For decades, Canon has been underestimated as “just a camera and printer company” when in reality, Canon is a world-class innovator with more patents than tech behemoths like Sony, LG and Apple. Our goal was to shift the perception of Canon, redefining the brand as a world-class leader in innovation. We chose the world's largest and most influential tech event, CES, as our stage to show tech consumers, businesses, and press what Canon's cutting-edge technologies were capable of.

LOVE Park wasn’t just a city plaza where skaters gathered. It was holy ground, considered by many as the greatest skate spot in history, shaping skateboarding in Philadelphia, and around the world. Sadly, in 2016 the original LOVE Park was demolished, leaving skaters with nothing but its legacy.

We decided to bring the historic skate spot—documented extensively through Canon cameras in the past—back to life through one of Canon’s latest innovations. Using Canon’s groundbreaking volumetric video technology, we made up-and-coming skateboarders’ dreams come true by digitally resurrecting LOVE Park through a first-of-its-kind mixed reality skate session, and made it possible to experience LOVE Park like never before: up-close and from every angle imaginable.

Then, we told our story at CES, through an interactive timeline that showcased LOVE Park’s glory days, demise, and of course, its spectacular resurrection, using iconic footage, quotes and interviews with renowned skaters and photographers.

We sourced thousands of photos and archival clips from skateboarding legends and the skateboarding community to faithfully recreate LOVE Park, considering everything from cracks in the pavement to the surrounding architecture. We then consulted with professional skate park builders to create replicas of LOVE Park’s most iconic obstacles, ensuring that our skaters had the most authentic experience possible.

The skate session inside of Canon’s 360° green screen studio was captured by over 100 special, synchronized 4K cameras that generated live, 3D volumetric footage, allowing LOVE Park to be seen like never before. Users could control the camera viewpoint to see tricks up close, and from every view imaginable.

Finally, we selected the best tricks from hours of volumetric footage and brought them to life at CES. Teams from four countries spent over 120 hours to design and develop an interactive editorial-style timeline that told LOVE Park’s incredible story.

“Long Live LOVE” was loved. With over 240,000 online visitors during the first days of CES, an engagement rate of 95%, over 482 million earned media impressions, and over 7.9 million social media impressions, Canon quickly became one of the most talked-about brands at CES 2021. The media engaged with coverage in over 35 publications, including several major tech and business outlets like Engadget, Techradar, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.

After CES, the experience lives on as an independent website so users from across the globe can keep the legacy of LOVE Park alive, and experience some of Canon’s most innovative technology for themselves.

“Long Live LOVE” garnered interest from some of the world’s biggest entertainment properties that are hoping to use this groundbreaking technology, shattering the perception of Canon as “just a camera and printer company,” and redefining them as a world-class innovator and creative enabler.