Colgate, the official smile partner of the AFL/AFLW, partnered with sports equipment company Steeden and agency VMLY&R to develop a project titled ‘Hear Gear – The Sound Of An Equal Playing Field’: a protective piece of headgear equipped with specialised technology to assist deaf and hard of hearing players with hearing implants on the field.
The initiative saw Colgate team up with sports equipment brand Steeden and Yeronga Devils Footy Club to design, test, produce and promote the head gear to help create a more equitable environment for hearing impaired athletes.
Traditional Aussie Rules and even rugby headgear is designed to sit tight against the skull to protect the wearer by absorbing impact. But deaf and hard of hearing athletes find that this design also absorbs the vibrations that carry sound to their hearing implants and thus struggle to communicate with teammates, referees and crowds. The new Colgate ‘Hear Gear’ uses a new mould with a redesigned padding that both accommodates and channels sound to the hearing implant.
Colgate funded the first production run of Hear Gear through sports apparel company Steeden – which owns the design – with the objective of ensuring more AFL players are able to enjoy the sport on a level playing field.
The project and the marketing creative was developed along with Yeronga Devils Footy Club, Jamie Howell, Hannah Gray and the team at Steeden.
The linked campaign showcasing the product and the project was spearheaded by a 90-second hero spot, backed by a 30-second cut down and supporting social media content as well as PR which launched from 18 April across brand and partner platforms.
Hear Gear rolled out to leverage spiking Aussie Rules interest around the early stages of the 2023 season and the campaign featured Jamie Howell: a Deaf QAFLW athlete playing for Brisbane’s Yeronga Devil’s.
“Colgate believes that everyone deserves a future to smile about. To realise that promise we’ve worked with VMLY&R and Steeden to develop the Hear Gear project, as a truly meaningful expression of our ‘Smile Strong’ platform,” Colgate-Palmolive ANZ Marketing Director Anthony Crewes. “The project is inspired by Jamie’s real- life experience and could have wide-reaching effects in Australia. Now, we have moved from telling stories to actively creating them!”
VMLY&R AUNZ CCO Paul Nagy added: “We are so fortunate to work with a brand that doesn’t just talk about optimism, they do things in the real world to create it. It’s a connected brand really having a positive impact. Hear Gear is a simple tool that gives more Australians the ability to enjoy sport just like everybody else, and I’m proud to have been a part of it.”
The campaign was created for a Colgate client team led by Yves Briantias (Vice President Marketing, APAC), Lyndon Morant (Marketing Director IMC), Anthony Crewes (Marketing Director, ANZ), Kate Hickey (Associate Director Marketing – Oral Care, ANZ), Maria Casas (IBE Lead, ANZ) and Daniela Bosso (Senior Brand Manager, ANZ) by a group at agency VMLY&R which included Chief Creative Officers Paul Nagy and Ali Tilling, Group Executive Creative Director Jake Barrow, Senior Art Director Bryce Waters, Senior Copywriter Blair Panozza, Managing Partner Katherine Chen, Group Account Director Elaine Loke, Account Director Sinead Kelly, Executive Producer Rachel Rider, Senior Content Producer Sarah Jane Sands, Integrated Producer Maddison Fricker, Lead Editor & Colourist Alek Janev, Design Director Elliot Owen and Technical Director Luke Torney.
The production company was Taxi Film/Vault with Senior Producer Simone Mackie, Brisbane Director / DOP Tony Prescott, Melbourne Director Opie Sayner-Hassall, Melbourne DOP Cesar Salmeron, Stills Photography Chris Crawford and Retoucher Mark Sterne. While the sound studio was Ran Run. Media was handled by Wavemaker and PR by Inside Out PR.
Comment
It was back in April 2020 that Colgate was unveiled as an official AFL and AFLW sponsor – becoming the leagues’ Official Smile and as a supporting partner of the NAB AFL Draft and NAB AFL Auskick program.
At the time the deal was unveiled, the brand stated that at heart of the partnership was ‘a shared belief that all Australians deserve a future they can smile about, and Colgate’s support of the AFL provides its players, from grassroots to the elite levels of the game with the courage and inspiration to create positive action in their lives’.
The launch of the Hear Gear project is part of ‘The Sound of a Smile,’ a campaign launched in September 2022 by Colgate and VMLY&R to raise awareness of the importance of inclusion and belonging in sport.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.