Title	THE URBAN EYE TEST
Brand	OCO OPTOMETRISTS
Product/Service	OCO OPTOMETRISTS
Category	G01. Local Brand
Entrant	McCANN HEALTH London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	McCANN HEALTH London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Adrian Parr	McCann Health London	Executive Creative Director
Guy Swimer	McCann Health London	Creative Director
Steve Woodliffe	McCann Health	Design Director

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

This was a direct response, non-traditional outdoor/ambient media-driven campaign, to encourage direct interaction from a specific audience, to gain a measurable response.

Background

OCO Opticians are a small, family-owned business in London. But the last 2yrs have seen a number of well-funded competitors enter the local area and ultimately, jeopardise the exclusivity of OCO, leading to loss of income for the local community's fashionable eyewear boutique. OCO wanted to boost sales and footfall by encouraging their target audience of urban 25-34yr olds to visit to the store and take a free eye test. But previous social & targeted Facebook campaigns had very little effect. Most people understand the importance of eye tests, but they tend to put off taking them and 'soldier on' with poor eyesight. We wanted to change this and disrupt the audience to take action. So, we tried something new.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

The reality is that whilst we believe eye health is important to us, we don’t do anything about it. We wanted to change this and disrupt the audience to take action. During Oct 2018, twelve coded floor panels were placed on streets and sidewalks around Central London, encouraging Londoners to check their eyesight using the urban environment around them. Each site was assessed by an optometrist, and we used pub signs, shop signs, clock towers, road signs & murals, challenging the public to read them. If they had any difficulty, a QR code enabled them to book a free eye test at OCO Opticians via their smartphone. We placed the floor panels in high footfall locations and tailored the 'challenge' on each panel with something locally relevant.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

When analyzing the booking system at OCO, we uncovered that despite having a team ready to test up to 24 patients per day, eye tests were at less than 50% capacity. OCO’s challenge was to persuade their audience of affluent ABC1 25-34yr olds to visit to the store and take eye tests. But previous offline & targeted Facebook campaigns had very little effect. Most leading high street opticians in the UK promote discount eye tests to drive footfall into store. Done with enough traditional media spend behind it, it can sometimes be effective. But for OCO competing with the vast ad budgets of the multiples wasn’t an option - they needed advertising that and targeted people at the exact time they were thinking about getting their eyes tested so they couldn’t put it off and 'soldier on' with poor eyesight. We wanted to disrupt them to take immediate action.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Twelve trackable floor panels were placed on streets and sidewalks around Central London. Each panel set an individual challenge e.g. ‘Can you tell the exact time on the church clock from here?’ ‘Can you read the words on the pillar?’ ‘Which year was the pub built?’ If the test exposed short or long-sightedness, a unique QR code tagged to each location enabled people to book an eye test via their smartphone, providing individual response data for each location in realtime. At 1200 x 800 mm, each panel was checked by an optometrist using the Snellen Visual Acuity scale, with a QR code 150-180mm wide, based on use of a smartphone camera from 1500 mm away The panels were made from AlumiGraphics, designed for all weather conditions, utilizing vivid colours for high contrast against grey sidewalk/city environment.

List the results (30% of vote)

During the first two weeks of the activity, eye test bookings at OCO were 12x the weekly average, generating a 94% uplift from the same period in the year before. The campaign performed 3x better than any previous advertising, with 1 in 2 people who tried the floor panels going on to book a test. Across the campaign, the store received was 12x the footfall from the same period in October 2017, and the opening day of the activity led to the highest recorded day of sales since the store opened.

Please tell us about the brand in relation to the locality or market where the product / service is distributed

OCO Opticians are a small, family-owned business in London. But the last 2yrs have seen a number of well-funded competitors enter the local area and ultimately, jeopardise the exclusivity of OCO, leading to loss of income for the local community's fashionable eyewear boutique.