Title | HEARING RESCUE |
Brand | THAI HEALTH PROMOTION FOUNDATION AND DEAF ASSOCIATION OF BANGKOK |
Product / Service | THAI HEALTH’S WELLBEING PROJECT |
Category | A03. OTC Products/Devices |
Entrant | BBDO BANGKOK, THAILAND |
Idea Creation | BBDO BANGKOK, THAILAND |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Suthisak Sucharittanonta | BBDO Bangkok | Chairman & Chief Creative Officer |
Anuwat Nitipanont | BBDO Bangkok | Deputy Chief Creative Officer |
Nattawut Sittiwaraphan | BBDO Bangkok | Creative Director |
Kanchat Chotewattanakul | BBDO Bangkok | Senior Copywriter |
Uraiwan Pongthavornsawat | BBDO Bangkok | Senior Copywriter |
Kroekkiat Chanthakitnukul | BBDO Bangkok | Art Director |
Sarina Pornnimit | BBDO Bangkok | Art Director |
We wanted to turn this unawareness at night into extreme caution for the hearing-impaired. So, we created Hearing Rescue, the world’s first hearing aid to rescue wearers from dangers at night. It was developed from a normal hearing aid that has never been used during sleep. By wearing it on a wrist, the night mode will be activated. Built-in sound recognition will detect sound of dangers in different levels from minimum of 60 decibels and patterns such as sounds of siren, barking dog, and fire alarm. Then the device will vibrate to warn the wearer to respond to any dangers immediately.
To create Hearing Rescue, we set up a crowdfunding project to raise money. Within 3 months from October – December 2016, we could gather from public 100,000 USD in total. After production, Hearing Rescue was officially launched in March 2017 and distributed to our target: people with hearing impairment and hearing aid specialists.
Hearing Rescue devices were distributed nationwide to our target group: people with hearing impairment and hearing aid specialists. Shortly after the launch, it became a buzz. Not only could it reach the target successfully but also expand engagement to ordinary people: relatives of those who have hearing problem. 98% of those who tried Hearing Rescue reported that they felt more safe and can sleep without constant anxiety. Over one fifth of the hearing-impaired across the country have contacted to pre-order Hearing Rescue.
According to statistics collected by Ministry of Social Development and Human Society in 2016, there are 321,063 people with hearing impairment in Thailand. So, we conducted a further survey in this group and found that 100% of them take off hearing aid at night. Moreover, 35% of them said that they experienced accidents at night because they could not hear any sounds. We saw this problem as an opportunity. Since the hearing-impaired won't change the behaviour of taking off the hearing aid when they sleep, we decided to change the hearing aid instead. We transformed a normal hearing aid into a smart wristband.