'I was missing things one-to-one, I would have a half hour conversation with someone and wouldn't understand a word. I hoped they wouldn't ask me anything.'

Those are the words of Jennie Brand-Miller, aged 65. Jennie was a long-time hearing loss sufferer who eventually sought help from Cochlear and has since had her hearing restored.

There are thousands of Australians like Jennie. They live a life of compromise, hiding their hearing loss from others, and delaying seeking help.

They don't proactively raise it with their GP either, so we had to find a way to help people engage with their hearing ability, as it had become the 'invisible disability'. Our strategy was to make it visible.

We will always remember the day when Audiologist Emma Ramsay said, 'no two people hear the world the same, your hearing is as unique as your fingerprint.'

This would become our inspiration for Cochlear Hearprint. Purpose-built software that bypasses the internet's 'one size fits all' audio, calibrating music, TV shows and online content to your unique hearing ability.

Hearprint has turned every video, TV show and audio track on the internet, into a moment to remind Australians of their unique hearing ability.

Data sits at the core of Hearprint.

The data calibration enabled real-time audio frequencies to be augmented, allowing users to alter the decibel level of individual frequencies within a piece of media from the film while it was playing.

A dynamic data visualisation was also generated for each user. This acted as the interface, and the visualisation of their hearing that they could compare and contrast with others via social media. For the majority, this was the first time they had 'seen their hearing ability'.

Audiologist data also helped defined parameters within each frequency band based on normal hearing, as well as mild, moderate and severe hearing loss. This allowed us to isolate users unique hearing proficiency at each frequency level, and also inform whether their hearing was deemed 'normal' or 'abnormal', a critical data point for Cochlear's lead nurture program.

Hearprint also captured whether users had existing hearing support (i.e. hearing aids) to enable Cochlear to place them on the relevant treatment path.

From a targeting perspective, look-a-like, interest and behavioural data was used to create two prospecting audience profiles: people with hearing loss but no hearing aid, and people with hearing aids.

At the time of writing this paper, the paid media activity was 8 weeks into an 8 month campaign.

* 40,345 people unique visitors to the campaign website which housed Hearprint and the two documentaries.

* Average time on site is 9 minutes 29", 265% more than the Cochlear.com average.

* 4,158 have set their Hearprint, giving Cochlear a view of their hearing ability.

* 60% (2,512) of the Hearprints set to date have been identified as 'abnormal', indicating Cochlear could help.

* 586 high-value leads are already talking Cochlear experts about the most relevant treatment path. We are on track to exceed our target.

Hearprint has also attracted enormous media interest, securing morning TV, metro newspaper, national radio, online news, and international coverage. We estimate the activity has reached over 30 million people already.

Hearprint uses data, creativity and technology to personalise Cochlear's purpose; to help transform the way people understand and treat hearing loss.

In a country where hearing loss is often called the 'invisible disability', this interactive experience was the first to make 'hearing visible' with a piece of software that modifies user inputs to turn every video, TV show and audio track on the internet, into reminder about their unique hearing ability.

As Hearprint is updated, the software tracks changes in hearing ability over time, meaning Cochlear can identify the ideal moment to start a conversation about the user's hearing loss.

There are two elements to the data driven strategy that make this campaign personalised and relevant:

First, the gathering and interpretation of data to create each Hearprint. Data is processed from user inputs to form a unique listening experience and visual. The data is gathered against four frequencies - identified by Cochlear audiologists as some of the most important for human hearing. During the setup, four scenes were carefully selected from the documentaries that best sampled these four key frequency bands.

Hearprint can be updated by the user over time, giving Cochlear a data-led view of how people's hearing changes. Cochlear then uses this information to identify the ideal time to have a conversation with the user about their hearing.

Secondly, the use of 1st and 3rd party data that informed the targeting.

Identifying the 12% of Australians who suffer some sort of hearing loss is not an easy task. Narrowing it down to those suffering 'mild' or 'severe' makes the pool very small.

So, our lead-generation media buy had to be data-led to find this very niche audience. We leveraged Cochlear's 1st party customer data profiles, combining them with 3rd party behavioural and interest data to improve efficiencies.

12% of Australians suffer some sort of hearing loss, this number is expected to double over the coming decades. As hearing deteriorates, it takes sufferers seven years on average to seek help.

The delay leads to social isolation, loss of relationships, reduced quality of life, and an increased likelihood of depression and cognitive decline.

In 2017, the World Health Organisation found that early detection is critical to reduce social and emotional impacts.

Cochlear, the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, wants Australians to understand, identify and act on their hearing loss, before it's too late.

Objective #1: Commercial - attract 1,843 highly qualified leads into Cochlear's sales funnel over 12 months.

Objective #2: Purpose - help transform the way people understand and treat hearing loss.