We set a new standard for accessible packaging without the need to re-design packaging or re-stock shelves. By reimagining the power of barcodes, we instantly made thousands of products within Haleon’s brand portfolio accessible. Our solution to use existing barcodes and collaborate with Microsoft to enhance the Seeing AI app’s barcode scanner allowed us to give immediate and unprecedented access to the safety information on product labels for those who have trouble seeing or reading.

The choice to collaborate with Microsoft’s SeeingAI app was strategic, as it is a leading accessibility app for the visually impaired. We brought them an idea to enhance the functionality of the app’s existing barcode scanner mechanism, a feature that previously only identifed a product name and price.

We did have to adhere PAGB’s Consumer Code for Medicines and Supplements, details of which can be found here: https://www.pagb.co.uk/codes-guidance/otc-medicines-advertising-code/.

Furthermore, we had to adhere to the PAGB social media code, details on the following link: https://www.pagb.co.uk/advertising-guidance-social-media-pagb/ for the influencer element of the campaign.

Important safety information is written on every consumer healthcare product label. But there are hundreds of millions of people with trouble seeing or reading who don't have equal access to this information. 93% of visually impaired people said they don’t feel health products are accessible enough and almost 1 in 5 have taken the wrong dosage because they couldn’t read the packaging effectively. Knowing that creating accessible packaging is often time-consuming and hard to reproduce at scale, we came up with a way to make every Haleon pack accessible, leveraging the one element on every packaged good: barcodes. We collaborated with Microsoft to enhance the Seeing AI app, enabling the barcode scanner to read information like dosage and safety warnings from Haleon products aloud. We reimagined what a barcode could do and created Access Codes: the world’s first barcodes that speak all the important information from our labels aloud.

We partnered with Microsoft starting in June 2021. Access Codes PR launched on 13th October, 2022 which was World Sight Day and the full campaign launched in UK on 3rd November, 2022. A larger worldwide launch is underway, starting in the US.

Through a collaboration with Microsoft's Seeing AI, we enhanced the functionality of the app’s barcode scanner. We programmed the language on every Haleon product’s label within its barcode, effectively converting Haleon barcodes into Access Codes: the world’s first barcodes that speak all the important information from our labels aloud. Now anyone with trouble seeing or reading can scan any Haleon product barcode and hear information such as ingredients, usage instructions, dosage, safety warnings, expiration dates, etc. read aloud. Access Codes are a permanent solution to make every Haleon label accessible and can be easily adapted and adjusted digitally as any language changes for a product.

Longterm, the plan is to make Access Codes available for all Haleon products, globally. Currently this process is underway as Access Codes rollout in the US.

After launch in the UK, we saw the following results:

53% of consumers aware of Haleon trust the brand over competitors.

Familiarity with Haleon increased +40% and 10x more people now associate Haleon with "making everyday health more accessible."

There were 10x more downloads of the Seeing AI app. With an estimated 2.5 million people downloading the app.

The 2022 full-year report saw Haleon price growth of +4.3% and volume growth of 4.7%.

Access Codes generated over 547 million impressions for the brands. 67% of them audio, reaching the very people who would benefit most from Access Codes.