Gaes has presented its new advertising campaign at a key moment for the hearing health category in Spain. According to company data, today more than 10% of the population declares they have some degree of hearing loss. In this context, the launch represents a clear strategic step: intensify the communication of its brand mission and take an active role in the social normalization of hearing loss.

The company thus begins a new stage in which it seeks to amplify its purpose of changing people’s lives through better hearing. A field still little explored in mass communication, despite the fact that hearing loss affects millions of people and maintains a hearing aid penetration rate of only around 39% among those who suffer from it. The challenge, therefore, is commercial, but also cultural.

The campaign continues the creative territory started in 2024 with “A Special Hearing Test” and evolves it with a new concept, “The Special Test Rooms”, which focuses on everyday situations in which many people can see themselves reflected: conversations that are lost, nuances that disappear and moments that are no longer fully enjoyed. The story is built around that first moment wow which occurs when you hear well again and reconnect with your environment.

One of the differentiating elements of this new stage is, precisely, the role given to the immediate environment. Family members, partners and children appear as key agents in a decision process that, according to the brand itself, is usually long and loaded with fears, stigmas and doubts. “The decision time in this category is very long, and that is why it is key to provide support from the first moment, even when there is still no clear awareness of the problem”explains Carlos García Trillo, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer at Gaes.

The campaign, worked together with the Small agency, has been developed globally by the Italian group Amplifon, to which Gaes belongs, and has been adapted and dubbed into Spanish for its launch in Spain.

This approach is reflected both in the advertising narrative and in the subsequent conversation held during the presentation of the campaign, in which brand officials, hearing care professionals and the comedian José Corbacho, who is the current Gaes ambassador in Spain, participated. Corbacho shared his experience as a person with hearing loss, putting face and emotion to a reality that usually remains in the background.

“For a long time I had not only stopped hearing, I had also stopped understanding, and that gradually disconnects you from your environment and your life. Recovering my hearing has been incredible, like reconnecting to the world, to conversations and to people”points out the actor. His testimony seeks to serve the brand to make visible a common process in the category, such as normalizing the fact of having to turn up the volume on the television or constantly repeating the “eh?” in a conversation. The problem, as he himself explains, is that this postponement has consequences such as progressive isolation, professional insecurity and an emotional impact that goes beyond the hearing.

From Gaes they insist that this is where one of the great brand challenges lies. Unlike sight, hearing loss continues to carry a negative social burden. The collective imagination continues to be anchored in terms like “sonotone”, while technology has radically advanced in design, size and performance. “Today we wear headphones without questioning it, but there is still reluctance towards hearing aids. Communication plays a fundamental role there”points out García Trillo.

In this sense, the brand’s strategy is not only aimed at the potential end user, but also at their closest environment, especially in the age group of 35 to 55 years. “We talk to the family member because many times they are the one who detects the problem first and can help take the first step”explains the manager, underlining the importance of having public references that help break stigmas and normalize the conversation, as is the case of José Corbacho or as Juan Ramón Lucas was a few years ago also as a brand prescriber.

The campaign also highlights the role of the hearing professional as a key figure in the entire process. From GAES they remember that expert advice goes far beyond the purchase of a device. Protocols, personalized calibration, monitoring, cleaning, pedagogy and human support are part of the differential value that the brand wants to highlight compared to a conversation that tends to focus on price. “The advice of a hearing care professional is not only for those who already know they have a hearing problem, but also for those who begin to notice small changes or simply want to take care of themselves”said García Trillo.

From a medical point of view, audiologist Esther Zaballos, a Gaes professional in Madrid, recalled during the presentation of the campaign that not treating hearing loss in time can lead to cognitive deterioration, frustration or social isolation. Prevention, he insisted, is fundamental and involves both information and social normalization.

In terms of business, Gaes operates nearly 700 centers in Spain, with a particularly relevant presence in large cities and areas with an aging population, which places it among the main retailers in the sector due to capillarity. The launch of this campaign is accompanied by a multichannel media plan that includes television, radio and outdoor, with the aim of achieving broad and sustained coverage throughout Spanish society.

The campaign does not aim to idealize hearing or hide existing reluctance. On the contrary, it assumes that factors such as aesthetics or fear of what people will say continue to weigh. Precisely for this reason, Gaes claims its responsibility as a brand in a category that still has a long way to go, also in terms of communication.

As Corbacho ironically noted during the presentation, “sometimes not listening seems like an advantage”. But giving up hearing well, and everything that that implies in terms of relationship, self-esteem and quality of life, is still too great a loss and, from Gaes, the purpose is to face its responsibility as a brand in this reality.