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Arguably the best part of Apple TV’s pandemic hit, Ted Lasso, is hanging out with the crew at AFC Richmond. Whether it's the steady optimism of Ted himself (Jason Sudeikis), the whimsy of Keely (Juno Temple), the random irascibility of former football star Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) or the strange wisdom of Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), there’s something about the world that makes you want to join the squad.

Now, thanks to an activation by Los Angeles and London-based agency Kill 2 Birds, fans who visit Apple stores all around the world can join the Richmond crew – at least in a virtual way.

Kill 2 Birds worked with Apple to create an interconnected screensaver experience that stars the characters themselves and stretches across all of a stores’ devices. The piece solves the problem of keeping the experience going when a customer wants to check out a phone, laptop or tablet, thus pulling that device out of sequence. The overall Apple store experience was accompanied by a similar music-free “hype piece” that ran across all Apple TV display bays.

“Apple wanted a talent-driven approach, featuring the key characters that everyone knows and loves,” said Jonathan Ouellette, co-founder and co-executive producer at Kill 2 Birds. “The constant overarching theme was what Apple calls ‘defiant optimism.’ The work needed to maintain that iconic Apple visual simplicity.” 

The characters are set against Richmond blue with the Ted Lasso logo used throughout as an interactive element. 

Kill 2 Birds previously worked with Apple on an in-store and out-of-home activation for another one of its big shows, Severance, although that activation launched in flagship stores, such as Apple Fifth Avenue in New York City, and in key digital OOH locations, such as Times Square.

For Ted Lasso, Apple wanted to go much bigger, hitting all 540 or so Apple stores across the globe. 

The tricky part of the operation was maintaining interactivity across Apple stores’ connected environments, even when one or more devices went out of play.

“We had to account for the reality that Apple stores are very interactive environments,” Ouellette said. “As soon as someone picks up a device and starts interacting with it, it’s not synchronized anymore. That became a key filter for our creative development. The final solution was that the visuals all traveled in a common direction, flowing across all of the devices in the store.” 

Kill 2 Birds worked with Apple months ahead of time to set up a shoot with the talent. “We did extensive and wide-ranging creative explorations with them, developing creative directions that helped inform what they could capture with the talent,” Ouellette said. 

Once Apple had completed the shoot, Kill 2 Birds edited the footage into a piece that could run across any device or any size screen. 

“We had to take something that was really technically complex and make it feel simple,” Ouellette said. “We created this meticulously crafted edit and animation, while coordinating cast performances across all of these displays. Simple almost never means easy.” 

While the creative definitely took center stage at Apple stores, it also ended up being used for other formats and platforms across the show’s season-four campaign, including Apple Music, digital out-of-home billboards and smart TV banners. 

“It’s really common for brands to incorporate our core creative into their larger campaigns,” Ouellette said. “It’s really cool to see.”