The Sony Balls

Guess you have already seen the new spectacular spot from Sony made by Fallon with the 250.000 bouncing balls in the streets of San Francisco.

In my opinion it’s the perfect case for what a modern marketing campaign should contain for several reasons (sorry for the almost fan-like argumentation):

First and foremost it’s allegedly a great product (this review gives it 5 out of 5 stars and call’s it “a rich and powerful image”).

The client/agency/production company relation seems to have been profoundly collaborative build on trust and playfulness according to interviews with the director Nicolai Fuglsig and the Fallon creative Juan Cabral (I can’t find the link to the article)

There is clever pre-launch strategy with this “behind the scenes” web-site and a massive viral distribution of the content

It is sticky and highly infectious communication and works in both traditional and non-traditional media. First it hit the big blogs in the ad community, and more importantly is has created consumer buzz and transcended into popular culture as here with pictures on Flickr.

There is even a bit of the so-called open source creativity or co-creativity here (where the Sony has wisely been inviting everybody to take photos and film from the shoot in modern junction with the rules of “creative commons”)

And then the campaign messaging itself (obviously we have only seen the Online and TV stuff yet – I hope it is also going to include other intelligent media solutions – maybe a version of the film for video podcasting) it has a tonality of honesty and authenticity and (it is even done without tricks or computer graphics).

It’s build equally on strong insights on the product and into the consumers and their quest for imagination and almost infantile playfulness when it comes to technology.

It’s not building a formulaic brand concept but is rather embracing the magical complexity of colours. It has nuance and depth and leaves something behind for one’s own imaginary perception. It’s simply great communication that works as Velcro.

See the different versions of the film here.