It’s like waiting for the bus, none come along for an hour and then three arrive all at once. In this case not buses but positive advertising for optical practice. For years we have wanted to see a concerted effort that tells the general public about the benefits of an optical practice, separate from the continual diet of half price and two-for-one advertising. We know if the public sees a message often enough then the message is reinforced. Hence, I was delighted to see in September a number of health-related campaigns targeting the optical industry.
Firstly at the beginning of September we saw the announcement of a tie-up between the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Specsavers, backed by a very impressive media campaign. At the moment it is difficult not to see a billboard that tells us 14 million people haven’t had their eyes tested in the past two years, as recommended, and six million people are at risk of sight loss as they’re living with sight-threatening conditions. Looking at both the RNIB and Specsavers websites, various press releases and social media we learn the cost of sight loss, ie the direct medical costs and the indirect costs associated with it, account for about £28 billion per year in the UK alone, and yet half of sight loss is avoidable. The message is that if we can prevent sight loss, just by educating people to have eye tests, the economic implications for the UK alone would justify it, even in the absence of all the visual benefits that we would give to people. I’m sure this will be a sustained campaign as Specsavers and RNIB have a three-year venture designed to improve eye health, through encouraging everyone to look after their eyes and their sight.
The ‘marmite’ of the UK optical industry, Specsavers, love ’em or hate ’em – you have to congratulate them for this initiative. The detractors will say this is purely to drive the public into their practices, however, clearly if a company with the profile and marketing muscle of Specsavers says something the public pay attention, and that can only be a good thing with a halo effect for the whole industry.
In the middle of the month, the Association of British Dispensing Opticians launched a media campaign based on commissioned research that described the ‘sandwich generation’ – those who are ‘sandwiched’ between looking after young children and aging parents. This group is becoming presbyopic and is at increasing risk of eye disease, while still perceiving themselves too young for both glasses and eye disease. While this group looks after others they neglect themselves, in particular not having regular eye examinations. The ongoing campaign by ABDO includes radio, media interviews and social media and once more will raise the profile of the importance of regular eye examinations for everyone in the UK.
Finally, to round off September, we see the seventh annual National Eye Health Week (NEHW) bringing together the optical profession to raise awareness of the importance of eye health. The message of NEHW is very similar to the other two campaigns mentioned, ie have your eyes examined, with an added emphasis on the importance of lifestyle choices such as smoking, diet and UV protection. During the week there were eye health messages in national newspapers, radio interviews, social media updates and many organisations around the country running awareness days. Where NEHW also adds value is that the material produced is available not only to optical practices, but also to other eye care charities, NHS organisations including clinical commissioning groups, GP practices and other health professionals. So NEHW does a good job in educating the wider health community, who in turn can use the material provided to educate their patients.
Put this all together and September was a pretty good month for the optical industry. The key will be to continue this work – as already stated; the more a message is repeated the more the public is likely to take action as a result. Ideally the whole of the sector would get together to run one campaign, however, we live in a competitive world and different organisations will want to combine the overall health message together with drawing attention to their particular brand.
It would be interesting to know if the three September campaigns had any degree of knowledge of what the others were doing, or as I suspect, the cumulative September effect was coincidental? Hence the icing on the cake would be if campaigns continued, but with some degree of co-operation and co-ordination to achieve a sum of the whole greater than the individual parts.
