O2 projects decodable art celebrating exclusive Nothing partnership

O2 moves into NFT space with VCCP-created campaign

By Creative Salon

05 September 2022

O2 is launching a new integrated campaign, together with its agency of record VCCP London and Havas Media UK (part of Havas Media Group UK) to celebrate its exclusive partnership with Nothing, a London-based company removing the barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future.

Cementing its reputation as the UK’s most innovative telecommunications brand, O2’s latest collaboration is a celebration of how tech can be more than simply functional, but that it can be art.

To promote this tech-forward partnership, O2 has collaborated with creative designer and coder Anderion De Castro, who has created four exclusive art pieces which hero beautiful coded designs which if cracked will reveal a mystery message. Bringing the powerful partnership to life, the bespoke coded artwork has been created incorporating the O2 logo within the design. The new campaign, celebrates O2 as the only UK network to give tech-curious Brits exclusive access to the new Phone (1), allowing them to tap into the raw beauty of innovative and forward-thinking technology.

Placing the partnership at the heart of the nation’s biggest cities; London, Birmingham, and Manchester, the artwork will be beamed across the UK in a guerrilla projection domination campaign. The innovative media strategy and planning approach devised by Havas Media UK ensures O2’s exclusive partnership is prominent in high footfall locations per city to maximise audience exposure in key evening entertainment hubs.

For the first time ever, O2 also enters the NFT (non-fungible tokens) space, as the bespoke, decodable, virtual art also doubles as an NFT, which will be made available to the first people who are successful at cracking hidden codes in the artwork. The unique Phone (1) NFT will be viewable on Nothing’s NFT gallery.

The new Phone (1) is on a mission to bring joy back to smartphones and refine the Android experience. The new phone has a sleek design, and transparent phone case to reveal the inner workings of the phone and its eye-catching glyph system. Powerfully fast, reliable and built with responsibly sourced materials, the Phone (1) is the perfect partner to demonstrate that O2 is committed to giving its customers only the best service and a first-class product experience.

As part of the media strategy and approach devised by Havas UK to be prominent in gaming spaces, the innovative campaign will also feature in DOOH and across social channels including Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and across YouTube, Twitch, and games such as, Paladins, SMITE and Rogue Company. The creative asset has been designed like the distinctive Nothing (1) Glyph which will flash like a 3,2,1 countdown. The artwork will take the shape of the design and then begin its animated loop. Activating in Roblox too, O2 has created a unique network of 150+ games, where in-game DOOH billboards will push the partnership through a targeted in-game environment.

Simon Valcarel, Marketing Director, Virgin Media O2 said: “At O2 we’re passionate about delivering only the most exciting and innovative offerings, and our purpose is to ‘reimagine connectivity.’ We’re incredibly proud to be able to share this disruptive new campaign with our tech-obsessed O2 customers, by focusing on what connectivity enables and what it means to people. We’ve created unique code-infused digital artwork, that’s doubling up as an NFT, and projected it across the UK’s biggest cities in an attention grabbing, creative campaign that’s been purposefully built to catch the eye, steal the nation’s curiosity and drive intrigue through longer dwelling disruptive media channels.”

Jonny Parker and Chris Birch, Executive Creative Directors at VCCP London said: “Smartphones are everywhere. They are omnipresent in our lives but have become so common that they’re mostly just overlooked by all of us. Our new campaign with Nothing rips up this concept, and instead highlights how O2 is constantly pushing boundaries in order to deliver only the best for its customers. This work was the epitome of us being a challenger agency for challenger brands. This is not your typical trading DR campaign but something totally unique that has never been done before at O2 (In game adverts and NFTs). Catch the art if you can, and try to crack the code!”

The integrated campaign from O2 is live from today for two weeks, and O2 worked with UK agency of record, VCCP London, content studio Girl&Bear, and VCCP’s newly launched Product and Service innovation company, Bernadette, to mastermind the new campaign. Media has been planned and executed by Havas Media Group.

Click here for more information about the campaign.

Creative credits:

Client: Virgin Media O2

Advertising agency: VCCP

Creative directors: Johnny Parker & Chris Birch

Creative: Arthur Harry

Creative: Ludo Thomas

Creative: Jenna Balfour

Senior account director: Charlotte Powell

Senior account manager: Matt Isard-McNulty

Planner: Nicholas Pirard

Planning director: Rob Estreitinho