| Title | PLAY THE PING PONG |
| Brand | TV TOKYO CORPORATION |
| Product / Service | TABLE TENNIS |
| Category | D06. Corporate Image & Communication |
| Entrant | DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Entrant Company | DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Advertising Agency | DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Production Company | WEEK'S Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| JUNTA YOSHIKAWA | DENTSU INC. | Creative Director |
| ERITO YAMADA | DENTSU INC. | Creative Planner/Copywriter |
| MOMOKA FUKUYADO | DENTSU INC. | Copywriter |
| ASAKO TAKI | DENTSU INC. | Art Director |
| HISASHI TANAKA | DENTSU INC. | Agency Producer |
| RYUHEI HOMMA | DENTSU INC. | Account Executive |
| TAIKI SHIBAHARA | WEEK'S INC. | Producer |
| NORIYUKI KATO | WEEK'S INC. | Production Manager |
| KEISUKE HAKOMORI | Freelance | Director |
| YUSUKE SUGA | Freelance | Cameraman |
| KAZUNARI WATANABE | Freelance | Lighting |
| MAYUKO OKANO | TV TOKYO Art&Lighting,Inc. | Production Designer |
| TOSHIYUKI HASHIMOTO | aircord INC. | Technical Director |
| DAISHI DANCE | Freelance | Music/Music Artist |
| TOMOKI SETO | Palette Sounds | Music |
| TOMOHIRO NISHIJIMA | CAPRA INC. | Editor |
| MASAHIRO KATO | Ray INC. | Editor |
| DAI SHINAGAWA | digital egg INC. | Sound Design Arrangement |
| AKIHITO NARITA | ONPa INC. | Sound Effects |
| TACSHOW ARAI | Freelance | Table tennis supervision |
After Tokyo was chosen as the host city for the 2020 summer Olympic games, interest in sports has been on the rise in Japan. However, for the younger generations in particular, the sport of table tennis suffers from low popularity. Our goal was to utilize the opportunity of the upcoming Olympics and draw the attention of young people to table tennis.
For this project we developed and created the first “table tennis musical instrument”. This was made possible through the precise control of the rally speed and position where the ball hit the table. The table was turned into an instrument using project mapping with sampling pads placed on the table. An infrared sensor detected the exact location of the flying table tennis ball, and judged the moment the ball hit the table - producing the sound programmed in the system. The video taken of this musical performance was released as a television commercial, web movie, and on the website of the World Table Tennis Championships.
For this project, we took advantage of the rhythmic quality of tennis table’s rallies and joined it with the electronic dance music scene that young people are so crazy about, to create a video full of impact. Combining the force and delicateness of the Japanese national table tennis team, we re-created an original song by the popular Japanese DJ, DAISHI DANCE.
As soon as the TV commercial was released, the video was covered in 100+ online news stories and blogs in and out of Japan. Table tennis athletes from around the country responded with comments like they had been waiting for something like this and that they had received the courage to continue playing table tennis. Comments came in even from those who had not had any interaction with table tennis before saying things such as, “my image of table tennis changed” and “I’ll be cheering for the Japanese national team at the next competition.” As a result, viewer ratings of the world table tennis championship increased by 1.2 times and this video became a chance for Japan to re-examine the sport of table tennis, seeing it in a new light.