Why FCB Zürich Turned Maggots & Tears Into The Alphabet

With immediate effect, young people no longer need smileys or abbreviations such as LOL and ROFL when they want to add emotions to their text messages. This has been made possible by the MTV Mobile Emography Project. 

With a Facebook app – the centerpiece of the project – developed by FCB Zürich, users can add the precise emotion they want to express to every written word. It was previously necessary to write “Yes :)” or “Yes :(” in order to illustrate our feelings. Thanks to Emography, everyone is now able to express their current emotions clearly with just a simple word.

This is how it works: A special font has been created for each of the eight basic human emotions. For example, if the user is angry, they can write sentences with a colored middle-finger gesture. To show that they are happy, they can create sentences with kisses. If the user is sad, the words consist of tears. The user selects the recipient in the Facebook app, writes the sentence, picks the desired emotion, and sends the message to the recipient in the form of a video message. 

With this idea, MTV mobile demonstrates not just technical know-how as the first Swiss provider of a dedicated text message service, but also gives the young target group an effective tool with which to communicate all emotions. And one that is also great fun to use. 

MTV mobile is the telecommunications service provider for the young generation, and is part of the Swiss Sunrise Group. MTV Mobile’s range includes various telecommunications services, such as mobile telecommunication services, cell phones, TV, and Internet.

Credits

Client: MTV Mobile / Sunrise Communications AG

Senior MarCom Manager Segment Young & Youth : Cristian Vaccariello

Senior Proposition Manager Segment Young & Youth: Martin Hufschmid

Marketing Manager Viacom International: Michael Francken

Marketing Manager Viacom Switzerland: Sanja Ruggiero

Agency: FCB Zurich & WW

Executive Creative Directors: Dennis Lück, Luis Dias

Senior Copy Writer: Sören Schröder

Senior Art Director: Marcin Baba

Client Service Diretor: Mark Becher

Partners

App Programming: Drei Elemente, Germany

Film Production: WirzFraefelPaal, Zurich

Producer: Nina Wirth, Stefan Fraefel

Post Production: Stefan Grandjean

Director: Adrian Wisard