Title	BRUSHBUSTERS
Brand	PHILIPS
Product/Service	PHILIPS SONICARE FOR KIDS
Category	A01. Innovation
Entrant Company	ACHTUNG! Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Advertising Agency	ACHTUNG! Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production Company	SUPERHERO CHEESECAKE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production Company 2	COLORBLEED Utrecht, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Mathieu Garnier	ACHTUNG!	Concept
Niklas Kristensen	ACHTUNG!	Concept
Jasper Janssen	ACHTUNG!	Concept
Jort Schutte	ACHTUNG!	Art Director
Rasmus Stenberg	ACHTUNG!	Designer
Enzo Greco	ACHTUNG!	Motiondesigner
Delia Lauret	ACHTUNG!	Senior Producer
Mervyn Ten Dam	ACHTUNG!	Creative Director
Noam Erlich	ACHTUNG!	Executive Producer
Laura Calvo	ACHTUNG!	Motiondesigner
Colorbleed	Colorbleed	3d Character Design
Superhero Cheesecake	Superhero Cheesecake	Technical Development
Big Orange	Big Orange	Sound Design
Jasper Janssen	ACHTUNG!	Copywriter
Niklas Kristensen	ACHTUNG!	Copywriter

The Brief

Philips Sonicare for Kids is a product line of electronic toothbrushes made for children. But more than 40% of kids have cavities by the time the reach elementary school, because it’s hard to get them to brush. As the oral healthcare expert Philips wanted to help solve this problem in a way that fits their band mentality: Innovations that matter to you. We introduced Brush Busters, a game for smartphone and tablet that stimulates children in a playful way to brush their teeth longer and at least twice a day. Our main challenge was to create something that would resonate with professionals (dental practitioners), children and their parents. Therefore we had to be as relevant, authentic and sincere as possible. Nowadays a lot of brands try to use relevant and/or entertaining content to help stimulate a higher cause, but most of them don’t bring their efforts further than a one-off gimmick or creative exercise. The aim for Brush Busters was to create a proof of concept, for what could turn out into a long lasting platform with a genuine role in the dental care ecosystem.

The Brush Busters app is available as a free download in the Appstore and also functions without the Philips Sonicare for Kids. However, with a Philips Sonicare for Kids, the app can actually detect the exact audio frequency profile of the toothbrush. Through this sound detection mechanism, the game can pick up if children are actually brushing and how long their brushing session is. Kids can only finish a level when they brush for two minutes. If the game notices that the sound of the toothbrush has stopped, it reminds the user to continue its brushing session. Also, parents can keep tabs on how often their children are brushing, add dentist appointments and stimulate regular and consistent brushing by adding personal rewards. Next to the technological innovation, the user interface was also innovative. Instead of making an app that was overtly educational, we developed a game with child-friendly story lines around fictional characters in need of dental help. Bjorn the Viking spent too much defending his village and not enough brushing his own teeth. Vicky the Vampire over-indulged in cranberry juice and one of her fangs broke-off as a consequence. Children can help them to get back one of their teeth for every daily 2 minute brushing session. The characters give children direct feedback about their brushing behavior. And the storyline provided more than enough fun to play over and over again, needed to install a new habit. Being a pilot for a long lasting platform, stimulating healthy dental habits through gamification and storytelling, the Brush Busters story lines can and will also be extended into various educational materials. But most importantly, even when the technology progresses into the realm of connected personal care devices, the Brush Busters platform can easily evolve.

● The app was recently launched, but already shows significant behavioral change amongst the first 2000 pilot users, saving over 10.000 teeth. ● Users have a daily return percentage of 80%, showing the power of gamification to influence daily routines. ● To extend Brush Busters into a long lasting platform in the USA, we are currently creating educational materials (ie. cartoon video’s) around the Brush Busters main characters. ● Already 6 other countries, such as Japan and Russia, are currently preparing the launch of the branded game in their market. ● Technologically, the next step is to create a 2.0 version of the Brush Busters app that can work with the bluetooth connected toothbrushes that are up for release. This way, we can not only measure brushing time and activity, but also for example position in the mouth, pressure etc.