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CASE 04
STC · SAUDI ARABIA

2 YEARS IN THE LAB
VML SAUDI ARABIA

THE HEARING AID HIDING IN YOUR DRAWER

HearingTrade.

Upcycle phones. Upcycle lives.

★ DUBAI LYNX 2024 · BRONZE, HEALTHCARE

SCROLL ↓

Client: stc · Saudi Telecom Company
Agency: VML Saudi Arabia
My role: Creative Director
Market: Saudi Arabia
Channels: Product design, open-source blueprints, film, social

00:00 / 00:00

CASE FILM · PLAYS RIGHT HERETURN IT UP. THAT'S KIND OF THE POINT.

[ THE CASE IN ONE BREATH ]

Saudi Arabia is the biggest smartphone market in the Gulf. Millions of new phones a year means millions of old ones dying in drawers. Inside every one: a microphone, a speaker and a battery. That's a hearing aid. So stc spent 2 years turning e-waste into hearing amplifiers, then gave the blueprints away for free.

01

THE TRUTH

Your drawer
is a clinic.

Saudi Arabia buys more smartphones than anyone in the Gulf. Every upgrade leaves an old phone behind, in the back of a drawer or in a landfill.

Meanwhile, a hearing aid is a luxury for the families who need one most. Two problems, e-waste and hearing access, both on Saudi Vision 2030's list. One drawer. Nobody had connected them.

An old smartphone pulled apart in mid-air, its screen, board and internal parts floating in purple light — EVERY PHONE ALREADY CARRIES THE PARTS

02

THE IDEA

Old phone in.
Hearing out.

Strip a phone down and you find the recipe: a microphone that listens, a speaker that talks, a battery that lasts. We took those three and rebuilt them into a hearing amplifier.

Upcycle phones. Upcycle lives.

An exploded smartphone with the battery, speaker and microphone labelled — BATTERY. SPEAKER. MICROPHONE. THAT'S THE RECIPE.

03

THE LAB

Two years
in the lab.

We tore down phones of every year, model and brand, and kept only the parts found in all of them. Cheap. Easy to source. Easy to assemble.

The result sits in and behind the ear, fits everyone, and needs no prescription. And it doesn't look medical. It looks like something you'd choose to wear.

An engineer from the Hearing Trade R&D team explaining the build — THE R&D PROCESS, FROM TEARDOWN TO PROTOTYPE

BUILT FROM SCRAP. DESIGNED LIKE JEWELLERY.

Four Hearing Trade devices in white, gold, silver and black finishes — FOUR FINISHES. ZERO STIGMA.

04

THE IMPACT

Open source.
Open ears.

stc didn't patent it. The blueprints went out free and open source, so any person, company or NGO can build one from whatever phone they have.

The first devices went to underserved communities: affordable hearing, built from e-waste.

The reports came back human: better days at school and at work, more time at the family table, people back in the conversation.

“We have gone beyond our thinking and enabled technology to serve our society.”

OLAYAN ALWETAID · CEO, STC GROUP

Still from the Hearing Trade launch film — THE LAUNCH FILM

PUT IT ON. TUNE BACK IN.

A boy wearing a white Hearing Trade device, smiling as he talks — BACK IN THE CONVERSATION

[ THE FULL REEL ] · DRAG ↔01 / 28

The Hearing Trade key visual: a purple head wearing the device

An old smartphone pulled apart in mid-air

An engineer from the R&D team explaining the build

Hearing Trade launch board: upcycling old phones into affordable hearing devices

A sustainable, open-source project adaptable to all phone models

The charging case and earpieces

The device in four finishes

Exploded phone: battery, speaker, microphone

The parts laid out: microphone, smart board, battery, speaker

The microphone module in exploded view

The speaker module in exploded view

The finished device in purple light

Close-up of the faceted earpiece

The device and its ear hook

A Saudi man wearing the device

A woman in a hijab adjusting the gold device

The gold device on a table

A woman fitting the device behind her ear

A girl laughing while wearing the device

A boy wearing the device while using a tablet

The device resting next to a phone

A boy fitting the device to his ear

A young man wearing the device, looking at his phone

[ THE CREW ]

Tiago Bastos Creative Director
The VML Saudi Arabia crew 2 years in the lab
The engineers who took the phones apart R&D
stc Brave client

An exploded smartphone

The parts laid out: microphone, smart board, battery and speaker

The microphone module rebuilt in exploded view

The speaker module rebuilt in exploded view

The finished faceted hearing device

A Saudi man wearing the Hearing Trade device

[ THE TEARDOWN ]
ONE OLD PHONE · ONE HEARING AID

SCROLL TO REBUILD ↓

01

A dead phone.

Millions sit in Saudi drawers. Switched off. Not finished.

WHAT HE HEARS0%

“Grandpa, we're home.”

The proof.

CREATIVITY IS THE REAL INTELLIGENCE.
VERDICT: E-WASTE IN. HEARING OUT.

We have gone beyond our thinking and enabled technology to serve our society.OLAYAN ALWETAID · CEO, STC GROUP

0Of R&D in the lab

0Phone parts: mic, speaker, battery

0Prescriptions needed

0Open-source blueprints

Dubai LynxBronze · Healthcare2024
Dubai LynxShortlist · Brand Experience & Activation2024
Dubai LynxShortlist · Direct2024
Effie MENAFinalist · Internet & Telecom2024
Athar3 Shortlists · Sustainability, Empowerment, Transformation2024
Open sourceBlueprints free for the worldFOREVER

CREATIVE DIRECTION: TIAGO BASTOS · WITH THE VML SAUDI ARABIA CREW AND A BRAVE CLIENT, STC.

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