From Hashtag to App in 24 Hours

From hashtag to app in 24 hours. Donald Trump made himself look a fool again and we couldn’t help but make light of the situation… in less than 24 hours

]Harold Wilson famously said, ‘A week in politics is a long time’ and the same is certainly true for both the tech and marketing industries today. So when Donald Trump had a ‘senior moment’ on Wednesday and posted an unfinished, partial-gibberish tweet last thing before bedtime it got us to wondering if we could turn around an app based on the trending hashtag; #covfefe that exploded from his gaff almost before he realised his mistake and discovered the ‘Delete Tweet’ button. Could we get it conceived, designed and submitted in 24 hours? It was certainly worth giving it a try.

Our experience in building sticker apps and the fact that this event was being borne out on social platforms around the world made it an easy call and after some quick show and tell of quick-witted memes and Urban Dictionary definitions of covfefe we’d seen being shared all over the place we headed for our desks determined to put together some slick designs around the newest word on everyone’s lips (is it pronounced cov-fee-fee or cove-fay-fay?)

We wanted the app to include some contemporary references as well as nods towards Trump’s bafflingly successful election campaign to produce a more sophisticated array of sticker designs for people to use in texts to their friends and we were particularly pleased with the way our Game of Thrones parody turned out. On the other hand, we were all a little sad to see a Harambe themed sticker not make the cut but we all agreed, incorporating the current Leader of the free World was offensive enough without mocking a dead primate.

And there we had it, our final designs for the Covfefe Sticker App. Just some screenshots and copy needed for the Appstore and then for the build and submission. (The most time-consuming part) Apple, mercifully, were very quick to approve and by Thursday afternoon the app was discoverable in the store.

Sure, Trumpy McTrumpface had awoken from his slumber and removed the hilarious spelling mistake ever to grace the Twittersphere and the hashtag was no longer trending but that didn’t matter. As a digital agency with many clients to please across a multitude of expectations, deliverables and timeframes it’s important to occasionally work on something together that’s just for us, that we can flip in no time, flexing our creative muscles and working together in new ways across teams that don’t always necessarily work together.

On Tuesday ‘covfefe’ didn’t mean anything to anyone, by Thursday it was available in the app store. On the eve of an election Wilson’s mantra has never been more apt. Yes, a week is indeed a long time in politics, but 24 hours is a long time in tech – just ask our sleep-deprived designers.

You can download Covfefe Stickers for iMessage here.

 
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puzzlelondon

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