"MERRY CHRISTMAS"

VODAFONE's NFT for the worlds first SMS

Project Description

On December 3, 1992, the world’s first SMS was sent over the Vodafone network. Vodafone employee Richard Jarvis received the message at a Christmas party: „Merry Christmas” were the words that started a revolution in modern communications. On December 21, 2021, Vodafone sold this historic SMS at a unique auction, collecting 150'000$ for charity.

Categories

Direction
Film
Motion Design
Web3

Year

2021

The transmission of the short message almost three decades ago was a key moment in the history of mobile communications technology. It was only seven years after the first SMS was sent over the Vodafone network that it finally became possible to send short messages over multiple networks. This accelerated their use and popularity enormously.

The sale of this NFT was conducted in Paris with the help of the first independent auction house in France, Aguttes. Vodafone donated all proceeds from the auction to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. 

This unique NFT comes along with: A screen produced by “Infinite Objects” immortalizing the historical event in telecommunications history by showing the animation of the phone and the code. In addition, a replica of the code (in PDF and TXT form) used to send the original “text message” as well as a certificate of authenticity signed by Vodafone’s Group CEO, Nick Read.

Misch Strotz (neon marketing technology): “From idea to completion, this unique campaign took us only three (intense) weeks. It was both a marathon and a sprint with a global company (Vodafone), a cutting-edge topic (NFTs) and a lot of actors involved in different countries.” 

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Lead Agency: 361drx.com
in collaboration with:
nōted - a story studio
neon marketing technologies
TIJO Studio

© TIJO Studio