luxottica: penny the pirate - western sydney universitystc2.uws.edu.au/crproj/penny.pdfluxottica:...

Luxottica: Penny the Pirate

Cannes Creative Lions

Bronze, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2015

Luxottica: Penny the Pirate

Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney

What were the objectives for the creative work?

Vision care is a low-involvement category, where consumers are generally satisfied with the quality of what they're already

getting – it's good enough. OPSM, as the premium player facing an aggressive low-price competitor in Specsavers, had to

change this dynamic to justify its prices.

Clayton Christensen in The Innovators Solution1 tells us that sustaining innovations (i.e. building a better mousetrap) is not an

effective strategy in these situations, as consumers see no value in the added benefit. Therefore, advertising alone was not

going to solve this problem. As the premium player OPSM would have to pursue what Christensen calls new-market

innovations where performance is lower on 'traditional' attributes, but improved in new attributes (typically simplicity and

convenience), targeting new groups of consumers (non-consumption) as opposed to those who are already in the market.

A rigorous analysis of various consumer groups identified children as an ideal target for two key reasons:

1. Regular eye tests are important for children, but their eye health was being neglected by their parents2.

2. When it comes to their child's health, parents are generally less willing to compromise on quality.

Besides allergies and asthma, eye problems are the most common long-term health issue experienced by children3 with one in

six children experiencing an eye problem at some point in their childhood4.

The Optometrists' Association of Australia recommends children begin having regular eye tests before they begin school5.

However, in reality children weren't having regular eye tests at all6 – which meant many vision were going undetected.

As much as 80% of the learning a child does occurs through their eyes7. For this reason early detection (and rectification) of

vision problems in children is critical. A child with a vision problem is not only at a disadvantage now, but has the potential to

be at a disadvantage for the rest of their life.

Therefore, the objectives for the creative work were as follows:

Commercial: Long-term sustained volume growth in children's eye tests and eyewear sales.

Marketing: Acquisition of new customers (penetration).

Communication: Strengthen brand appeal and quality perceptions; driving parents to action.

Title: Luxottica: Penny the Pirate

Source: Cannes Creative Lions

Issue: Bronze, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2015

Downloaded from warc.com

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Social: Improve the eye health of Australian children.

Background

OPSM has always been committed to delivering superior quality vision care to all Australians - it's ingrained in their culture

and central to their brand promise. It was an alignment of passion and commitment to quality vision care that led Luxottica to

acquire OPSM in 2003, providing a high-margin retail channel for its eyewear product (augmenting its volume wholesale

operations).

For OPSM to deliver value to Luxottica, it must remain a premium player.

Maintaining a market premium was not an issue until Specsavers entered the Australian market six years ago, growing rapidly

to become the clear market share leader (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Total Eyewear & Eye Care Market Share 20138.

Unlike OPSM, Specsavers is more 'mass retailer' than optometrist with a highly efficient, low-cost business model that has

lowered the cost of vision care (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Average Sale Price9.

Specsavers exploit the increasing price sensitivity of Australian consumers with a clear and simply articulated low price

message in communications.


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Figure 3: Examples of Specsavers advertising.

To keep consumers focused on price, Specsavers have rapidly imitated every one of OPSMs product/service innovations.

Figure 4: Examples of Specsavers' imitation of OPSM products/services.

Specsavers then seek to dominate the vision care conversation, driving home its low-price message, with more than double

the media spend of OPSM (Figure 5).

Strategy

Our strategy was to drive 'new market innovation'10 that was not dependent on media spend and could not readily be imitated,

but justified OPSM's price premium through emotional resonance and by providing new benefits.

A campaign focused on children's eye health ticked all these boxes.

What was the strategy behind the creative work?

When it comes to their child's health, nothing is unimportant to parents. However, almost a quarter of Australia's parents had

never taken their kids for an eye test11 – even though they were free (the Australian Government covered the cost of the eye

test, with rebates provided to optometrists).

Why weren't parents getting their child's eyes tested?

Well, the real-world answer was it was simply a bit of a hassle in an otherwise extremely busy day12. Parents would all talk

about taking their child to the optometrists 'one day' (it's never an emergency). Add in the tantrum-potential of an optometrist


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visit (children hate having their eyes poked and prodded), and you find that a child's eye test is a pretty easy task to keep

postponing for even the most well-meaning parent. Especially when it might all be for nothing (their child's vision and eye

health might be fine).

