Objectives:

Domtar manufactures and sells paper so the continued practice of handwriting of course benefits us. But this effort was bigger than that.

Despite the scientific research showing the cognitive and educational benefits of handwriting, it continues to be deemphasized in homes and schools worldwide. We wanted to help change that.

Insight:

Because the trend was to move away from handwriting to more digital options we wanted to find a way to merge the two in a way that had never been done before.

Relevance:

Our application combined paper and pixels. It was a perfect match.

Results:

-The application is currently being used by people of all ages all over the world.

-The Neurological Studies Department at Indiana University is using it to conduct research to further understand the affects handwriting has on the brain.

-Our case study garnered over 500,000 views on social media, sparking an online conversation about the importance of keeping handwriting in schools. Those conversations further reached and/or engaged a total of over 2 million people on social media.

-Traffic to Domtar's paper advocacy site increased by 26% during the launch of the app and the case study.

We wanted to create handwriting’s version of a run trucker. By syncing the app with a digital pen, time and distance written down on paper could automatically be tracked. To make it even more fun, we were able to set distance goals of writing the length of a soccer field, the Golden Gate Bridge and going up and down Mount Everest.

We created a case study to promote the application, as well as increase awareness of the benefits of handwriting. On Domtar's paper advocacy site, paperbecause.com, parents and teachers could discover what they could do to help the cause.

We were targeting parents and teachers. Teachers are the biggest supporters of handwriting and parents have the most influence on their children. Both are very supportive of the responsible and educational use of paper. They would be the ones to put our application in the hands of children to let them experience handwriting in a new and exciting way.

The application was the perfect channel because the direct correlation running has to exercising your heart, handwriting has to exercising your brain. Creating a handwriting tracker that functions the same way as a run tracker just made sense.