Title | PROJECT REVOICE |
Brand | THE ALS ASSOCIATION |
Product / Service | PROJECT REVOICE |
Category | A05. Health & Wellness Tech |
Entrant | BWM DENTSU Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Idea Creation | BWM DENTSU Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
PR | HAYSTAC Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Production | LYREBIRD Montreal, CANADA |
Production 2 | FINCH Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Production 3 | NAKATOMI Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Production 4 | RUMBLE STUDIOS Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Additional Company | SPACE 66 Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Rob Belgiovane | BWM Dentsu | Chief Creative Officer: |
Asheen Naidu | BWM Dentsu | Executive Creative Director |
René Schultz | BWM Dentsu | Senior Art Director |
Oskar Westerdal | BWM Dentsu | Senior Copywriter |
Emma Durlacher | BWM Dentsu | Onscreen Producer |
Eeuwout 'Dutchy' Baart | BWM Dentsu | Design Director |
Jenna Mills | BWM Dentsu | Creative Services Director |
Brett Ludeman | FINCH | Director |
Brendon Killen | BWM Dentsu | Editor |
Jason Carnew | Haystac | National General Manager |
Sarah Littlefair | Haystac | General Manager Haystac Sydney |
Alexandre de Brébisson | Lyrebird | Co-Founder and CEO |
Jose Sotelo | Lyrebird | Co-Founder |
Kundan Kumar | Lyrebird | Co-Founder |
David Dodero | Lyrebird | Head of Operations |
Corey Esse | FINCH | Executive Producer |
Claire Thompson | FINCH | Producer |
Emad Tahtouh | Nakatomi | Managing Director |
Cara Szabo | Nakatomi | Producer |
Hamish Pain | Nakatomi | Engineer |
Patrick Barnes | Nakatomi | Senior Engineer |
Ben Bray | Nakatomi | Interactive Team Lead |
Tone Aston | Rumble Studios | Sound Designer |
Cam Milne | Rumble Studios | Sound Designer |
Sha Toth | Rumble Studios | Post Producer |
Michael Gie | Rumble Studios | Music Producer |
Darren Lim | Rumble Studios | Composer |
Christopher Gregson | Space 66 | General Manager |
Elliot Owen | Space 66 | Creative Director |
Project Revoice is a new voice cloning program that will change the way people live with ALS. Powered by a custom machine learning algorithm that can analyze the unique characteristics (or DNA) of a voice from only 2-3 hours of audio, it creates a complete digital voice clone that’s able to say anything in real-time via text input. This technology gives people with ALS patients the ability to communicate freely and naturally in their own voice, even after they can’t physically speak. Going forward, this program will change the lives of ALS patients and caregivers around the world.
To launch the program we recreated the voice of Pat Quinn, co-founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Since Pat hadn’t banked his voice, our challenge was to build a sufficient databank ourselves from old Ice Bucket interviews and speeches found online, which we manually analyzed, cleaned up and transcribed to create a unified databank for the algorithm to work with. Once the voice had been cloned through Lyrebird technology, we built a custom user interface for Pat to access the voice through his eye-tracking computer. To make this technology available to the wider ALS community, Project Revoice has built an online voice bank where patients can record the voice material necessary to create their own ‘Revoices’. While the technology is currently limited to English-speaking patients only, the ultimate goal of the program is to prevent anyone diagnosed with ALS from losing their voice.
Since launch, Project Revoice has received significant interest from both the ALS community and the general public: Over 900 million earned media reach Over one million organic video views in the first week. By week two over 41 million people had posted, commented shared or mentioned the campaign. Over 680 articles written globally $9.8 million estimated earned PR value. Over 500 patients joined the program in the first month alone.
Project Revoice is a new voice cloning program that gives people with ALS the ability to communicate freely and naturally in their own voice, even after they can’t physically speak. To launch the program we recreated the voice of Pat Quinn, co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge, and captured the moment when he finally spoke again in his own voice. Pat’s inspiring and heart-wrenching story was told in an online content film that got worldwide attention.
Ever since the Ice Bucket Challenge raised over $115 million dollars for the ALS Association, the ALS/MND community has been eager to see breakthroughs that can improve their quality of life. With Project Revoice, we created an inspiring continuation of the Ice Bucket story, one that has a direct and tangible impact on the day-to-day lives of thousands of sufferers. By launching the program with a famous ALS advocate known for – arguably – the biggest story in ALS Association history, we rallied support and engagement both within the community and beyond, inspiring patients across the world to join the program to receive their own Revoice.