Hearing loss disconnects people from the ones they love, leading to feelings of isolation from the world around them, but there’s a solution. That’s the concept artfully brought to life in an affecting new ad (entitled “Connection”), created by agency Cactus for Cochlear Americas, the Lone Tree, CO-based leader in implantable hearing solutions.
Click here to watch the Cactus-created Cochlear ad.
“Our desire was to develop a piece of ‘art’ that expressed the benefits and emotions associated with the Cochlear device,” Norm Shearer, Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Cactus says. “We wanted to do it in a way that would be different from other medical device advertising, and get to the heart of the consumers who need them.”
That was achieved in large part that to the stunning watercolor style animation that visually depicts what it is like to lose one's hearing over time.
Inspired by real patients that have said their post-surgery world is like returning to color after living in black and white, the spot begins in splendid color, with the sound of birds, music and conversation from an outdoor barbeque filling the air. But the tone quickly shifts: Colors quickly desaturate, pulling one hearing loss suffer into a shadowy world, only to re-emerge to full-color thanks to a Cochlear implant.
Cochlear’s Director of Patient and Consumer Marketing Jaime Stanley notes that while over 5 percent of the world’s population is deaf or hard of hearing, less than 10 percent of individuals who could benefit from a Cochlear Implant actually have one.
“Cochlear wanted to find a way to connect the impact that their products can have on someone's life by showing the effects in a way that anyone can understand,” Stanley says. “The final spot is something we all feel proud of and it has created a great buzz across the organization and from across the globe.”
