According to the World Health Organization’s recent Hearing report, 1 in 4 people will experience hearing loss by 2050, and that hearing loss can be treated or prevented if identified early. In South Africa, screening is not mandated due to a lack of funding. This leaves youth with untreated hearing loss, falling behind their peers by one to four grade levels.

HearZA, an app powered by Vodacom, is a free clinically validated hearing test designed to make hearing testing accessible to anyone with a smartphone. However the youth aren’t using it.

Vodacom, a leading telecommunications company, wanted to find a way to promote awareness and get young people to test their hearing.

We collaborated with popular local musician Lady Du, TikTok and an audiologist from HearZA to create the ‘Hearing Challenge’, a music-based hearing pre-screening test that works on mobile speakers.

Drawing inspiration from existing social trends on TikTok, we created a song designed, mixed and embedded it into a TikTok filter. The final product was an engaging approach to speech-in-noise testing - raising awareness about hearing impairments while providing a fun pre-screening test for South African youth.

Using social media and influencers, we delivered our hearing test directly to the hands of youth.

Vodacom is the largest telecommunications provider in South Africa, and our purpose is to combine technology and humanity to connect people to a better future. Our network gives people in even the most rural villages access to mobile devices and the Internet.

In South Africa, access to hearing testing is limited due to funding. But 72% of those between the ages of 15 and 24 own a mobile device - leveraging already existing platform behaviour, we created a music-based hearing test that lives on TikTok embedded as filter, that the young audience can easy engage with.

Our purpose, network and existing partnership with the HearZA app gave us the perfect opportunity to help young people, test their hearing and get the support they need to get help with hearing problems.

Using the methodology of a speech-in-noise hearing test, we collaborated with Amapiono producers DJ Stresser and Given Kanu, to create and mix a catchy instrumental as the test's background noise.

We added vocals by youth culture artist Lady Du, adjusting the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on a descending scale throughout the song. The song was embedded into a TikTok head-tracking filter, using the front camera of devices for an interactive test experience.

We launched on TikTok, a mobile social media platform popular among South African teens. Users tested their hearing by identifying Lady Du's lyrics while listening to the song. We encouraged successful participants to create awareness by challenging their friends. Those with potential hearing loss were directed to the HearZA app for a free, clinically-validated test.

The efforts were bolstered by collaborating with social-media influencers, the challenge quickly spread among users across TikTok.

The 'Hearing Challenge' was an innovative way to create awareness for undiagnosed hearing impairments in South African youth.

We gave young people who otherwise wouldn't have access to a hearing test, a way to get tested, get the help they need and live a full life.

Within the first three weeks, we reached:

Challenge received 515k unique views

6k hearing tests taken on TikTok, and counting

Challenge is currently top 10% of filters on TikTok

83% increase in monthly downloads of the hearZA app