TED
TED in Partnership with Bose
Challenge
SoundWear is a speaker…you wear. Let that sink in. Our challenge was to showcase a new innovation’s functional value for being ears open, hands free. The tension of sound spillage, a cultural annoyance of being intrusive to others in public with your music or calls, was a major barrier to purchase. Finally, how do we bring this to the early adopter through a partnership that embodies intelligence and ideas in technology?
At the end of the kickoff, Brian, the Creative Director, said, “Let’s make this the nerdiest thing we’ve ever done.”
Challenge, accepted.
Hands free. Ears free. Bose SoundWear aims to revolutionize productivity.
New school cool
About 13.5% of the US population considers themselves to be early adopters. Early adopters have a desire to be ahead of the curve and a source of knowledge for the tribe. Because they are tech savvy, they often have many functions in work, busy personal lifestyles, and intricate hobbies.
Conflicted with isolation
Being isolated by headphones may be great for some scenarios, but not at all. Speakers are better for a group to enjoy the moment together. Our audience was seeking the ability to flex between activity and serene moments. Freedom and presence. SoundWear gives them the freedom to be present.
Direction
Freedom to have unrestricted interactions with spaces and devices and freeing you from worry. Presence to enter your own world while being able to interact with the one around you creates a symbiotic relationship between persona and device. With the Media team, we partnered with TED Fellows, the Holladay Brothers and Gabriel Barcia-Colon to bring our vision to life in their worlds. Don’t get much nerdier than that. But, cool nerds. You want these hang with these guys.
Through video, a dedicated Hub on TED.com, and programmatic creative, our efforts launched SoundWear to a hot start setting the stage for Bose’s run at the wearable out loud product category.
Los Angeles based multimedia artists, the Holladay Brothers.
Multimedia Artist and Exhibitionist, Gabriel Barcia-Colon
Owned Communications
Before the TED project got off the ground, we led a series of user testing sessions and search optimization research to bring this to the market effectively. This is a small presentation representative of our findings and direction. The product had a strong 3 year run. It’s future in the consumer electronics market is yet to be seen.
Success
Nerdiest thing in the portfolio. Change my mind.
Roles
User Researcher, Communications Planner, Script writer.
Creds:
Creative Direction: Brian Moore
Media Planner: Kyle Graham
Producer: Steph Allis
