by Simon Daish
Contesting two categories, the 2019 TATA Trickshot Challenge has been nominated for Best Brand Activation of the Year and Best Sponsorship of a Sport, Team, Individual or Event in Asia.
On each day of the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, some of the world’s most recognisable players attempted to replicate and even surpass World and Olympic champion Ma Long’s trickshot numbers in a series of videos launched prior to the big event.
The 2019 TATA Trickshot Challenge was launched as a sponsorship activation for one of the major sponsors at the World Championships: TATA Wooden Door, a Chinese wooden door brand based in China. The goal of the campaign was to create brand awareness for TATA and its products, as well as promote the World Championships through fan engagement posts across the ITTF’s social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Weibo.
“We are very pleased that the 2019 TATA Trickshot Challenge has been nominated for two prestigious awards. The campaign drove plenty of positive fan engagement in the build-up to and during our World Championships, effectively raising awareness of both the event and major sponsor. This nomination is also further proof of how we continue to break boundaries through our digital content marketing strategy at the ITTF.” – Matt Pound, ITTF Marketing Director
The ITTF Foundation is also included on the list of nominees for the Best Sports CSR Initiative of the Year award, in relation to its project Table Tennis for NepALL.
“It is an honour for the ITTF Foundation to be nominated for the SPIA Awards. The selected project TT 4NepALL has contributed to the integration of people with a disability in Nepal with a special emphasis on rural areas. I still have very nice memories of celebrating the World Table Tennis Day to launch this project in April 2016, it was a special moment after a big earthquake had hit them. Through this project and with the support of the UN, we could help to rebuild the National Para Table Tennis Training Center and provide weekly table tennis sessions. Now we can see a flourishing PTT scene in Nepal.” – Leandro Olvech, ITTF Foundation Director
Established in May 2018 and having celebrated the inauguration of their headquarters in Leipzig, Germany, in September 2019, the ITTF Foundation’s mission is to create a better world through table tennis.
Their six active programmes – TT Dream Building, TT 4ALL, NeTT Working, Ping Pong Diplomacy, TT Legacy and TT 4Health – are all aimed at building a brighter future for global communities through the power and beauty of the sport.