Winner of multiple awards including The One Show Gold Pencil and Clio Gold

A story that’s never been told, in a format that’s never been used before: text messages. In 2001 it was the most innovative way to communicate, and now in 2020, it’s the most personal. The 1:1 nature of a text gave us a meaningful platform to share the emotional stories that emerged in the days after. With over 30 Verizon employees from 2001 interviewed, a timeline was established. Every text documenting a moment, an action or a story delivered at the time they actually happened 20 years ago on September 12th.

We invited users to step into the timeline of 9/12, in a one-day, real-time immersive documentary that puts you in the shoes of the Verizon employees who sprang into action on September 12th. Eleven personal stories are told through MMS native content such as immersive phone calls that reenact historical moments , 360º interactive maps of downtown Manhattan, and AR “before-and-after” filters. It’s a nod to the basic tech of 2001, while featuring the cutting-edge mobile experiences of today—a story about the past, with a modern twist.

Because this had never been done before, we had to problem solve how we could simultaneously send out mass amounts of text messages with high volume content. For the first time ever, we used Twilio-driven SMS technology to create an interactive narrative, making careful tweaks throughout production to ensure content was delivered at the right time and in the right order to remain historically accurate. AR and WebGL were also used to create the 3D scenes and buildings for users to explore and to visualize the extent of the structural damage to the Verizon headquarters.

Agency: Unit 9

Client: Verizon