Vision Express Marketing and PR

Dig For Fire case study
 
 
Client: Vision Express
Marketing Campaign: “Whoops, somebody needs an eye test”
Timescale: Three months
Budget: Undisclosed
 
Brief
 
Deliver a high profile campaign to make Vision Express and its eye exam famous. The Dig For Fire PR team was asked to raise awareness of the need for regular eye exams and position Vision Express as a professional provider of these
 
Must haves were:
1. Make Vision Express famous
2. Impact on behaviour
3. Increase word of mouth

Objectives

- Position Vision Express as a leading source of optical based news

- Create increased awareness and coverage for the brand
 
Strategy
 
To generate attention online:
 
- Shake up the middle ground and break away from convention.

- Encourage a younger audience to talk about Vision Express

- Set the scene on-line to complement all planned ‘offline’ activity
 
Offline – seizing the initiative:

- Use unconventional, outdoor ‘events’ to tell the story

- Partner with a credible third party organisation to reinforce the eye test message

- Launch the campaign to the national media

- Ensure that all age groups are targeted
 
Implementation:

Dig For Fire created the microsite whoopseyetest.com to launch the campaign.
 
Linked to the eye test booking facility at the Vision Express website, whoopseyetest.com introduced the Whoops campaign.

It hosted a fun and quirky film, encouraging the audience to send the film onto a friend and win money by sending in their own ‘whoops’ films.
 
The campaign also used a banner ad to direct traffic from the Vision Express site to the less conventional whoopseyetest.com site.
 
Dig For Fire negotiated a third-party link up with the RAC and research was commissioned to identify the dangers associated with driving and poor eye sight.
 
Following analysis of the results a news story was created around the fact that 28 per cent of people aged 20-29 admit they have problems reading street and road signs.
 
In order to generate impact off-line and create a visual shock tactic Dig For Fire set up a fake car crash at the Nottingham Vision Express branch. The scene was set to look as if a car had skidded off the road and into the shop window.
 
To create greater message retention, a 3D 96-sheet was displayed at the prime London location of Vauxhall Cross, to give the illusion that a car had crashed through the billboard, again highlighting the importance of having clear vision whilst driving. 

A creative press pack was designed which included the news story about the car crash, survey results on young drivers, news on Brits struggling with their eyesight at work, information on what an eye test really involves and healthy eye tips from Vision Express optometrists.

This press pack was sent to all national newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets.
 
Results and evaluation
 
Securing definitive coverage on the basis that the campaign focused on a hard news story Dig For Fire worked with the BBC who reported the results extensively across its TV and radio news bulletins. 
 
Coverage was achieved with:

BBC Breakfast

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 4

Radio Five Live

BBC News 24

ITV Central 

BBC online

All other media were targeted with the campaign separately generating additional results and creating a further drive for word of mouth coverage.
 
Print coverage generated included:

Nottingham Evening Post

Manchester Evening News

Sunday Mercury

Eastwood and Kimberley Advertiser

Evening Chronicle

Chronicle and Echo

Lincolnshire Echo

Accrington Observer

On-line coverage achieved included:

Teletext

Optician Magazine

Optician On-line

Optometry Today On-line

World Entertainment News Network

Larsoa On-line

Injury Watch On-Line

Mumsnet On-line blog

Cycling Plus On-line blog 

The total audience reach for the campaign was calculated at 21,506,424 reporting an overall PR value of £1,434,677.