Through nationwide research, we determined that with the rise of the internet, many Canadians are opting out of getting regular vision check-ups and relying on the internet to diagnose and monitor their eye health instead of getting an eye exam from a trusted eye care professional (ECP). In an effort to raise awareness of the importance of getting regular vision exams, Essilor Canada tasked us to develop a campaign that nudged consumers back into the offices of professionals across the country.

The objectives of the campaign were to:

1 - Increase awareness on the importance of eye health

2 - Generate 90K visits to the campaign microsite

3 - Encourage website visitors to use the eye care professional locator search tool and book an appointment with an ECP

We knew that a straight forward approach wouldn’t convince people to be more proactive when it comes to eye care. However, we also knew that more and more people were turning to self-proclaimed “experts” rather than professionals for advice. To show people how ridiculous it was to trust a stranger on the internet with your health, we implemented a bait and switch strategy with the creation of a fictional “Eye Guy” character. We launched our fully integrated campaign with a hilarious video featuring our Eye Guy demonstrating his “Eye-robics” exercises that went from possible to impossible, before switching to our message to only trust the experts with your eye health. By showing our audience that sometimes seeing isn’t believing, we were able to convince them that when it comes to your eyes, it’s best to have a professional take a look.

Using the hero video and traditional advertising, digital communications and PR, we drove consumers to the microsite where they could find local ECPs and book appointments.

We targeted millennials with sophisticated online behavior and millennials that may not understand the role of ECPs. We also targeted older Canadians with health interests.

Target channels included:

Traditional advertising: We reached both French and English Canadians through subway and bus shelter advertisements in three Canadian cities – Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Digital communications: Through paid social, digital programmatic display, and search, we drove a high volume of traffic to the microsite, resulting in a high-volume of clicks and a strong increase in foot traffic to ECPs.

The campaign occurred nationwide from October 3 to November 30, 2018 with some tactics focused on the key markets of Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto.

This campaign featured a two-pronged approach that focused on driving broad awareness with our target audiences and retargeted them to drive conversions in the latter half of the campaign for higher web engagement and conversions.

The iterative digital media strategy was continually optimized for performance. We also tested diverse creative across digital and social channels that contributed to key learnings on the most impactful channels when we continued with phase two of the campaign in early 2019.

For public relations, we leveraged the overall narrative of the Eye-robics DIY Eye Health Campaign and the timeliness of World Sight Day (Oct 11) to conduct nation-wide media pitching. All public relations activities focused on raising awareness of eye health and encouraging Canadians to get an eye exam.

Through digital and social re-targeting we were able to move our audience from awareness to consideration. Paired with our compelling creative, we were able to shift consumer behaviour and achieve our objectives:

1.5 million views on YouTube. Achieved a 49% view rate, 77% higher than channel benchmarks.

216,000 visits to the microsite. 67% of web sessions resulted in an ECP locator search.

145,000 people searched for an eye care professional.

In terms of engagement, we saw 1.3% CTR and 1.4% engagement rate on paid social, bringing users lower down the funnel to web conversion.