Hearing loss within the young target demographic has in recent years become a growing problem. Youngsters listen to a lot of music, mostly using headphones,at increasingly high volumes. The result is 1.1 billion youngsters are now at risk and need to be warned and coached on how to make listening safe again. While this is an important message, it also is one most of youngsters do not want to listen to. We decided to make them by enlisting the world's largest ear: Shazam For the first time ever, On March 3rd, International Ear Care Day, we turned Shazam deaf.
Result
esults and EffectivenessIn just one day, at zero cost, the campaign was seen and experienced by 7 million people across the globe. The WHO achieved a + 450% increase in visits to their International Ear Care Day websites vs the previous year. But most importantly, an audience who didn't even want to hear about ear care, started to listen.Creative ExecutionShazam's song identification 'mobile' screen usually shows the word 'Listening', but on March 3rd, an unexpected message - presented in the form of a native banner - appeared on the app: 'Listening, but hardly hearing'. Then an additional powerful message was shared with users in a banner: 'Over 43 million people between the ages of 12-35 are not able to enjoy this song' when clicked, users were redirected to the WHO's website to learn more and get tips about how to protect their hearing and make listening safeInsights, Strategy and the IdeaShazam is one of the most popular apps with youngsters today. Why? Because it has become one of the major access points to listening to the music they want and tweaking their playlists. Smartphones are today to Millenials what Walkmans were once to the kids of the 80's. It is the predominant way they listen to music. So we decided that if our campaign was to be successful it would need to reach them in the most contextually relevant way: on their smartphone on their absolutely most favorite music app right when they are about to listen to music.