To break from traditional elements of a film marketing campaign and create global buzz for the Apple Original film “CODA” without paid media, we partnered with Apple Music to develop a first-of-its-kind playlist. “A Playlist Curated by Deaf People” is the first playlist ever created by members of the Deaf community. The 175+ songs were selected by Deaf contributors, and designed to be enjoyed by all. We elevated liner notes to share insights into how they experience music and why their song selections resonate with them — teaching hearing individuals that Deaf people enjoy music in their own magical way.

The film “CODA” portrays the journey of a Deaf family learning to understand their hearing daughter's love for singing and music. In an emotional scene, the protagonist's father puts his hands on her neck to feel the vibration of her vocal cords while she sings — connecting to her artistry for the first time and teaching viewers that Deaf people experience the magic of music in different ways.

To celebrate the film’s release, we set out to create the most accessible campaign ever. Every piece of the campaign — a TikTok sign (and sing) along challenge, mobile-first accessible social content, and a music playlist — was built for a Deaf audience.

Our objective was to create conversation within and beyond the Deaf community, reaching audiences that would fall in love with the film “CODA.”

Music and Deafness are central themes in “CODA,” so to promote it we created “A Playlist Curated by Deaf People.”

A music playlist made by and for Deaf people might seem counterintuitive to hearing people, but it made perfect sense to people in the Deaf community. Many Deaf people enjoy music, they just experience it differently than the hearing.

To create something that would resonate with a Deaf and hard of hearing audience, we partnered with Apple Music and 14 influential members of the Deaf community with strong relationships to music: dancers, DJs, artists, and musical ASL performers. These contributors curated an Apple Music playlist of 176 songs — the first official playlist for the Deaf community on any streaming platform. Accompanying the playlist were special "liner notes" where each contributor explained why they chose their songs, what made them special, and how they experience music.

The film went to great lengths in order to accurately represent an often underrepresented community in an accessible way. This was core to our promotion of the film and ultimately inspired us to create “A Playlist Curated by Deaf People” — promoting inclusivity in a space that often overlooked the Deaf community.

We connected with over a dozen Deaf and hard of hearing individuals to develop the playlist, each offering a different perspective, and ran all elements of the campaign through multiple Deaf consultants to ensure it was presented thoughtfully and true to the Deaf experience.

To promote the playlist, we created a 60-second video featuring “CODA” film star and Oscar Winner, Troy Kotsur, and renowned Deaf dancer, Shaheem Sanchez, for Apple TV and Apple Music social channels. To further extend our reach, the artists featured on the playlist received bespoke promotional videos featuring their selected tracks.

We partnered with Apple Music to leverage the reach of their platform and released “A Playlist Curated by Deaf People'' in September 2021 during Deaf Awareness Month.

To promote the Apple Music playlist, we created a 60-second video featuring “CODA” film star and Oscar Winner, Troy Kotsur, and renowned Deaf dancer, Shaheem Sanchez, for Apple TV and Apple Music social channels. To further extend our reach, we created assets for the talent, Deaf contributors, record labels, and playlist artist channels on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

In the lead up to the release, we partnered with Deaf creators and launched a TikTok Hashtag challenge inviting users to sign (or sing) along to a popular song from the film. This resulted in 6.2B views of the hashtag #CODAduets and 38.3M plays across all official videos on Apple TV’s TikTok and introduced audiences to the idea that many Deaf people enjoy music.

Without any investment in paid media, “A Playlist Curated by Deaf People” was picked up by music magazines, blogs, and news outlets across the world including CNBC (US), The Daily Star (UK), HypeBeast (CN), Canal+‘s Jack coverage and 20 Minutes’ Journalist Fabien Randanne (FR). While the press helped with organic reach, the most impactful outcome of all was the outpouring of sentiment and support from the Deaf community, including “CODA” film star and Oscar-Winning Actress, Marlee Matlin.

Fans around the world tweeted, posted, and shared their love for the playlist, with Deaf fans recounting similar stories to those in the liner notes, on the impact music has on their lives. One fan commented, “I absolutely love this so much. It’s a whole different way of feeling the music with people and that's beautiful.” Another, “I LOVE THIS!!! Hearing folks, try turning off your ears and feeling the music.”

There is a barrier between the hearing world and the Deaf community. Accessibility tools in entertainment are minimal, and representation is even less. “CODA” bridges the gap, illustrating the similarities between the two and paving the way for Deaf artists to tell their stories.

This film inspired us to give Deaf influencers, dancers, musicians, and artists a platform to share their passion and deeply moving relationship with music on a global scale, bringing awareness to the Deaf experience.