Maurice LÃ©vy, Chinese dragons, and gospel singers in The Publicis Groupe's New Year greeting

GLOBAL – December 18, 2013 – After hacking the YouTube functionality last year, Maurice Lévy is back again with a new year corporate speech that features two Chinese dragons, a confetti storm, cheerleaders and much more.

This year, in light of the expected Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group merger of equals, we decided to celebrate along the theme of: The More the Merrier!

The idea for this year’s experience is simple: The more people that join in during the video, the merrier it will become, Publicis Groupe said ina press release. "The More the Merrier" concept refers to the expected merger of equals between Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group.

"So, we got our geeks to develop a fancy facial detection algorithm that allows a webcam to count how many people are actually watching the video together," they said. The facial recognition algorithm conceived by DigitasLBi France to create the experience was developed by an expert in the field, a 21 year old Russian math genius. It is the first of its kind to detect up to 10 faces simultaneously while the YouTube video is playing.

"If you watch the video by yourself you won’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but if you add one friend you’ll see Maurice Lévy delivering his corporate speech in a confetti storm. Bring a few more colleagues and you may see gospel singers, cheerleaders, Chinese dragons and a few other surprises as Maurice Lévy tries to keep his cool. We really thought of everything, so try and see what happens even when there’s no one behind the screen," they said.

Gather some friends and watch what happens when you watch the video.

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The first ever Maurice Lévy original SoundCloud track, "The More The Merrier" can be downloaded on SoundCloud.

According to Publicis Groupe, the concept for "The More The Merrier" humanizes digital technology by physically bringing people together around the video. The experience is hosted on the "Publicis Groupe" YouTube Channel. It is the first video to count viewers rather than YouTube views.

The video was shot using entirely live scenes (with no green screen or post-production editing). Nine times out of ten, the first take was kept in order to maintain the spontaneity of the moment and Maurice Lévy’s surprise

It takes 1487 balloons to cover Maurice Lévy.

Credits

DigitasLBi France

President: Mathieu Morgensztern

Chief Creative Officer: Bridget Jung

Creative Director: Nicolas Thiboutot

Creatives: Frederick Lung & Philippe Pinel

Art Director: Chisato Tchisuya

Graphic Designer: Aline Kesting, Manu Azouvi

Creative Producer: Amélie Cruchet

Project Director: Alexandre Gallais

Motion: Jeremy Vissio