The Ping-Pong Hangout
- Brand
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Hook
Objective
Google had just opened the Hangouts API and needed agency creatives — the people who actually commission and build campaigns — to see it as a real creative platform rather than a social feature to ignore. Rather than pitching the API directly, Google leaned on something agency people already respond to: beating each other.
Solution
A player heads to creativesandbox.com/pingpong, gets a quick rundown of the controls, then picks a paddle and the agency they're playing for. From there they're dropped into a live Google+ Hangout face to face with a real opponent, their webcam feed doubling as the controller: leaning left or right slides the paddle across their side of the table. Every match is a straight game of Pong against a visible human rival, and a win doesn't just end the round — it adds a point to that agency's spot on the public leaderboard. During Advertising Week, the casual pickup games gave way to a bracketed tournament between agencies, with the open game staying live the rest of the time for anyone to challenge in.
- 1
The player finds the game at creativesandbox.com/pingpong, part of Google's Creative Sandbox showcase, pitched as a game of ping-pong played with the player's head instead of a controller.
- 2
Play happens inside a live Google+ Hangout: the player signs in with Google+ and starts or joins a Hangout with the ping-pong app loaded, putting their webcam feed into the game itself.
- 3
Onboarding runs the player through an instructions screen explaining that head movement, read by the Hangout's face tracking, drives the paddle, then has them pick a paddle and select the agency they represent, so every match is attributed to that shop.
- 4
Once setup is complete, the player is matched against an opponent — a real person on the other side of the Hangout video call.
- 5
During the rally the player leans and moves their head left and right in front of the webcam; the paddle tracks the head, and the player returns the ball by lining it up — no keyboard or mouse involved.
- 6
Players can call out friends and rivals from agencies anywhere in the world and challenge them to a match directly.
- 7
After a match, results feed an agency ranking, showing the player's agency where it stands against the others.
- 8
Alongside the always-open public game, invited agencies also compete in a bracketed Ping-Pong Hangout tournament staged during Advertising Week.
