Ophthalmic community joins to increase public awareness of eye health

CHICAGO — Here at the second annual Eye Health Summit, participants made significant progress building upon the marketing, communications, development and organizational activities of the recently formed Foundation for Eye Health Awareness.

Foundation for Eye Health Awareness President Mike Daley welcomes attendees to the second annual Eye Health Summit. Image: Foundation for Eye Health Awareness

The foundation’s mission is to “increase public awareness about the importance of eye health through a compelling nationwide message campaign that convinces people to take better care of their eyes.”

One hundred fifty participants in the summit came from ophthalmic manufacturers, eye care organizations, ophthalmic retailers, eye care practices, insurance plans and ophthalmic media outlets.

Barry Barresi, OD, PhD, chair of the Foundation for Eye Health Awareness as well as executive director of the American Optometric Association, told attendees that 61 million Americans are at risk for blinding eye disease, but only half had an eye exam last year. Twenty-three million Americans have suboptimal refractive error, he said, and 11 million Americans have uncorrected refractive error.

“This is a crisis. This is a disgrace,” he said at the summit. “That’s why we’re here. There have been efforts by people in this room, but there have been mixed and conflicting messages.”

Foundation partners with TAYE

It was previously decided that the foundation would partner with an existing campaign, the Think About Your Eyes (TAYE) Coalition. Dr. Barresi said the TAYE campaign, sponsored by Luxottica, Essilor and Vision Service Plan (also participants in this summit) met the criteria established for the Foundation for Eye Health Awareness.

“They had done market research and looked at a lot of the same issues we looked at as a foundation,” Dr. Barresi said. “Today we have a coming together of a messenger, the Foundation for Eye Health Awareness, and the message, Think About Your Eyes.

As part of the Think About Your Eyes Coalition’s nationwide public awareness campaign, the TAYE eyeball characters interacted with families at Chicago’s Millennium Park during the city’s Think About Your Eyes Week in July. Image: TAYE

“Going forward, the public will learn the Think About Your Eyes campaign, but the sponsor/messenger is a foundation that truly represents the interests of the vision care community and the public,” he continued.

Dr. Barresi said that the foundation and TAYE will work together to “examine current messages and align with the foundation mission, develop a new TV commercial for January 2011, determine the metrics of success for the campaign and fundraise throughout the vision community.”

Greg Marko, chair of the foundation’s Marketing Communications Committee and also from Transitions Optical, told attendees that the extended vision community needed to unite and reach the government and other nonprofit partners. “We must make the issue of eye health broader, then we have to communicate that message to the public,” he said.

Successful beginnings of TAYE

The TAYE campaign was launched in a test market in Ft. Worth, Texas, 2007 through 2009, according to Daniel Monaco, of the TAYE board of directors and vice president of market innovation for Essilor of America.

“As a result of this campaign, a 7% increase in eye exams, a 9% increase in new patients, an 11% increase in eyeglass sales and a 7% in contact lens prescriptions were seen in the Ft. Worth area,” he said. “Translated nationally, this would be 10 million new eye exams.”

TAYE’s Ken Stellmacher, also of Vision Service Plan, said the Ft. Worth campaign was the catalyst for the coalition, and the coalition founders – Luxottica, Essilor and VSP – have since committed $25 million for a 2-year period. The coalition will spread the message to cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Sacramento, Atlanta and Portland.

He said the campaign will target adults who do not have annual eye exams and women as household eye care decision makers.

“A future ad in development will be a joint effort between TAYE and the foundation, leveraging the National Eye Institute’s campaign: Your eyes are the windows to your health,” he said.

Digital marketing is key

Lynn Vos, president and chief executive officer of Grey Healthcare Group, a health care marketing firm with 42 offices around the world, stressed the importance of digital marketing in any campaign.

“If you can influence someone online, you will potentially have that one touchpoint turn into 14 additional touchpoints,” she told attendees. “You get exponential value. TV and radio builds awareness, but we need to look at driving action and conversion using online and using mobile for perseverance.

“The rational need is to see well and the emotional need is to look good,” she continued. “We need to connect these two in the sense that having great vision and taking care of your eyes gives you an emotional lift.”

Ms. Vos noted the current competitive environment in public health. “You have to have a significant amount of commitment to accomplish your goal,” she said. “We’re looking at getting people engaged. We must constantly look for data points; it makes us more relevant.”

Participants contribute to efforts

Participants went into breakout groups to form a consensus on the contents of successful health campaigns. They were also charged with developing opportunities for collaboration from the vision community beyond the summit, compiling a list of public outreach activities that should be considered for 2011 and outlining the most important benefits of an increased demand for the products, programs and services of the vision community.

The foundation board will consider all suggestions from the summit participants and develop a plan for their efforts in 2011. – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS

• The Eye Health Foundation can be reached at PO Box 320219, Alexandria, VA 22320; www.ehafoundation.org.
• The Think About Your Eyes Coalition can be reached at www.thinkaboutyoureyes.com.