When the Singapore government imposed a ban on firecrackers in March 1972, they put an end to a tradition for millions of Singaporean Chinese.

We introduced Singtel Firecracker - the world’s first co-created firecracker with mobile phones. To begin, people just had to visit the web app on singtelfirecracker.com with their mobile device and tap start. Then get their friends and family to join in by scanning the QR code. Chain the phones up and they were all set to go. Now, they just light it up.

Sequentially, each mobile phone plays a 5-second moving image of a lit up firecracker. With precise calculations in timing, the web app was programmed so mobile phones were able to anticipate when the clip on the previous phone was ending and when to trigger the firecracker on their own screens. This helped Singtel Firecrackers achieve a seamless, continuous roar of a real firecracker.

The Singtel Firecracker web app was published in late January 2016, weeks before the first day of Lunar New Year and was live for the entire two-week duration of the celebrations. It was made globally accessible because a large percentage of Singaporeans work or study abroad and we wanted them to be part of the celebrations too. A promotional film was aired on national television and, online as well as in-store to create awareness and hype.

The Singtel Firecracker was a big hit with Singaporeans. Within the first three most culturally significant days of Lunar New Year, the web app registered 38,100 site visits, 23,000 unique firecracker chains were created and 106,000 people participated. These engagement levels proved massive in a city as tiny as Singapore.

It wasn’t long before Chinese people outside of Singapore were creating their own Singtel Firecracker chains too. A quick scan of IP addresses revealed that people from as faraway as Germany were engaging with the web app.

Over two weeks, people shared thousands of homemade videos of their Singtel Firecracker experience on social media, earning a total of 1.2 million online impressions.