Signia
can be experienced through radio play

The screech of tyres, the crunch of gravel, the roar of an engine: the motorsport career of rally legend and brand ambassador for hearing aid manufacturer Signia Germany, Walter Röhrl, is truly inspiring. The athlete boasts two World Rally Championship titles, four victories at the Monte Carlo Rally and a permanent place in the German Sports Hall of Fame.

A passion for sound is the secret to Röhrl’s career success. Whether it’s a loud roar or the sound of brakes: Röhrl lives and loves the sound. Unlike most of his competitors, the rally legend always drove without ear protection and listened closely to the sound of the engine – this allowed him to spot irregularities immediately and win many of his races, though it also caused him to gradually lose his hearing. That is why, in his role as a brand ambassador for hearing aid manufacturer Signia Germany, Röhrl advocates for hearing aid solutions without compromise. To mark his 75th birthday, Signia Germany launched a special edition of the Styletto AX designer hearing aid, developed in collaboration with Röhrl, which draws on his eventful and adventurous life story.

A pure audio experience

And the accompanying product communication should be every bit as compelling, offering a unique perspective on Röhrl’s fascinating life. For the product launch of the limited-edition ‘75 Edition Walter Röhrl’ of the Styletto AX designer hearing aid, we wanted to break new ground and therefore thought outside the box of traditional press and public relations: we based our communication on a radio play, which was published and distributed via Signia’s corporate podcast. This allowed us to convey Röhrl’s exciting career and life to listeners in a more engaging way. Our idea was that, through sound, we could not only take them on Röhrl’s journey more effectively and touch them at a deeper level, but also express far more emotion through the audio drama and thus reach more people than mere text alone could.

Our objectives:

• To raise awareness of the Styletto AX designer hearing aid
• Positioning the Signia brand
• Sales support

Ready – sound on – recording in progress!

For the production and recording of Walter Röhrl’s story for the product launch, we engaged a production company specialising in radio dramas, a sound studio and voice-over artists. When developing the storyline, the following aspects had to be taken into account:

• How long should each episode be?
• How many episodes do we want to produce in total?
• Which of Walter Röhrl’s career milestones should definitely be included?
• How far back should we go in the narrative? And how prominently do we want to feature the partnership with Signia Germany?
• Where is the perfect cut point for each episode?
• Do we need original soundbites to add that extra touch of radio drama?

This formed the basis for the key narrative steps, which served as the foundation for the script of each episode. At the same time, we drafted a list of questions for the upcoming interview with Walter Röhrl, in which we collected snippets for the radio drama and reused them in the appropriate places for each episode.