With "Blackout at Mount Earverest" we transform something boring and unpopular like a hearing test into a fascinating and entertaining gaming experience that reaches our target group with relevant experiences on channels where they don’t expect it. We show how unpopular but necessary and helpful experiences can be creatively transformed into a piece of branded content. Something entertaining that kids can actively enjoy. And want to enjoy.

In a study, the World Health Organization (WHO) says the hearing of one billion young people is at risk from unhealthy listening habits and noisy environments.

This could have strong effects on their development: Adolescents who suffer from hearing loss are not only disadvantaged at school. They react with insecurity, social withdrawal and dwindling self-confidence. They find it harder to make friends and pursue interests.

The earlier you detect hearing problems, the better you can treat them. And with little luck, even stop them.

But hearing disorders often go unnoticed. Friends and free time are more important to teenagers than having their hearing checked, so the latest hearing test often took place when they were babies.

By turning a hearing test into a computer game on a popular gaming platform while raising awareness for teen hearing health, hear.com and Audibene position themselves as modern brands in the hearing care space.

The game was created for the US and German markets. Since teenagers in both markets show very similar gaming behavior and English is taught early in school in Germany, the game does not differ for both countries.

hear.com and Audibene are both brands of the same company, hear.com for the US market and Audibene for Germany.

With "Blackout at Mount Earverest" we turn three classic hearing tests - stereo audiometry, speech audiometry and sound audiometry - into a computer game. And something uncool into fun:

At the beginning of the story in our game someone switches off the moon and everything turns dark! In the dark, the players have to use their sense of hearing rather than their sense of sight to find their way. At the end, they not only learn their score. They also learn that they have effortless taken part in a listening challenge along the way.

By turning a hearing test into a computer game on a popular gaming platform while raising awareness for teen hearing health, hear.com and Audibene position themselves as modern brands in the hearing care space.

We bring the topic of hearing problems to where the young people are: "Blackout at Mount Earverest" is aimed at 13- to 16-year-old players. Especially in this age group, young people have more important things on their mind than take care of their hearing. That's why we address them where they spend their time. On ROBLOX! On the game platform, 67.3 million active players spend more than 4.6 billion hours every month!

The virtual worlds of computer games are the new schoolyard. This is where teenagers meet their friends. And this is the environment in which we let them playfully discover for themselves how important their hearing is in daily life and whether their hearing is still as good as they think.

For "Blackout at Mount Earverest" we designed and created a complete gaming world in Roblox where players can experience varied landscapes and make new friends. The characters, specially designed for the game, guide players throughout the story, helping to explain the tasks and make them more relatable.

Each of the three classic hearing tests - stereo audiometry, speech audiometry and sound audiometry - has been lovingly and authentically transformed into a unique level, balancing gaming fun and reliable listening test results. The test sounds were designed with the help of sound designers and audiologists to feel like a natural element of the game world (e.g. the noise in speech audiometry is a waterfall) while ensuring a reliable test result.

More than 17 Million Impressions during the first Week.

Average of 8 Minutes spent on the game.