#135 2024 · Specsavers · Optical and hearing retailenter-their-reality
Specsavers rickrolled the UK with a hearing test disguised as a joke song, so listeners caught themselves mishearing every line
the problem
Nobody responds to 'get your hearing checked' ads until hearing loss is already disruptive
background
Hearing-loss awareness campaigns follow the same format everywhere: an ad telling viewers or listeners that they might be losing their hearing, urging them to book a test. Response rates stay low, because the people most likely to have undiagnosed hearing loss are, by definition, the ones least likely to notice anything is wrong from a message they can still hear clearly.
Golin London's brief for Specsavers was audio-only — radio and streaming — competing for attention against songs people already knew by heart. A straight warning ad would be skipped like any other; the agency needed listeners to discover the symptom themselves, inside a song they'd choose to listen to.
the move
Golin London re-recorded Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' with the lyrics swapped for commonly misheard mondegreens, so listeners experienced the actual symptom of hearing loss — mishearing words — as the punchline, instead of being warned about it in an ad.
the payoff
A 138% increase in hearing-loss-related Google searches and hearing aids as the UK's #1 trending topic online, plus a 66% increase in Specsavers hearing-test bookings. The work won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix, in PR and Audio & Radio.
what came after
'The Misheard Version' won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 2024, in PR and Audio & Radio, and is now cited as a template for making an ad format double as the diagnostic test it's advertising, rather than just describing it.
filed under
references
- [1]Ad Age — Specsavers' Rick Astley radio ad wins Cannes Lions Audio & Radio Grand PrixAd Age, 2024adage.com
- [2]egta — The Misheard Version: how Specsavers is using radio to amplify their big ideasegta, 2024egta.com