This campaign was aimed primarily at healthcare professionals working in the developing world. The device is also suitable for use in industrialized areas at prisons or nursing homes, and by non-health professionals at home. It works well in low income regions where traditional methods are often out of reach.

Peek has patents pending and has been designed for triage and diagnostic use globally. Although using Peek is not an intrusive procedure, each country has different regulations and it takes both time and money to acquire the relevant approvals.

Peek is in the process of being certified for use within the European Union (CE Class 1) and all countries that follow guidelines of the UK Government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Work toward the USA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and certification is in progress.

Around 39 million people are blind and 80% of this blindness is avoidable, but in many regions people don't have access to eye care. Peek’s mission is to reduce blindness, especially in developing countries. The service enables professional eye examinations using a smartphone.

To promote Peek, we partnered with Sony Mobile to reach an audience of healthcare professionals and technology influencers.

Our collaboration enabled us to create compelling content and generated positive PR for both Sony and Peek. Thanks to a generous donation of Sony handsets, the partnership established a presence in South America and Africa. Moreover the activity was fundamental in Peek achieving its funding target in order to move into its next stage of development.

This was a modern take on healthcare communications, helping to launch an exciting new service by pairing it with a technology provider for mutual benefit, through the creation of emotionally-driven storytelling.

Through our Sony-led campaign, we set out to raise awareness of Peek. We needed to generate positive sentiment about Peek amongst an audience of healthcare professionals, tech influencers and those with an interest in the developing world.

Our goal was to ensure Peek capitalized on the collaboration in order to:

- Reach its fundraising target – allowing the team to start the manufacturing process

- Establish a presence in South America and Africa

- Obtain enough handsets to start large-scale treatment in sub-Saharan Africa

Ultimately we wanted to enable Peek to make a leap in preventing treatable blindness.

To reach our target audience we needed a human story, one that would resonate and motivate. So, we created a compelling film featuring the real life diagnosis of Marian and her subsequent successful treatment.

The film was distributed on key channels; Sony Mobile’s YouTube channel, the Xperia Z3 campaign page, Peek’s homepage and critically on Peek’s Indiegogo page. The latter formally invited healthcare professionals to fund the service and pre-order a Peek Retina adapter for £70.

We used social to reach influencers and the healthcare press – and to generate interest, comment and views. We segmented the story into smaller pieces to ensure its message was repeatedly heard across the Z3 campaign. Additional targeted healthcare outreach amplified awareness of Peek’s fundraising campaign.

By partnering with Sony Mobile, our compelling content generated overwhelmingly positive buzz for Peek, driving registrations BY healthcare professionals, and helping smash the fundraising target.

The story we created to promote Peek has had more than 194,240 YouTube views so far (with no media budget). It was also featured on I Fucking Love Science, generating 72,000 Facebook shares and on Mashable, generating more than 4,000 shares.

http://www.iflscience.com/device-performs-eye-exams-smartphone

http://mashable.com/2014/11/26/peek-retina-smartphone-app/

The awareness generated by our collaboration has helped Peek raise over £126,000 from over 1,400 backers across 69 countries, 1,000 of whom identified as healthcare professionals, making Peek one of the top ten Health category fundraisers of all time on Indiegogo.

At the time of submission the handsets donated by Sony Mobile and installed with Peek software have already been used to screen 21,000 people in Kenya, successfully diagnosing a total of 800 with vision problems. Further trials are planned.

Sony was the ideal partner for Peek – a fantastic smartphone combined with a next-generation healthcare service. Crucially the partnership gave Peek the credibility of a major global brand and access to a much larger pool of potential supporters, influencers and advocates.

By promoting Peek as part of the Z3 campaign, we could reach a large international audience, gain the attention of healthcare influencers, and demonstrate that a major brand like Sony was backing the service.

Sony has a policy of not making cash donations as part of any collaborations, but it did donate 150 smartphones to Peek for use in areas including Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, India and Guatemala. This gift was fundamental in supporting Peek’s work to make eye examinations more accessible for those in even the remotest of settings. Moreover it was an empathic and honest manifestation of the collaboration.

Around 39 million people are blind and 80% of this blindness is avoidable, but in many regions people don't have access to eye care.

Peek – the Portable Eye Examination Kit - makes eye tests easy and affordable. The Peek team had completed their research and development phase, and required funding in order to start the manufacturing process.

Sony was looking for opportunities to market its Xperia Z3 handset in a meaningful way. The phone is the perfect companion for the Peek solution. In partnering Sony with Peek, we could enable eye experts to reach those who needed the service.