The traditional fear-driven approach (lecturing parents on the importance of good vision to their child's development, imposing

ourselves upon their already busy lives, driving fear, and hopefully badgering them into submission) was clearly going to be

pretty pointless.

Instead, our strategy was to create a more convenient way for parents to get their child's eye health checked, which

was also enjoyable for the child.

By removing these barriers and making checking your child's eyes less of a hassle, more parents would bring their child in for

a full eye test (and purchase eyewear if required).

(NB: While the strategy is against parents, OPSM customer records13 told us that it was overwhelmingly mums who bought

the children in for an eye test, which had implications for execution).

What was the creative work?

The creative solution was turning a little girl called Penny into a swashbuckling pirate!

Penny the Pirate was a world first: A storybook and app that enables parents to screen their child's vision.

Figure 6: Storybook.

Reading is the perfect activity for parents to screen their child's eyes for three reasons:

1. Vision plays a critical role in the activity.

2. Parents have a high degree of control over the activity, allowing for the easy operation of screening tests.

3. Children already enjoy reading with their parents, ensuring it will be fun for the child.

The story follows the journey of a young girl as she tries to become captain of the Mighty Pickle. She has to plunder treasure,

read the Captain's log, and see sails in the distance to prove she's a worthy leader of this brutish bunch of pirates. Parents


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need only read the story to their child, helping them to undertake the simple screening exercises, before uploading the results

online to determine if their child requires a full eye test.

Penny was more than just a storybook, it was a certified medical device, gaining approval from the Therapeutic Goods

Administration of Australia14 – the first device specifically designed for screening children's vision.

Figure 7: App.

We wanted to introduce Penny to as many parents as possible

The storybook was launched in front of a room packed full of mums, dads, and children, as well as media from more than 70

different publications15.

Figure 8: Launch Event.

We contacted parents we already knew, we reached out to schools and libraries16, and we utilised key influencers such as

'mummy bloggers' to drive word-of-mouth (Figure 9).

Figure 9: 'Mummy Bloggers'.

A through-the-line campaign was initiated to drive broader awareness of the Penny the Pirate amongst parents across


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Australia.

Figure 10: TVC.

Figure 11: Digital Banners.

Figure 12: Shopping Centre Activation.

The storybook was freely available at all OPSM stores (at no cost and no purchase necessary) or could be downloaded for

free on Apple or Android tablets. Search was also employed to intercept parents and ensure those looking for the storybook

could find it.

Figure 13: Store Front.

To ensure as many parents as possible could use this device, we created a pass-it-on program to encourage parents to give

the storybook to other friends and family so that they could also screen their child's vision as well.

See Entry Composition page for media investment.


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Penny the Pirate was awarded in Cannes Lions 2014:

l Silver in 'Tablets and Other Devices – Charities, Not For Profit, and Public Information'

l Bronze in 'Dimensional Mailing'

l Bronze in 'Strategy – Acquisitions'

And in Cannes Lions Health 2014 it was awarded:

l Silver in 'Education & Services, Clinics, and Hospitals'

What effect did it have in the market?

Penny the Pirate has been a commercial success, growing children's eye test and eyewear sales volumes

In the 7-months since the launch of Penny the Pirate, there has been a sustained uplift in OPSM's children's eye tests,

showing growth of 22.6% YOY (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Year-On-Year Growth by Month in Children's Eye Test Volume17.

(NB: The lead-up to Christmas is a typically quiet period for children's vision care – for obvious reasons).

There has also been a sustained uplift in OPSM's children's eyewear sales, showing growth of 22.4% YOY (Figure 15).


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Figure 15: Year-On-Year Growth by Month in Children's Eyewear Volume18.

How do we know it was Penny driving these commercial results?

The benchmark for OPSM campaigns is the average performance of all preceding campaigns19 (dating back to 2011).

However, this time we had highly ambitious performance targets set at +20% over this benchmark. The fact that we smashed

these stretch targets on all measures makes Penny the Pirate the most successful campaign OPSM has ever created (Figure

16, Figure 17, Figure 18).

The campaign resonated strongly with parents

Our campaign made a strong impression on the core target audience of mums (the 'gatekeepers' of children's health), finding

the communications highly relevant and appealing (Figure 16).

