The ‘Don’t lose the picture’ concept stemmed from statistics from the RNIB which reported that 50% of sight loss is avoidable.

Routine eye tests save lives and sight, yet many people are unaware that they can detect signs of various health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure as well as eye health conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. In extreme cases routine eye tests have even led to the detection of more serious life threatening conditions such as tumours.

This lack of awareness was something that Specsavers was committed to changing and so its fully-integrated long-term strategy was designed to help transform the nation’s eye health by raising awareness and through education to change attitudes and behaviours.

In joining forces with sight loss charity RNIB it was important to the brand to help the nation understand the risks associated with ignoring eye health.

RNIB had conducted a wide-reaching independent research programme, backed by a YouGov poll, to assess the real state of the nation’s eye health.

Millions were found to be living with sight threatening conditions. Although nearly half of all cases of sight loss in the UK could have been prevented, millions were also found not to be having an eye test every two years.

The cost of sight loss to the economy had spiralled.

Specsavers’ resulting multi-million pound, multi-media campaign creatively brought the loss of eye sight to life in every day situations using a 360- media channel mix, all designed to drive conversation at scale and to show how compromised life is without vision.

Specsavers’ campaign, in partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), ran across 2 weeks, including during National Eye Health Week (24–30 September) and aimed to encourage the entire UK population to prioritise eye health.

At the heart of the campaign was absolute integration of media and message, as the purpose was to show what life could be like with loss of vision.

Working with the Specsavers in-house creative team, we devised a creative mechanic “Don’t Lose The Picture” which removed advertising images where people would most expect to see them across the UK’s most popular media channels.

With limited time to land the message, we secured the highest reaching media placements across television, cinema, video on demand, billboards and digital media to deliver huge national reach. This attention-grabbing combination of creative and media was supported by an invitation into store for a free eye health test.

“Don’t Lose The Picture” was a large-scale and powerful execution for the Specsavers brand.

To kick off, we ran our most-loved TV commercial: the ‘Should’ve Collie’ in the highest rated TV show of that week, ITV’s Vanity Fair. Only this time, we removed the visuals and only aired a written description of the action.

Throughout the campaign we continued to remove images from media where users would naturally expect to see them. We cover-wrapped UK’s highest circulating newspaper, The Sun, whose front page is famously visual and on average 70% image based.

On YouTube and Facebook, where video normally rules, we ran plain, copy-only ads and replicated this mechanic across popular poster sites.

In the most visual of media, cinema, we convinced Sony Pictures to rerecord their trailer for upcoming blockbuster, Slaughterhouse Rulez, and run an audio only spot, describing rather than showing the action. A first in the UK.

The campaign drove increased growth in both sight tests and sales across all stores. Specsavers consistently saw over 200k sight tests per week during the activity with the second highest week of the year coinciding with campaign activity. This was a year on year increase of 164%.

Increased search spikes were seen following key programming events including The Great British Bake Off, The X Factor, and Coronation Street.

In two weeks, we reached 42.6 million people in an innovative and attention-grabbing way.

Together with the RNIB, by taking away sight, we ensured more people than ever won’t have to lose theirs.