Insurance firm pranks festival visitors with “Heavy Metal Hearing Test”

Sep 26, 2017 | Germany, Online advertising, Online video, Viral and buyrals

German insurance firm Barmer has taken a novel approach to target young customers with very special hearing test and a viral video.

In this video, you will see how the visitors to the “Reload” Rock festival (Germany) take a very special hearing test. It takes place in a Barmer hearing test van, parked in front of the festival.

The festival goers can have their hearing tested there. At first, the fact that the sounds are electric guitar tones, doesn’t make the participants suspicious. But slowly, it turns into a recognisable melody.

The big surprise comes, when the hearing test technician bursts out and starts singing the chorus lines from the heavy metal song, right in front of the person being tested. At the same moment, the rear walls of the caravan fall and the participants find themselves seated in the front row of a live concert of the band “Watch out stampede”.

The reactions to the prank were recorded and turned into a three-minute film. With the stunt GREY and BARMER created the first hearing test with an electric guitar. In the end the participants are still given the actual results of their hearing tests.

The stunt is part of a hearing loss prevention initiative that BARMER setup in cooperation with Mimi Hearing Technologies.

The idea came from lead agency GREY in Düsseldorf. “With an online film, we are also making the topic of hearing prevention available to a younger target group. The central element is the surprise moment in an environment unusual for a hearing test, “explains Dickjan Poppema, CEO of GREY Germany.

The film was produced by Rabbicorn Films GmbH and WeFilm – directed by Roel Welling.

The heavy metal band “Watch out stampede” as well as the singer Ann Halen, front woman at “Of Colours”, who provided musical support.

View the Facebook version of the video here:

https://www.barmer.de/en/

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