First On Twitter

We needed to position Twitter as something new and superior to both social media and paid news – it was a social news network that gave you unbiased and real time news straight from the horses’ mouth. We researched and visualised 3 incredible stories that broke on Twitter first and illustrated how they unfolded in real time. The media placements of the work were selected based on it’s high commuter traffic, like bus shelters where consumers are likely to be on social media while waiting. The work presents Twitter as a culturally agnostic platform, best demonstrated by being the medium of choice to publish news first as it happens in

3 different continents.

We visualised 3 incredible stories that broke on Twitter first and how they unfolded in real time.

1. Web developer @dtan alerted the world to the devastating earthquake that struck Sichuan province in China hours before the U.S. Geological Survey was able to comment.

2. After hearing the rare sound of helicopters, Abbottabad IT consultant Sohaib Athar unknowingly live-tweeted the U.S. Navy S.E.A.L raid that resulted in Osama bin Laden's death.

3. Freelance photographer Jesal Parshotam was waiting outside St Mary's Hospital in London for nine hours when he noticed cars carrying the royal couple arriving at the back of the hospital.

Execution of the project proved challenging as we had to look for various representations of "sound" to make it relevant to the stories. Also we chose the illustration route as it will allow for more control and made the execution of the idea stand out.

Awarded 7 Golds and 1 Silver at One Show 2016.