Vision Council celebrates successes, impressions, outreach in annual report

The Vision Council released its 2017 Annual Report and celebrated its many accomplishments, from high priority issues on Capitol Hill to consumer education in eye wear and eye care.

The Vision Council’s government and regulatory affairs team dedicated more than 300 hours to issues affecting member organizations and the larger optical community, according to a press release from the council.

As a result, the FDA exempted optical lenses from the scope of the Unique Device Identification regulations, saving more than $10 million in estimated yearly compliance costs for lens and lab companies, The Vision Council said. These efforts will continue into 2018 to gain additional FDA exemption for ophthalmic frames.

The organization is a key financial and promotional supporter of the Think About Your Eyes campaign. Because of the support from The Vision Council and other industry partners and providers, the campaign generates more than 1.25 billion consumer impressions each year and drove nearly 1.5 million incremental eye exams in 2017, the council said.

Other consumer outreach efforts, such as speaking to consumers about member products and the health, fashion, technological and lifestyle aspects of eye wear, generated an additional 1.76 billion impressions.

Additionally, National Sunglasses Day was the top trending topic on Twitter.

The VisionWatch market research team interviewed more than 120,000 consumers and produced more than 63,000 data points to allow The Vision Council’s members to make informed business decisions.

The group received prestigious Trade Show Executive Gold 100 Awards for both Vision Expo East in New York and Vision Expo West in Las Vegas.