9/12: The Untold Story of Reconnecting New York
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What happened on 9/11 is forever etched into our memories. Unknown to many, however, is what happened the next day—on 9/12. Just one block from Ground Zero, thousands of Verizon employees risked their lives and ran toward a crisis to help reconnect New York.
So on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we honored those brave men and women from 2001, in a one-day, real-time virtual event, exclusively for Verizon employees.
To deliver the virtual experience, we chose the form of communication they had to use in 2001 — texting. We created a multimedia platform out of existing phone applications, leveraging every native tool within a text conversation. An invitation went out for users to join the event on 9/12 and throughout the day, participants were sent new texts every hour, at the times of day the events actually happened twenty years ago, putting them in the shoes of the employees who were there.
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Client: Verizon
Product: Brand/Internal
Product: Brand/Internal
Production: Unit 9
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Existing apps create a new, built-in immersive storytelling format
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Leveraging every native tool within a text conversation, viewers received a series of personal,
poignant employee stories at the times of day they actually happened on September 12th, 2001.
poignant employee stories at the times of day they actually happened on September 12th, 2001.
9/12 Interactive Timeline
Design & Mobile Website
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The MMS experience was complemented by a mobile website that showcased a 3D map of Manhattan marking the key locations for our stories.
It included an AR experience of the Verizon building, galleries of pictures taken by our employees the day of, a 360º view of the renovated lobby and short snippets of other stories. All of this with a 2000s UI look & feel, and accurate dynamic lighting that changed depending on what time of day our story took place.
Honoring the employees of the past. Impacting the employees of today.
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With +300k text messages sent on the day of the event, Verizon employees from all across the country joined and shared in this uniquely personal and collective experience, honoring their colleagues who were there in 2001.
