Earlier this year, Oral-B launched the world’s first connected toothbrush to help consumers improve their oral health. The brand sought inspiration for this new product by crowdsourcing ideas on eYeka, asking our community of consumers what a connected electrical toothbrush should offer to change their lives for the better. The outcome of this contest has not only helped Oral-B bring these innovations to market and fuel the brand’s innovation pipeline for the years to come, but it also just earned P&G a German Design Award 2015.
The Oral-B SmartSeries 7000 is the world’s first connected electric toothbrush, which connects via Bluetooth Smart technology to the Oral-B app, creating a simple and intuitive combination of hardware and software. The app acts like an oral care personal trainer, providing real-time guidance while you brush, and recording brushing activity that you can share with dental professionals, helping to create smarter and more personalized brushing routines. eYeka helped along the way of creating this innovation, as Stephen Squire, BFO Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble explains in the below video:
To accelerate the development of the world’s first connected toothbrush, Oral-B launched an unbranded contest on eYeka‘s crowdsourcing platform in 2012 to seek original ideas on what such a product could offer consumers. In just 22 days, Oral-B received 67 unique and innovative ideas from community members in 24 countries across the globe. Out of these 67 creative ideas, Oral-B selected three winning ideas that came from Yao Peipei from China (« YPPP1117 » on eYeka), Javier Alcázar from Spain (« Moebius » on eYeka) and Thibault Berrido from France (« Thaubyas » on eYeka), who shared €2,500 of prize money.
Image via designpreis.de
These three winning ideas, as well as the whole set of creative contributions, were analyzed by eYeka, and have helped Oral-B develop and bring to market a branded smartphone app to market in September 2013. This was followed in February 2014 by the launch of Oral-B’s SmartSeries, the world’s first ever Bluetooth connected toothbrush which leverages the app’s technology to help consumers get the most from their oral care routines.
Oral-B’s SmartSeries 7000 electrical bluetooth toothbrush, along with the app designed by the Braun Design Team – icon mobile group, just won a German Design Award 2015 in the category « Excellent Communications Design – Interactive User Experience » from the German Design Council.
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We would like to warmly congratulate Oral-B‘s team who worked on this project. in today’s competitive marketplace, brands need to bring innovations that stand-out to market fast if they want to meet consumers’ ever increasing expectations, and the fact that the German Design Council rewards this revolutionary product shows that crowdsourcing with consumers can help the world’s biggest brands deliver breakthroughs that resonate with consumers.
