World Table Tennis Teams Up with Superunion Asia
The World Table Tennis association has teamed up with Superunion Asia to develop a new creative strategy in an effort to increase viewership. The sporting body for table tennis is taking a more strategic approach to its marketing going into the new year. Consulting the creative agency Superunion Asia, the World Table Tennis association hopes to showcase the sport in a completely new dimension, and thus better capture the excitement and skill of the game.
The table tennis viewership in Asia is soaring, and the WTT are seeking to optimize their new found popularity with the help of creative agency, Superunion Asia. ©djimendezhdez/Pixabay
The creative brief given to Superunion Asia was clear: develop and implement a new medium for watching table tennis matches with the goal to expand the viewership of the sport. With this objective came plenty of caveats, not least the technical implications of developing new camera angles to be used in the game. One of the first recommendations from Superunion Asia is for the implementation of a ball-tracking camera that would enhance the energy and speed of the viewing experience.
Ultimately, the creative agency Superunion Asia has been appointed to develop a new identity for table tennis around the world. Objectively this is expected to capture new audiences, create new branding opportunities, provide the sales unit with more revenue vectors across their product space, and make table tennis a far more attractive proposition for partners when considering where to spend their budgets.
The World Table Tennis association is a relatively new venture. The WTT was created as a sub-organisation of the International Table Tennis Federations to act as the Asian arm of the federation. Following the successful launch of the organization in Macau last year, the group has secured a fresh round of funding and is looking to expand the quality of its creative activities.
Superunion Asia Seeking to Reposition Table Tennis
The International Table Tennis Federation recognizes that the sport is only taken seriously as a competitive pursuit in relatively few countries. Their mission since last year has been to change this painful truth and bring about a new generation of fans to the sport. By hiring a talented creative agency, the WTT will be able to quickly position themselves in a new way and become more central to the sports fan viewing repertoire.
One possibility that has been brought forward in the early planning stages of the project is to showcase the matches from the ball’s point of view. The idea behind this initiative is to bring the pace and excitement of table tennis more into the perspective of the viewer. Also, with this close-to-the-action shot, it will be much easier to comprehend the skill and reaction speeds of the players as they rally the ball. Furthermore, the identity design will enable the photographic style to resemble the focus players give in the first-person perspective on the ball as it travels up and down the table.
With 56 million fans around the world, the WTT has quickly become a major player in viewing volumes when stacked up against other major sports. China consumes more table tennis than any other nation, and their 1 billion-plus population is hooked on the elite level of the game. High-profile matches often receive millions of unique viewers, and the number has only been increasing since the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics.
The soaring popularity of table tennis around the world has not gone unnoticed by major brands seeking lucrative advertising opportunities in the space. Coca-Cola and Tata are two newcomers that are now established partners of the WTT events across the country. The international outlook is growing at a formidable rate too, and in the US, a company called Liebherr has signed an exclusive sponsorship package on the OTT product.
All eyes will again be on the WTT this week as the Cup Finals begin in Singapore. Matches will be played at the OCBC Arena between December 4 – 7.
