In a partnership project with Hearing Matters Australia (HMA), myself and a team of 5 BCII students were presented with the challenge, “How might Hearing Matters Australia build and sustain a community of support for Australians with hearing loss and their families?” Embedded within this question were several underlying problem spaces, of which we had chosen ‘building partnerships with corporate Australia’ as our primary focus.

Our group undertook a transdisciplinary approach to generate a unique strategy for enabling the charity to expand their outreach to those in need and increase support from other businesses. 

When exploring potential partners we considered not only practical alignment but also our core reframing of the challenge: ”How might we use corporate partnerships to support individuals with hearing loss, reduce stigma, and increase awareness of Hearing Matters Australia and their offerings?

Our proposition to engage a partnership with ‘Specsavers Audiology’, focused on expanding HMA’s key services such as their ‘Hearing Aid Bank’, through making it accessible in Specsavers stores. We created a partnership proposal plan for how HMA could approach Specsavers, informed by Specsavers’ ESG report where they outline their plans to leverage their business scale and partner network to provide both financial and non-financial support to social causes and communities impacted by adversity.

Our proof of concept also consists of two marketing campaigns to promote the partnership between Specsavers and HMA. 

First one being,

“Should’ve worn my hearing aids!” 

Aiming to play on as an extension of “Should’ve gone to Specsavers!” to enhance memorability and reach a wider and younger target audience. 

With the second campaign being,

“Hearing Matters at Specsavers”, demonstrating empathy and awareness towards those with hearing impairment.

Following the COM-B model of behavioral change, we assessed how our partnership proposal with Specsavers would change the future of HMA for the better. From earlier research phases, we identified that HMA cannot achieve their goals without all 3 pillars; motivation, opportunity and capability. Through this criteria to evaluate success, we were able to act reflexively in tandem with our creative ideation, therefore enabling us to truly define how our proposal will be a catalyst for change.

Our presentation generated significant interest, particularly in the potential impact of the partnership proposal with Specsavers. Our peers and tutor recognised that by partnering with a well-established brand like Specsavers, HMA could leverage their extensive retail network and customer base, potentially reaching a much larger audience than they could on their own. The discussion emphasised that this partnership could serve as a model for how non-profits and corporations can collaborate to drive meaningful social change, with the potential to set a new standard for how organisations address health and accessibility challenges in the community.