Figure 16: Campaign Relevance, Appeal, Impression, & Brand ID20.

Importantly, Penny was helping to build the OPSM brand and justify its position as a premium player amongst the wider vision

care audience – counteracting the devaluation of the category by Specsavers (Figure 17).


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Figure 17: Campaign Effect on OPSM Brand Perception21.

Importantly, the campaign was driving mums to action – going in-store to grab a copy of the storybook or downloading it on

their tablet (Figure 18). Demand for Penny the Pirate was so great initially, stores were running out! At the time of writing,

126,335 parents have obtained a copy of Penny the Pirate to check their children's vision (99,545 storybooks + 26,790 apps)

22.

Figure 18: Campaign Impact on customer activity23.

Not only were thousands of parents using Penny to screen their child's vision and detect any underlying issues, but 1 in 3

subsequently booked an eye test appointment24. Many of these were new customers to OPSM (Figure 19).


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Figure 19: Growth in New Customers25.

Penny the Pirate was loved (and valued) by parents and children across the country

Penny the Pirate generated huge PR exposure with over 270 media articles including national newspapers, and a reach of

over 23 million26 (Figure 20).

Figure 20: Examples of PR activity generated by Penny the Pirate.

Parents were raving about Penny the Pirate on social media too (Figure 21).

Figure 21: Examples of social media comments generated by Penny the Pirate.

And what's more, Penny became such a hot item that copies of the storybook were being sold on eBay (which was unusual

since they could be obtained for free in store…).

Figure 22: eBay listing for Penny the Pirate storybook.

Penny the Pirate would have a lasting impact upon children's vision care


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The pass-it-on program will ensure the 126,000+ medical devices continue to be used to help more children with their vision.

OPSM were even finding new applications for this medical device through its OneSight charity, which is using it to screen the

eyes of children in clinics across the country.

Figure 23: Penny the Pirate app being used by OneSight school clinic.

OPSM had readjusted the value equation

Penny the Pirate was a new vision care product that was relevant to children and useful to parents. It took price out of the

equation and delivered additional benefit in a way that drove business results. This creative work had helped OPSM to win a

critical battle in the war against Specsavers. This wasn't a knockout blow, nor was it designed to be, but it was a turning point

– part of a larger, long-term strategy. It was proof that you can remain committed to quality and a premium player in the face of

low-cost, high-volume competitors.

Please explain if there were any other factors that may have impacted on the effectiveness of your campaign.

OPSM did not use econometric modelling at this time. However, other data sources have been used to discount almost all of

the other known factors at play.

Distribution

The number of OPSM stores declined between 2013/14 and 2014/1527.

Seasonality

Children's eye tests increase during the school holidays and decrease in the lead up to Christmas28. However, this impact is

negated as the results are benchmarked against the same period last year.

Pricing

The Australian Government provides access to an eye test at no cost, once every two years. However, this was the same

before the campaign when children's eye tests were in decline.

Promotions

OPSM offered a discount on eyewear to any parent who uploaded their child's results, but as we know from our research29

just 4% of parents said 'costs' was a contributing factor to not getting their child's eyes tested.

Regulatory


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By law optometrists are required to notify customers when it has been two years since their last eye test. This recall CRM

activity did not change during the campaign period (except to incorporate campaign messaging).

Competitive

During the campaign period there was no major competitor activity targeted at children – OPSM were the only ones talking

about children's vision care.

Media

The media investment was relatively small for a national campaign of this duration, with less than AUD $2 million spent on all

media for the campaign over the first 3-months30.

What was the commercial gain for your Client as result of running the creative work?

The benefits for OPSM were three-fold: BUSINESS, BRAND, and SOCIAL.

BUSINESS: Rapid payback

In line with standard accounting practices, ROI for this new medical device was calculated as return on an asset (rather than

an expense – the development of Penny the Pirate was capital expenditure). Assessing the commercial gain from this creative

work over such a short period (at the date of writing we had just 7-months of data) would be like assessing the ROI for a newly

developed drug based on the revenue from the sale of the first pill. Therefore, a 3-year plan was developed to achieve a full

commercial return with a targeted break-even point at 18-months.

Penny is on target to breakeven ahead of its 18-month target. Based on the growth in revenue after the first 7-months, the

profit ROMI will breakeven at 15-months31 (Figure 24).

