2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenge

With eight billion voice assistants in use around the world by 2023, the future will be voice-first, but that future doesn’t include people with Down syndrome. Google’s voice assistant has the most market share in Canada, yet currently misunderstands about one in every three words of a person with Down syndrome.

Adults with Down syndrome are capable of living independently; they simply require more structure and assistance. Strategies to help them remember to cook, clean, and complete their routines are required; they need more support to be safe. Because of their unique needs, voice assistants would be an invaluable tool, allowing them to set automatic reminders and schedules, build to-do lists, and get easy access to help.

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) asked FCB to help make voice technology more accessible to people with Down Syndrome, and to shift perceptions of a stigmatized community by showing how access to voice technology can lead to life-changing independence.
Insight

Voice technology requires millions of data points (human voices) to perform optimally. Unfortunately, for those with Down syndrome, the small size of their community means these AI systems are lacking the data they need to reliably understand them.

If people with Down syndrome became Google's teachers, using their voices to train Google’s speech recognition model (AI) to understand them, it would make voice technology more inclusive by including people with Down syndrome in creating the solution.

Execution

The “Project Understood” campaign launched during Canadian Down Syndrome Week (November 1-7), with two social videos shedding light on the inaccessibility of voice technology for people with Down syndrome and the impact on their lives. The videos also served as a recruitment tool, mobilizing the community to donate their voices to train Google. The key was to empower the community; to show that people with Down syndrome could have an impact on voice technology, and their own futures.

To recruit this niche audience with only $1,000 in media, the Down syndrome community was targeted organically, knowing the more they engaged, the more the video would be seen by this niche audience. And, for the first time, Down syndrome community groups across North America were enlisted through email and organic social; this in turn led to engagement from more international groups. The campaign became global.

All media drove to Projectunderstood.ca, which was built to be inviting and informative. Qualified participants received a login to enter Chit Chat – an engine for raw data collection and machine learning required to train Google’s AI and voice assistant technology, where participants were served thousands of pre-determined phrases guided by speech pathologists and Google AI scientists. Participants had the flexibility to record phrases over multiple sessions, at their convenience and the Google AI Team partnered in data analysis and platform application.

Results

Earned media both amplified the message and changed perceptions of people with Down syndrome by depicting the community in a new light, advocating for their right to live independently and empowered them as Google’s teachers. A small, marginalized community was showing one of the world’s largest and most technically sophisticated corporations how to change their platform.

“Project Understood” achieved global reach and impact. ROI is incalculable, but on a cost per impression basis, 775,000 impressions per $ spent isn’t bad. Results based on the campaign objectives:
• 826,107 organic reach on Facebook (a 678% increase from the CDSS’s best performing campaign) and 82,995 engagements - with just $1,000 in media
• 30+ countries and 735 Down syndrome organizations answered the global call
• Over 600 members of the Down syndrome community joined the project, submitting over one million phrases to Google’s speech recognition database
• 775 million earned media impressions globally
Google and CDSS presented their research at the UN on March 20th, 2020, calling on all technology companies to make voice technology more accessible.
The full impact of this campaign will be seen in years to come. Project Understood is helping future proof a vulnerable community.

Credits

Client: Canadian Down Syndrome Society
Chair: Ed Casagrande
Interim Executive Director: Laura LaChance
Marketing & Communications Manager: Kristen Halpen
Board Member: Ben Tarr

Partner : Google

Creative Agency: FCB Canada
Chief Creative Officers: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna & Jeff Hilts
Worldwide Creative Partner, EVP: Fred Levron
Associate Creative Director: Elma Karabegovic
Associate Creative Director: Michael Morelli
Associate Creative Director: Marty Hoefkes
Copywriter: Shannon McCarroll
Copywriter: Jason Soy
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Director of Strategy: Eryn LeMesurier
Director of Strategy: Shelagh Hartford
Strategy Coordinator: Audrey Zink
EVP, General Manager: Tracy Little
VP, Managing Director: Tim Welsh
Group Account Director: Blake Connolly
Account Supervisor: Olivia Selbie
Agency Producers: Sarah Michener/Kristine Lippett
VP of Operations: Shandi Horovitch
Project Manager: Cori Pettit
Director, Product and Technology Solutions: John Sime
EVP, Head of Global Innovation: Kris Hoet

PR: Shannon Stephaniuk, Glossy

Production Company: Fuelcontent
Director: Scott Drucker
Line Producer: Sarah Michener
Director of Photography: Scott Drucker & Chet Tilokani
Camera Operator: Scott Drucker & Chet Tilokani
Audio: Nicolas Field
Hair & Make-Up: Neil Silverman
Photographer: Cassidy Clemmer

Editing House: Outsider Editorial
Editor: John Gallagher/Michael Barker
Editorial Assistant: Scott Edwards
Executive Producer: Kristina Anzlinger
Transfer Facility: Alter Ego
Colourist: Eric Whipp
Online Facility: Alter Ego
VFX Artist: Eric Perrella
Alter Ego Producer: Caitlin Schooley-Groneveldt
Music House: Grayson Matthews
Music Track Director: Mark Dominic
Engineer: Vlad Nikolic
Audio Producer: Kelly McCluskey

Speech Pathologist: Amanda Cotton

Website design: Bliss Interactive
Kris Van Wallendael
Julie Post
Dao Tran