StorySign - Powered by Huawei AI
Huawei
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
FCB Inferno
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Owen Lee Creative Director Martin McAllister Senior Copywriter Ben Usher Senior Art Director Rob Farren
Production Team
Senior Creative Producer Bridie Scriven Creative Producer Livvy Tidd Head of Digital Delivery Mike Jenkins Head of Film Nikki Chapman TV Producer Alison Cooper Production Company Dog Eat Dog
Other Credits
Managing Partner Hollie Loxley Business Director Joe Pirrie Account Director Hannah Thorn EMEA Director of Communications CC Clark Clients Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Garrihy Campaign Director Avikar Jolly Campaign Lead Louise Forbes Head of Media Jonathan Bunkall Digital Media Director Christopher Howett
Date
Launched December 2018
Background
Huawei wanted to bring to life their brand promise, ‘Push the limits of what is humanly possible.’ They identified a hidden problem, that there are 32 million deaf children in the world and many of them struggle to read. This is because deaf children can’t learn phonetically so they struggle to match words with sounds. This has a hugely negative impact on their education and on their futures. UK research showed that it takes 21 years for deaf children to catch up with their hearing peers.
Idea
To show the positive power of Huawei’s smartphone AI, the world’s first literacy platform for the deaf was created. StorySign was a revolutionary free app, which, using the most advanced signing avatar ever, scanned the words in selected children’s books and turned them into sign language. Suddenly deaf children and their parents could learn to read and sign together. Available in 11 countries, in 12 sign languages and supported by 11 international deaf charities, StorySign opened the world’s eyes to the cause of deaf literacy, and will keep opening the world of books to deaf children for years to come.
Results
StorySign made such an impact that Huawei committed a further 375K donation to deaf literacy projects, launching the app in China. 52 more books were incorporated into the app in 2019. Many international publications, from Metro to Huffpost, covered the story in over 1,000 items leading to a global reach of 1.5 billion that led, in turn, to a 20% uplift in Huawei brand perception.
Our Thoughts
The mobile phone is a paradox in your pocket. Simon Sinek is not alone in decrying the pernicious ways in which Gen Z (and younger) is becoming addicted to the thing. Every text message gives a dopamine hit, which soon no young person can do without. Brands like Durex are encouraging people to switch off to switch on. So it’s easy to forget that it is also quite possibly the single most fertile platform for innovation in history.
This wonderful idea reveals the other side of the smartphone, its ability to bring down the barriers in communication.
At a time when Huawei is getting a bashing from the USA government in particular, this may offer the brand some small degree of redemption.