Apollo is the optician chain with the most branches in the German market and competes with other retailers and opticians. Sales in the optometry industry have been increasing for years now.

Every competitor in the market uses communication to attempt to reach people with a visual impairment. Because this applies to more than 65% of the German population, media such as television and radio are frequently used along with digital activity to speak to the broad masses.

The classic media, TV and radio, have their place at Apollo, too, for isolated pushes. Apollo is increasingly turning to digital activity for its additional mix of media.

With the contested market it is important to achieve top-of-mind awareness among the audience. We would therefore ideally reach consumers at exactly the moment they become aware of their visual impairment and convince them with our message.

Due to the increasing number of touchpoints that exist and the resulting rise in popularity of virtual shopping trips, it is all the more important for Apollo that it focuses its communication on being digital and innovative.

On the Internet in particular, various targeting approaches already provide countless possibilities for focused, relevant audience approach and therefore also waste coverage minimisation.

Our method: many Internet users with a visual impairment have a problem – the text and images are often too small and hard to read. These users frequently increase the zoom level in their browser settings to see content better.

We took advantage of precisely this insight.

We went the next step digitally for our client and, in cooperation with UIM, developed a fully new method of targeting that no one before had ever conceived of:

the first ever ‘zoom-level targeting’.

With our ‘zoom-level targeting’, we spoke to the users who used the zoom function in their browser to enlarge text and images. That is because increasing the zoom level is usually a sign that a user cannot see small letters and images well and therefore potentially has a visual impairment.

After UIM, the marketer, checked whether technology could actually identify these users and mark them out, the method of targeting the browser’s zoom level was implemented. If marked users then increased the zoom level in their browser, our billboards and maxi ads would make a targeted appeal to them. The interactive advertisements created for this campaign played with sharpness and fuzziness, imitating an eye test and calling on the user to book an eye test at Apollo. A call to action led directly to the appointment booking system for a free-of-charge ‘Sehtest Pro’ eye test at the nearest Apollo branch.

If marked users from our targeting cluster then increased the zoom level in their browser, our billboards and maxi ads would make a targeted appeal to them.

The interactive advertisements created specially for this campaign played with sharpness and fuzziness, imitating an eye test and calling on the user to book an eye test at Apollo. A call to action led directly to the appointment booking system for a free-of-charge ‘Sehtest Pro’ eye test at the nearest Apollo branch.

Innovative approach, optimal advertising and many happy customers! This targeting made it possible at exactly the right moment to speak specifically to users with potential interest in an eye test and give the matter lasting relevance. The click rate doubled from 0.23 per cent to 0.46 per cent during the campaign period (comparison: click rate for advertising with and without targeting of browser zoom level settings) and our interactive advertising achieved a high average interaction time of 19 seconds. Furthermore, we succeeded in generating an uplift for Apollo branch appointment bookings and sharing Apollo’s services with highly satisfied customers. For these reasons, the approach will be used in a targeted fashion in future campaigns, too.