THE CREATIVE IDEA.

The agency team conducted a research to highlight the unmet needs in Parkinson's treatment. As it turned out, drug therapy and neurological surgery are both effective and improve many of the Parkinson's symptoms. Except one: the so-called Parkinson's gait.

In fact, due to the damaged neurons in the motor brain area, Parkinson's patients "forget" how to walk – it is no longer automatic.

Fortunately… we also came across an exciting new approach to help Parkinson's patients with walking difficulties: MUSIC. More specifically, the use of rhythmic patterns as auditory stimuli.

Music provides rhythm for patients to control their steps. It promotes new neural connections in healthy areas of the brain. Furthermore, music releases dopamine – a natural chemical involved in pleasure and motor control.

Science and music were already there. We just had to connect them.

Welcome to PARKINSOUNDS.

PARKINSOUNDS was developed in partnership with Spotify®. It's based on a free Android app which runs in seamless integration with a Spotify® API.

Its operation consists in 3 steps.

1. PARKINSOUNDS helps patients find their ideal pace. Every patient has a walking speed that responds best to the music therapy, and a built-in digital metronome helps finding it.

2. Once the patient's ideal pace is saved, PARKINSOUNDS automatically selects the songs that match that beat, from any Spotify® playlist. So patients have millions of songs to choose from.

3. PARKINSOUNDS is able to add audio cues to the patient’s favorite songs – enhancing the original beat, in order to make the songs more functional from a rehabilitation perspective.

A digital media campaign is being aired by Spotify® to promote the idea among its users. The client is also driving the use of PARKINSOUNDS via doctor recommendation and patient advocacy groups.

RESULTS.

Although PARKINSOUNDS has only been available for a few weeks, results seem very promising. Doctors' and physiotherapists' feedback has been amazing – they see the value in the idea and recognize the results in their patients. Client considers PARKINSOUNDS as a unique differentiator in a crowded and stagnant market. Spotify is happy to see their platform leveraged for a new purpose. Most importantly, it's touching to see the patients' reactions as they recover their old ability to walk – and to the sound of their favorite songs.