Figure 24: Return on Marketing Investment32.

Vision care is an on-going requirement and so true commercial gain should take into consideration the lifetime value of new

customers. Due to a range of factors it is not yet possible to reliably calculate lifetime customer value and so this additional

value has not been factored into our calculations – making ROMI figures highly conservative.

BRAND: OPSM had justified its premium positioning


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In a critical result for long-term commercial success in the battle against Specsavers, Penny delivered a strong brand uplift

(Figure 17); improving brand perceptions and helping OPSM to justify its position as the premium player in the vision care

market.

SOCIAL: We had improved the eye health of Australian children

We gave peace of mind to parents who have screened their child(ren)'s vision. What's more we had changed their behaviour,

putting the issue of their child's eye health at the forefront and then helping them to address it.

There are now over 126,000 medical devices out there in the community33, many in circulation thanks to our pass-it-on

program (and with more available from stores and available for download), ensuring that this initiative will have an on-going

effect on children's eye health in this country.

Most importantly, with 1 in 6 children having an eye issue, Penny has helped to improve the lives of at least 21,000 children34

– ensuring their learning and development can continue unencumbered.

And that's the most important payback there is.

What do you think this case adds to our understanding of how creativity can be effective?

This campaign showed how creative agencies need to go beyond traditional advertising to develop effective solutions for their

clients and brands. Too often we go looking for 'ad shaped holes' to apply creativity instead of applying creativity to the actual

business problem.

It is a reminder that just telling people why they should do something isn't always enough – sometimes we also need to provide

real help so they can do it. Changing attitudes isn't always enough, we also have to incite behavioural change – acts, not ads.

In the modern world where instantly is too slow, creative work that delivers immediate results have become the norm. This is a

great example of long-term thinking – investing in a new medical device – by both client and agency.

It is a great example of a premium player taking on a low price competitor and winning. The increasing price sensitivity of

consumers around the globe has led to the domination of low-price competitors – Amazon, Walmart, Samsung. This is proof

that there is another way for established brands to fight back – values, not just value.

Entry composition

Footnotes

1 Christensen, C. The Innovators Solution. Harvard Business School Press, 2003. (Chapter 2)


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2 Lonergan Research. Children's Eye Health Report Australia, 2014.

3 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Eye Health Among Australian Children, 2008. (Page 8)

4 Lonergan Research. Children's Eye Health Report Australia, 2014. (Slide 6)

5 Optometrists' Association of Australia. How Can Parents Help?


7 American Optometric Association. School-aged Vision: 6 to 18 Years of Age, 2012. (Page 1)

8 Growth Solutions Group. CVP Development, 2014 (from IBISWorld 2013). (Slide 8)

9 Growth Solutions Group. CVP Development, 2014. (Slide 14)

10 Christensen, C. The Innovators Solution. Harvard Business School Press, 2003. (Chapter 2)


12 Saatchi & Saatchi. Xploring, 2013. (No Report Created)

13 OPSM Business Data, 2012/14.

14 Therapeutic Goods Administration, Department of Health, Australian Government, 2014.

15 Kids Book Project Recap, 2014. (Slide 12) One Green Bean. Evaluation - OPSM Kids Book, 2014. (Slide 17)

16 Kids Book Project Recap, 2014. (Slide 18) Libraries ACT LUXOTTICA Partnership Agreement, 2014.



19 The Leading Edge. Brand Track 2014: Kids Book Evaluation, 2014.

20 The Leading Edge. Brand Track 2014: Kids Book Evaluation, 2014. (Slides 5,6)

21 The Leading Edge. Campaign Evaluation, 2011/12/13/14.

22 OPSM Marketing Data, 2014. Google Analytics - App Downloads, 2014.

23 The Leading Edge. Brand Track 2014: Kids Book Evaluation, 2014. (Slide 9)

24 OPSM Marketing Data, 2014.


26 One Green Bean. Evaluation - OPSM Kids Book, 2014. (Slide 22)

27 OPSM Store Data, 2013/14/15.


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30 Kids Book Project Recap, 2014. (Slide 9)

31 OPSM Business Data, 2014

32 OPSM Business Data, 2014

33 OPSM Marketing Data, 2014. Google Analytics - App Downloads, 2014.

34 Based on 126,000 eye screenings and 1 in 6 children having an eye issue.

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