping up behind the bar in your local recommending a pint of the best bitter? An AR-style Joan Collins purring in a department store about the virtues of a new fragrance?
A naked Keith Chegwin.....no stop that thought.
For the marketing teams behind many products this could be a novel and effective way forward.
Here is some footage from the filming day.
A still from Avante's footage featuring Liverpool's Charlie Adam
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