Unmute: Louder than decibels

Creative Directors: Jan Majle, Rafał Górski Copywriter: Marcin Nowakowski Art Director: Dominik Przerwa Production: Dorota Sieradzka, Rafał Trzosowski Client Service: Patrycja Filipowicz, Kamila Karczewska

Never before in Poland has the issue of deaf people's exclusion from culture been addressed on such a scale. The project not only created a huge buzz in the Polish community but also started a worldwide discussion about the inclusivity and accessibility in pop culture. But we stopped the silence by submitting UNMUTE - the first Deaf music group in Poland to the Eurovision Song Contest, what has changed the history of the competition as the FIRST IN HISTORY DEAF BAND SUBMITTED FOR THE EUROVISION. UNMUTE became loud - mentioned in the main polish portals, press, television and influencer's social media channels.  Having worked with the Polish Association of the Deaf for years, we already know that there are almost one million deaf people in Poland and almost 300 million of them worldwide. All of them are excluded from pop culture, even though they feel the music with their whole body. We know that Deaf are tired of it so we've decided to change that by launching an innovative campaign on the occasion of the International Deaf Week. Our objective was to empower those who struggle with a lot of limitations and start the discussion about the inclusivity and accessibility in pop culture. The creative idea is best described in the title of the debut song - LOUDER THAN DECIBELS. We wanted to get really LOUD about those who live in silence on a daily basis. Instead of regular PSA we've prepared a piece of entertaining content designed and composed in such a way, so the Deaf can finally enjoy a piece of music. We have established UNMUTE, the FIRST music group in Poland, which consists only of Deaf people. We wrote the lyrics and music for their debut song "Louder than decibels". And we made a professional music video, which became a hit on YouTube. The music has been composed in such a way that the vibrations can be perceived by the Deaf and at the same time the sounds are attractive to the rest of the people. The communication plan was simple - it has to be loud and there has to be a range. The campaign had to reach a wide audience, so we did not limit ourselves neither to the form of the message nor the media. The only thing that limited us was the budget - we all worked pro bono believing that this was not another social campaign that would not change much in our lives. That is why we made sure that the very first press releases included statements from well-known Polish artists and music critics supporting the Unmute project. We focused on the most popular news and opinion-forming, lifestyle media, as well as radio and television. We invited a broad list of influencers and the entire music industry to promote the spot.  The campaign was planned for September 2021 on the occasion of International Deaf Week to find a broader excuse to talk about the problem. For the emission of the music video we used the same channels that pop stars use on a daily basis - YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. The same day we launched the video, the first press release was distributed widely to all polish media, offering Unmute bands for all kinds of interviews. We did most of them by email and for journalists who wanted to talk live, we guaranteed the support of a sign language interpreter. But we didn't stop there, because right after the campaign launch we went the extra mile by submitting a team to the Eurovision Song Contest.  The launch of the campaign exceeded our expectations - the spot went viral and started a discussion in the media about the exclusion of deaf people from pop culture. We made sure that UNMUTE became really loud. By submitting a team to the Eurovision Song Contest, what has changed the history of the competition as the FIRST IN HISTORY DEAF BAND SUBMITTED FOR THE EUROVISION. The main news portals and all the major influencers wrote about them, and the band appeared on television, so that interest in them spontaneously spilled over to the whole country. PR publications reached in total almost 19,2 million viewers (50%+ of Poland's population) with advertising equivalent to almost 7 million PLN.