Non-profit initiative ‘Project Revoice’ by BWM Dentsu Group Australia for The ALS Association has bagged the Grand Prix for Good at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The ALS Association is a non-profit that provides assistance for people with ALS (Motor Neurone Disease). Their mission is to build hope and enhance quality of life while aggressively searching for a cure.

Within a couple of years of diagnosis, most ALS patients end up paralysed in a wheelchair and forced to communicate via text-to-speech devices, typically through a default ‘computer’ voice.

‘Project Revoice’ introduced a breakthrough in speech technology for people living with ALS (motor neuron disease), enabling those who lose the ability to talk to continue speaking in their own authentic and personal voice.

In the past, people with ALS could use pre-recorded messages to communicate, but the team at BWM Dentsu Group worked with Canadian software partner Lyrebird to create a complete voice clone.

To launch the initiative, Project Revoice has given Pat Quinn, co-founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, his voice back.

Quinn did not record (or bank) his voice before ALS robbed him of his ability to speak. Using footage from his many Ice Bucket interviews, the team were able to re-build his voice.

It allows Quinn to speak freely and naturally in his own voice, rather than a ‘machine’ voice, when linked to his eye reader assistive technology. The man who gave ALS a voice now has his own voice back.

Some highlights from this work.

Over 900 million earned media reach.
Week one: Over one million organic video views.
By week two: Over 41 million people joined the conversation online.
Over 680 articles globally.
Over 500 patients joined the program in the first month alone.