Caption For Intention has taken the Grand Prix for Brand Experience & Activation. The work was created by FCB Chicago, in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Chicago Hearing Society and Rakish Entertainment.
The campaign introduces a redesigned captioning system that helps Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences experience not just the words, but the emotion, tone and rhythm of film and TV. Built through months of testing and co-creation with the Deaf community, it uses animation, colour and expressive typography to fix what traditional captions have missed for decades.
The work also won the Grand Prix in Design and Digital Craft.
The category had over 2,337 entries from 71 countries. Speaking about the jury process, jury president Tara Ford, chief creative officer at Droga5 London, said, ‘We talked about putting ourselves in the shoes of the consumer. What are they experiencing? Is it the right time and place to be experiencing that? Is it true to the brand’s DNA?’
She added that most of the work fell into two groups: either solving a real problem or being playful and entertaining, with some entries managing both. She noted that some campaigns put a clever twist on familiar formats, like changing packaging or product form to shift perception. Others built on existing behaviours, expanding how a product is used in a specific context.
Caption For Intention stood out to the jurors because of its potential to expand. She added: ‘Although this is made for the hearing impaired, we felt that this application could go so much further. It can be applied to all types of video and film, and communication. It expanded this industry and modernised it.’
She added, ‘It was the simplicity and the scale and how in future years, it will just become part of our lives, part of our world.’
