Conor Cunniffe |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Copywriter |
Rob Maguire |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Creative Director |
Shane O’Riordan |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Design Director |
Bronagh O'Donnavan |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Strategist |
Aisling Clarke |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Art Director |
Sam Caren |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Art Director |
Niall Eccles |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Developer |
Hannah Gallagher |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Post Producer |
Jessica Derby |
Rothco | Accenture Interactive |
Executive Producer |
Cristiane Schmidt |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Art Director, Designer, Motion Designer, Editor, Stop Motion Artist |
Raphael DaSilva |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Art Director, Designer, Motion Designer, Illustrator, Animator |
Gabriel Teixeira |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Art Director, Designer, Motion Designer, 3D Generalist |
Paul Power |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Video Editor |
Ray Swan |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Agency Creative Director |
Jen Speirs |
Rothco Part of Accenture Interactive |
Executive Creative Director |
Alan Kelly |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Chief Creative Officer |
Richard Carr |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
CEO | MD Accenture Interactive |
Patrick Hickey |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Executive Chairman |
Zara Flynn |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Managing Partner Rothco Accenture Interactive |
Sean Cushen |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Senior Account Manager |
Lauren McNinney |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Agency Resource & Operations |
Clair Fleming |
Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive |
Agency Resource & Operations |
As part of Warner Music Group’s corporate social responsibility, they support initiatives in music with positive social impact. Musicians have long used their art to help with speech sound disorders (including WMG’s Ed Sheeran), so this area was a perfect fit.
Speech and language therapists have an arsenal of tools at their disposal which can help their patients. Most of these patients are children, however, which raises a problem that most tools can’t overcome - how to keep kids engaged in their therapy.
We set out to provide speech and language therapists with a unique and accessible new tool that could help their patients practise the sounds they struggle with in a way that doesn’t bore them: by reimagining speech therapy within the world of popular music.
The project launched to universal acclaim in early 2021, and due to its success is now being developed for other territories.
We tapped into the raw data contained in song lyrics – isolating and categorising phonemes as units of data. Repetition is key to overcoming a Speech Sound Disorder, but for kids, repetition is boring. Except when it happens in music. Warner Music teamed up with Apple Music to analyse over 70 million song lyrics, isolating songs in which particular sounds occur in particular patterns that are beneficial for speech therapy. These songs were collated into Saylists: playlists categorised by problem sounds, providing an easy, accessible, and enjoyable way for kids to practise the sounds they have trouble with, simply by singing along to their favourite songs.
Through combining of data analysts and speech and language therapists we developed an algorithm to analyse song lyrics for specific sounds occurring with a certain frequency, as well as other conditions such as proximity to similar sounds and placement within a sentence. Consultation with speech and language therapists also provided the target phonemes that were the most common sources of difficulty in the English Language, and a list of ten were chosen for analysis. The algorithm analysed over 70 million songs in search of those that demonstrated genuine therapeutic value - the largest data analysis of lyrics ever. All were scored and ranked. Songs that scored highest and fit listener profile (the latter a crucial human curation element necessary for audience appeal) were compiled into Saylists categorised by problem sound.
The Saylists were launched on Apple Music where they are easily accessible to all, with supporting communications on social channels.
Within a week of launch, Saylists were already being recommended by therapists, and used in therapy sessions; the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy expressed their excitement at the project’s release, and the department of English Language Teaching at Cambridge University has gone so far as to publish lesson plans to bring Saylists into classrooms. The project was enthusiastically welcomed and praised around the globe, reaching an audience of over 42.5 million purely through earned media and word of mouth. Due to these results, Apple Music are now developing the project for other music in other languages.