TV Commercial: NTT DoCoMo Touch Wood SH-08C “XYLOPHONE (PLAY WOOD)”
Anatomy Of A Cannes Winner: NTT DoCoMo Xylophone
Anatomy of a winner takes us through the key decisions that took a piece of work from good to great–and won the campaign for NTT DoCoMo Touch Wood SH-08C a Golden Lion at Cannes. Here, creative director Morihiro Harano breaks down his process.
Source: Teressa Iezzi
It was one of those passed-along web films that cut through the irony and the cats and stopped people in their tracks. The video depicted a wooden xylophone built and deployed in the middle of a sun-dappled forest. A ball was released at the top, and as it rolled down the sloping instrument and dropped onto each wooden “key,” it played an all-natural performance of Bach’s Cantata 147.
No tricks. No computer generated images. Just the light hand of Japanese craftsmen and perhaps an added poignance lent by the timing of the release of the video–completed and launched as the tsunami hit Japan. (Note the sound of rushing water in the background.)
The video was created for Japanese telecom NTT DoCoMo’s new Touch Wood SH-08C phone, a kidney-shaped device encased in wood harvested from Japan’s forests. 
Morihiro Harano, creative director on the project (now at NY/Tokyo agency Party) takes us through the steps that made the spot a success.
For more details, click here.
XYLOPHONE – 森の木琴
Making of the Touch Wood commercial – 森の木琴
Awards:
- One Show 2012 One Show Consumer Television / Over 60 second – Single Merit
- One Show 2012 One Show Non-broadcast / Online Merit
- One Show 2012 One Show Interactive Online Films & Video / Short Form – Single Merit
- Ted 2012 TV commercial Entry
- Cannes Lions 2011 Film Lions Commercial Public Services Silver
- Cannes Lions 2011 Film Craft Lions Sound Design Gold
- Spikes Asia 2011 Film Other Film Content Bronze
- Spikes Asia 2011 Film Craft Craft: TV Gold
- Spikes Asia 2011 Digital Digital Tools Gold
Credits & Description:
- Type of Entry: Product & Service
- Category: Commercial Public Services
- Title: XYLOPHONE
- Advertiser/Client: NTT DOCOMO
- Product/Service: MOBILE PHONE
- Entrant Company: DRILL Tokyo, JAPAN
- Advertising Agency: DRILL Tokyo, JAPAN
- 2nd Advertising Agency: DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
- Creative Director: Morihiro Harano
- Art Director: Jun Nishida
- Copywriter: Noriko Yamada
- Agency Producer: Daijiro Sawa/Ayako Yoshinoya
- Advertiser’s Supervisor: Masato Kabasawa
- Account Manager: Ayako Yoshinoya
- Account Supervisor: Toru Murakami
- Production Company: ENGINE PLUS Tokyo, JAPAN
- 2nd Production Company: DRAWING AND MANUAL Tokyo, JAPAN
- Director: Seiichi Hishikawa
- Producer: Toshifumi Oiso/Hideyuki Chihara
- Editor: Hitoshi Kimura
- Sound Design/Arrangement: Kenjiro Matsuo
- Post Production: Digital Garden
- Brief Explanation:
The advertisement for the mobile phone, TOUCH WOOD SH-08C, which was developed aiming to stimulate and enhance social awareness of forestry preservation.
The advert shows a ball running down a wooden track which in turn plays music in a style of a Xylophone.
The xylophone in total length of 44 m (144.4 ft) was made only by using forest-thinning materials just like the product itself.
The sales of forest-thinning materials will become the funding source
for the forestry preservation.The TV Commercial Ad titled XYLOPHONE was done by Drill Tokyo advertising agency for product: Mobile Phones (brand: NTT DoCoMo) in Japan. It was released in the Jun 2011.
