After years of promotional advertising, Vision Express was perceived as a store with cheap eye wear. This needed to change as the “discounter” image began to hurt business. The brief: boost sales by building the brand’s super-optician credentials.

According to reports, Poles neglect performing regular eye check-ups. We decided to address this reality. If people were unwilling to go for an eye test, we could bring the eye test to the people.

How? We created the Great Eye Examination program – a social responsibility program that raised public awareness, educated on the key issues and offered everyone a chance to conduct an eye examination at any Vision Express salon, where qualified personnel and top-grade equipment awaited. All people had to do is register.

As a result of the campaign, 50,000 people had their eye checked, while Vision Express could offer eye wear to those who needed it.

The Great Eyesight Examination campaign consisted of ads that looked and worked like an eye-test as headlines were divided into verses of decreasing size. As readers tried to reach their end, the text forced people to strain their vision. Finally, it encouraged them to complete the test at Vision Express. To make an appointment, one could register on-line, call or visit a store. Ads designed in this way were published on billboards, city light posters, press supported by TV spots and on-line banners. Where applicable, headlines were contextual to amplify their effect. For example, at bus stops, posters referred to the numbers of on-coming buses. To highlight the program’s social tint, it was officially endorsed by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s leading newspaper.

The campaign ran for one month, March 2015, according to its original plan.

As a direct result of the campaign, close to 50,000 people registered for an eye exam at Vision Express (that’s double the number of examinations conducted during the same period the year before). Among this grand total, about 25,000 were individuals who had previously not made a purchase at Vision Express, meaning that the campaign was successful in attracting new customers – something the price-promotion campaigns were capable of achieving on a much smaller scale. Finally, the initiative closed with a 50% conversion rate,meaning that half of the examined patients decided to purchase a pair of spectacles immediately after the test.