In a first for contact lens maker Acuvue, the Toronto-based company is capitalizing on its product’s potential to be more than just visual aid. Its wide-ranging ‘Eye Candy’ promotion – a partnership with Ford Models Canada and Neutrogena – leverages the ‘2 Colours’ brand lenses as fashion statement in order to raise awareness and increase lens purchases among teens. The program ran for two months and ended June 6.
Cheryl Burt, product director at Acuvue, says the multifaceted nature of the campaign – including booths at Famous Players Theatres – isn’t what’s different for the company. ‘The difference this year is we’re really focused on growing the [disposable contact lens] category,’ she says. ‘As leaders in the industry, that’s what we should do.’
Acuvue is embarking on a strategy that will pay more attention to its consumer business rather than doctors’ offices where it has traditionally concentrated its efforts. However, Burt declines to define the shift in dollar terms saying, ‘We know that close to four out of 10 new contact lens wearers [are] teens aged 12 to 17.’
‘We’re always looking for the balance of dealing with the eye-care professionals and making sure they have the materials that they need to sell our product and at the same time we want to drive consumers in to ask for our product.’
Burt says Acuvue’s marketing previously focused on a slightly older demo, 18 to 24, ‘so that focus [on 12 to 17] is new for us.’ She adds that teens represent a ‘large portion’ of ‘considerers’ – people interested in contacts but who haven’t yet purchased.
The promo offered young consumers a chance to win a one-year contract with Ford Models Canada and a professional fitting of a year’s supply of Acuvue contact lenses. People between the ages of 16 and 24 could nominate either themselves, a friend or family member, by supplying a photo of said person to Acuvue for a chance to win. Two winners, one male, one female, will be announced July 7 by a panel of experts from Ford Models and Acuvue parent company Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. The total spend for the promo is just under $200,000 and the company expected to reach one million people through all marketing channels.
It may seem strange that it took this long before what appears to be a natural alliance between the contact lens maker and fashion was formed, but Burt says the product lineup at Acuvue in past years didn’t lend the company to an alliance. But its ‘2 Colours’ line allows wearers to change the colour of their eyes.
‘Obviously it has a little more of a fashion flair to it so it makes a partnership with Ford Models and Neutrogena a pretty easy mix,’ says Burt. Three new colours, Hazel Green, Chestnut Brown and Sapphire Blue were introduced last month.
Eye Candy’s promotional vehicles included weekend booths at Famous Players Theatres in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal during the course of May, where contest hopefuls were treated to a photographer and makeup artist. There was also a mix of print and online ads, including executions in What Magazine, Fashion 18, Adorable, Filles D’Aujourd’hui, Cool Magazine and buttons on www.MuchMusic.ca; and display stands at select eye care professional offices across Canada.
At each touchpoint, consumers were either handed nomination booklets on the spot that could be mailed in, or were directed to the Web site, www.eyecandy.acuvue.ca, where they could also enter the contest.
Burt says Acuvue is very pleased with results. By early June, 550 legal submissions had been received, 120 of those online. Acuvue also expects to see an increase in box purchases, from one- and two-box packages to four-box packages (a six-month supply of lenses). The Neutrogena gift offer (valid to June 30), whereby lens purchasers must mail in four box tops to receive Neutrogena products, is also expected to help increase sales of the four-box packages.
‘I would have thought if we received 300 entries into the contest that would be great,’ says Burt. ‘We’re going to more than double that so I’m happy.’ She adds that Web site traffic (from buttons on www.MuchMusic.ca, www.adorable.qc.ca, www.whatmagnet.com, www.fashion18.com, www.fazeteen.com and the Eye Candy site) has been ‘big’ though figures were not available.
‘If that all translates into raising awareness about contact lenses and educating teens and young adults on eye health, then it’s been a win-win situation for all of us.’
