Docomo: Touch Wood Xylophone
NTT Docomo needed to launch its 'Touch Wood SH-08C' phone, highlighting its unique natural wood construction to a target audience seeking distinctive, environmentally-conscious technology. The objective was to generate significant buzz and establish a strong emotional connection between the product and nature.
Creative Idea
A giant forest Rube Goldberg machine played music, showcasing the phone's natural wood.
Docomo constructed an elaborate, forest-based Rube Goldberg machine that played a melodic tune using wooden elements, elegantly demonstrating the 'Touch Wood' phone's natural material and its harmonious integration of technology with the environment.
Forty-Nine Takes and a National Tragedy
The Physics of Forest Music
To achieve the raw, acoustic sound of Bach’s *Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring*, the production team eschewed CGI and studio recordings entirely. Creative Director Morihiro Harano and sound engineer Kenjiro Matsuo spent three months prototyping in the forests of Kama City. They discovered that a precise 12-degree slope was the "perfect angle" required to maintain the wooden ball's momentum for the 44-meter-long rectilinear xylophone. The most grueling challenge was the final shot where the ball stops perfectly beside the handset; the team successfully captured the moment only on the 49th take.
Viral Resilience Amidst Disaster
The campaign’s launch on March 11, 2011, coincided with the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. While the ad was pulled from Japanese television after just one airing, its "analog serenity" resonated globally. It garnered over 4 million views on YouTube within months, primarily from international audiences, before being rediscovered by the Japanese public as a "healing" anthem. The limited run of 15,000 units sold out rapidly, with a portion of proceeds donated to "more trees", a conservation society founded by composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Anti-Termite Tech and Legacy
The Touch Wood SH-08C was so authentic to its material that the sales package reportedly included anti-termite spray for bi-weekly maintenance. Beyond its commercial success, the project proved that "slow" and "quiet" content could cut through digital noise. Today, the original instrument is preserved at the Daisetsu Mori-no Garden in Hokkaido, serving as a permanent tourist attraction and a symbol of the industry's shift toward craft-based storytelling.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Docomo possessed a distinctive 'Touch Wood' phone, crafted from natural wood, offering a tangible connection to the environment.
Category
Mobile phone advertising typically emphasized technical specifications, sleek design, or urban lifestyle, often overlooking material origins.
Customer
The audience desired products that offered a unique, tactile connection to nature, seeking harmony between technology and the environment.
Culture
A cultural shift towards valuing natural materials, craftsmanship, and sustainable practices created resonance for authentic products.
Company
Docomo possessed a distinctive 'Touch Wood' phone, crafted from natural wood, offering a tangible connection to the environment.
Category
Mobile phone advertising typically emphasized technical specifications, sleek design, or urban lifestyle, often overlooking material origins.
Strategy:
Elevate product material truth into a harmonious narrative, connecting technology with nature's inherent beauty.
Customer
The audience desired products that offered a unique, tactile connection to nature, seeking harmony between technology and the environment.
Culture
A cultural shift towards valuing natural materials, craftsmanship, and sustainable practices created resonance for authentic products.
Strategy:
Elevate product material truth into a harmonious narrative, connecting technology with nature's inherent beauty.
Strategy Technique
Build a Brand Myth
The campaign crafted a captivating narrative around the phone's natural wood construction, linking it directly to the forest. This created a powerful origin story, elevating the product beyond mere features to embody harmony between technology and nature.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Entertain the crowd
The campaign built an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine in a forest, creating a mesmerizing chain reaction and melodic tune. This captivating spectacle engaged viewers, demonstrating the phone's natural essence through an entertaining visual and auditory experience.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its ingenious Production Design and the mesmerizing Sound Design derived directly from it. The integration of complex mechanical artistry with the natural environment creates a unique sensory experience.
The elaborate, functional Rube Goldberg-style wooden mechanism, perfectly integrated into the forest landscape, demonstrates extraordinary conceptualization and execution in production design, turning a natural setting into a musical instrument.
The entire musical score is created live by the wooden ball interacting with the various elements of the custom-built machine, showcasing ingenious sound design that is intrinsically linked to the physical construction and narrative.
