Remember when Sony unleashed thousands of multi-ccoloured bouncy balls onto the streets of San Francisco? This iconic advert for Sony Bravia had just the right ingredients to captivate the masses. Our question is, can it work a second time around?
With a slightly new approach, Sony have recreated the famous ‘balls’ commercial to raise awareness for their 3D coverage of the Wimbledon tournament finals. The colourful bouncing balls were replaced by thousands of tennis balls bouncing through the streets of Wimbledon. Although it’s a nice campaign idea for the lead up to Wimbledon’s 3D experience, it seems this execution is lacking real balls.
There’s no doubt the advert looks beautiful, but as an agency who embrace real experiences, we would have loved to see this recreated with the same passion and integrity as the original Sony Bravia ad. Looking back at the making of the Sony Bravia ad we are reminded of these inspiring words “there’s something important about doing this for real, and not cheating.”
Off screen however, the campaign factors in other elements that allow for real engagements; from branded tennis ball give-aways on the streets, to an online tennis ball hunt for a chance to win tickets to the Wimbledon women’s finals and other prizes. The game involves collecting virtual tennis balls from across the internet, with each ball securing an entry into the competition.
We have seen brands create great digital efforts to engage web users and this is a nice example of brand integration in to the digital world. We look forward to the 3D experience of Wimbledon as it’s never seen before.