Wessex
Case studies
Background
CooperVision is of one of the world’s largest contact lens manufacturers renowned for its focus and expertise on all day lens comfort in the widest variety of lens designs, materials and wearing options.
The company has a number of lenses in the UK market and prides itself on its strong relationships with opticians. The ophthalmology market has always been seen as the gatekeeper to accessing consumers – they have the power to prescribe the lens and often only market brands that will deliver the maximum profit.
CooperVision launched its premier lens product – Proclear 1 Day – to the consumer market in 2007. It is set to be the company’s biggest selling contact lens due to the daily disposable modality. With the saturation of the daily disposable contact lens market, winning the hearts and minds of opticians as well as creating a key differentiator for the product was required to ensure the lens performed well in the marketplace.
The company took an unorthodox route previously unexplored by its competitors and formed a fundraising partnership with the charity Breast Cancer Care, whereby £1 from every month’s supply of Proclear 1 Day sold would be donated to the charity.
Remarkable was tasked with devising a PR campaign to launch the Proclear 1 Day charity partnership to opticians across the UK.
Objectives
- Position Proclear 1 Day as the best daily disposable contact lens on the market
- Raise awareness of the Proclear 1 Day and Breast Cancer Care partnership among opticians
- Engage and involve opticians in the Breast Cancer Care partnership
- Achieve significant and memorable trade press coverage
- Contribute to sales of Proclear 1 Day
Planning and Implementation
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October 2007) was identified as the ideal vehicle from which to launch the partnership, given the topical and high profile nature of this annual fundraising month in the national media.
Testing the concept
It was agreed that due to the sensitivity involved with the charity Breast Cancer Care, research would be conducted to find out what the potential consumer perceptions of a commercially-focused partnership between CooperVision and the charity would be. A representative sample of more than 1,500 consumers was surveyed; the results confirmed the positive intentions of CooperVision and alleviated any concerns.
Maximising the media opportunity
With the optical industry press being a hugely influential and powerful reach / delivery medium for opticians, Remarkable dedicated a large part of the campaign to trade media relations. This comprised:
- Journalist ambassadors
Remarkable worked to secure journalist ‘ambassadors’ in the top tier optical publications to rally behind the Proclear 1 Day / Breast Cancer Care partnership by reporting on it regularly and in a positive way.
- Journalist briefings
One-to-one pre-launch briefings were secured with the top tier editors in the optical press and the UK managing director of CooperVision, which provided a platform from which to brief and consult the editors about the product launch and partnership and secure their support early on.
A campaign fact sheet was prepared and issued to all optical press outlining the partnership, the rationale behind it, and frequently asked questions.
- Launch press releases and features
An embargoed launch press release was prepared and timed for placement in the optical press at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a number of significant features secured.
- Optician magazine – making masthead history
The editor of Optician agreed to turn the publication’s masthead pink (usually blue) for the first time in its history to mark the launch of the partnership.
- Ongoing media relations
Subsequent ‘drip feed’ press information and updates were distributed regularly to the optical media, including fundraising milestones.
Turning optician windows pink
To support the media activity around the partnership, Remarkable worked with CooperVision to devise an interactive element to the campaign which would engage opticians and ensure high profile in-store presence for Proclear 1 Day.
A competition to create the best ‘pink window’ was launched nationally to over 5,000 opticians during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A series of pre-launch mailings were distributed to opticians culminating in the delivery of a pink ‘point of sale’ starter pack containing a number of decorative items to help opticians get started.
Entries were submitted via photographs and the competition prize was a £5,000 donation to local Breast Cancer Care services for the winning optician.
Hitting the catwalk
Breast Cancer Care’s flagship event is the annual Fashion Show at London’s Grosvenor Hotel. CooperVision become one of the primary sponsors of the Fashion Show which provided a high profile brand awareness opportunity. Remarkable conducted pre- and post-event media relations in the optical press and invited the main trade press editors to sit on the top table at the show.
Pink day
To demonstrate their belief in the partnership and communicate this to opticians, a ‘pink day’ was held at CooperVision’s head office involving all staff dressing in pink and raising money through fun events such as custard pie throwing and pink cake sales. This provided a number of media opportunities.
Building the brand
To complement the promotion of the Proclear 1 Day and Breast Cancer Care partnership, an underlying programme of corporate brand-building PR was implemented. This included setting up feature interviews, organising head office and manufacturing visits for key editors, lining up ‘exclusives’ for the main optical publications, and ensuring a drip feed of regular press releases.
Evaluation
- The trade press coverage generated around the launch of the partnership included full-page features in the top three optical publications and the historical masthead colour change in Optician magazine, equivalent to £75,000 in advertising spend.
- The corporate brand-building PR programme generated two high profile feature articles about CooperVision and its future, including a front page and double page inside spread in both Optometry Today and Optician magazines.
- Hundreds of entries were received for the pink window competition with a huge amount of support
- CooperVision cited Remarkable’s media achievements as ‘unprecedented in the optical industry’. The campaign was complimented upon favourably by the optician industry and CooperVision’s main competitors were bitterly disappointed that they did not think of it first
- CooperVision’s salesforce used this as their main talking point with opticians and used statistics to encourage others to participate
- Sales of Proclear 1 Day doubled during the campaign period
Budget
Campaign budget band: A