Acknowledging light’s pivotal role in a person’s ability to enjoy both day and night, Transitions has launched their new advertising campaign: “Live the Good Light.”
The campaign, produced by Havas Lynx, introduces the lens brand to the next generation of eyewear consumers – the highly engaged millennial demographic – by creating an emotional connection and featuring real-life situations where Transitions lenses complement their lifestyle. By highlighting the lenses’ ability to protect wearers in every type of light – both indoors and out – Transitions combats market misperceptions, reiterates the brand’s key benefits, and showcases the stylish aspect of the product.
This is the brand’s first time using a cohesive, multichannel approach to focus so closely on a younger, single vision eyeglass wearer. The campaign reaches millennials across their preferred media channels, leveraging a 360-degree approach to bring the good light to life across broadcast, traditional, print, online, social and owned media channels.
DIVERGE talked to Patience Cook, Director of North America Marketing at Transitions and Joe Marcoux, SVP Creative Director at Havas Lynx to find out more:
Where did the idea for the campaign come from?
Marcoux: The campaign aims to bring the Transitions brand more firmly into “Must Buy” status among all age groups, including the newer millennial audience. To do this, the Havas team explored what mattered most to people, and how Transitions lenses fit in. Their research surfaced four key insights:
- People are exponentially increasing their connections through their eyes, whether it’s in-person, on-line, through photographs, or even augmented vision such as Virtual Reality.
- People are able to personalize their choices from fashion to food, and so they expect to be able to personalize their glasses as well.
- People are increasingly health-conscious, and want to care for their vision as part of their overall health.
- People are aware that the environment around them is increasingly hazardous, so they understand the need to protect their eyes to be able to see all that life has to offer.
Based on these insights, we developed the idea that Transitions lenses let every wearer – regardless of age – love the light. Transitions lenses adapt to changing light (darken when you go outside and fade back to clear when you come back in). So, you don’t have to think about it when you go outside. They seamlessly adapt for the on-the-go lifestyle. The campaign tagline ‘Live the good light’ implies that. Transitions lenses adapt to your movements, wherever you go.
We wanted to capture celebratory moments (both large and small) that go uninterrupted by changing indoor/outdoor light conditions. In addition to their customizable nature, there’s also the added benefit of helping protecting your eyes from harmful light, including UV rays and harmful blue light. When you enjoy light more comfortably, you live life more richly… something that appeals to eyeglass wearers at any age.
Why is it significant?
Cook: It’s significant because while our product is well known and loved by the older generations [high satisfaction and repurchase], younger generations are underrepresented in our wearer base. They often don’t know enough about the product or are thinking about old photochromic technology from 5 to even 15 or more years ago. They may not realize our lenses are now fully clear indoors and have just the right amount of darkness outdoors. Plus our Transitions Signature lenses with Chromea7 technology have the fastest fade-back-to-clear of any Transitions lenses when returning indoors.
Today’s frame styles work great with Transitions lenses, both when clear eyeglasses indoors and when darkened outdoors. The Live the Good Light spot demonstrates this with several wearers, so you can see Transitions lenses paired with very modern frames both indoors and out. Transitions wearers can not only look stylish, but they can also enjoy their interaction with the world safely and comfortably, in any light, without worry.
Additionally, while there’s so much goodness found in light, there are also the elements of light that you need to protect your eyes from. Particularly, blue light, which is emitted by digital devices as well as the sun. Transitions is leading the way to raise awareness for harmful blue light protection in a global advertising campaign. There are many consumers who aren’t aware of this issue. (48% of consumers in the U.S. aren’t aware of blue light)
What kind of response have you gotten from the ad?
Cook: We’ve gotten a very positive initial response when we revealed the new campaign at Transitions Academy, a large industry education event we hold each year around January. Attendees found it to be youthful and modern. They are excited about it.
Eyecare professionals – optometrists and opticians – are excited about it. Their intent to recommend Transitions lenses increased significantly after seeing the campaign, per our copy testing. The spot directs consumers to their eyecare professional to find more information. Part of our brand-building efforts help bring more patients into practices, which may also help with eyeglass sales in general.
In copy testing, it also performed significantly above average on likelihood to buy for both under 45 consumers and 45+ consumers.
Why was diversity a priority in this ad?
Cook: Diversity is important because it represents the world as well as our wearer base. Transitions are for everyone, and can appeal to diversity of age, race, gender, and attitude. Wearers can select the frame and lens they wish to suit their personal style. Transitions celebrates the diversity of the world around us and the multitude of options we provide to suit any wearer’s needs. Our campaign represents different wearers, lifestyles and cultures coming together to share and celebrate life’s good moments.
How important is diversity to Transitions?
Cook: Diversity allows us to be representative of our wearer base, plus allow all potential wearers to be able to see how they could look their best with Transitions lenses paired with eyeglass frames that fit their personal style.
We have found that once aware of our brand, African American and Hispanic wearers have a very high interest in Transitions lenses, and are among the most highly satisfied with the product once they wear it.
Can you elaborate on why this campaign is unique in optical advertising?
Cook: Transitions is leading the way in providing consumers with information about protection from harmful blue light both indoors, and especially outdoors. This is important because while many consumers don’t know about “blue light” specifically, they have an idea that the time they are spending on digital devices and the light those devices emit may impact their eyes. However, among the 52% of consumers who have heard about blue light, most don’t know a lot about it, and only 32% of that group cites the sun as a source of harmful blue light. The sun emits over 100x the intensity of harmful blue light (which explains why the sky is blue) than electronic devices and digital screens.
Additionally, the campaign spans beyond just a single advertisement. We’ve taken a 360-approach to reaching our audiences across their preferred platforms, leveraging social, traditional, earned, and paid media. To further ensure we are positioning the Transitions benefit as relevant for every, we also partner with eyecare professionals to continue the campaign messaging in their offices.
Marcoux: Our campaign tells this important story of indoor and outdoor comfort and protection in the context of people’s lives and in a celebration of a world of light. Our approach goes beyond the technical story of adaptive lenses and eye protection to tell the emotional story of people confidently living a life well lived, joyfully connecting with each other and with the world around them, knowing their eyes will always be comfortable and protected.
Additionally, Transitions adaptive lenses are unique, which is a great thing. To show how these lenses adapt from clear inside to dark outside we used a special camera (Phantom) which shoots at about 800 frames a second compared to 24 frames per second for a typical camera. When we show that footage in ‘real time’ the effect appears slow motion, over that footage we applied a fast-forward lens adaptation for an effect that is totally unique and ‘ownable’ to Transitions lenses.
Any additional thoughts?
Marcoux: This campaign is the first major new work for Transitions in a few years, and it goes beyond the traditional optical industry tendency to simply educate people on the technical benefits of the product to also show them the emotional benefits of being able to enjoy a life in light comfortably and safely.
Cook: By showcasing the stylish look of our fully customizable product offering as well, we ensure Transitions lenses appeal to users of every age – especially a younger, style-conscious audience – and remind them that with Transitions, they truly can “live the good light” every day.
