Sears Optical locations have experienced significant increases in store traffic once the execution was in market. The first weekend following the Thurs/Fri insertions, saw an increase in customer counts of 77% VYA in Toronto. There was similarly a huge increase in sales, with the same weekend seeing an increase of 81%! The Sears Optical Blurred Cover won Gold for the Newspaper category at the 2011 Canadian Media Innovation Awards. Dan Palmisano, our Sears Optical client commented post-award, “While the award is great, the fact that it drove results was really what made it special.”

The idea was driven by three objectives: to drive local sales, to find an engaging approach to make the target think about their vision care needs, and use a medium that was relevant. The idea was to create a visual disruption – that would trigger our consumer to think about their vision care needs through use of community newspapers. We challenged the papers to literally ‘blur’ the distinction between editorial and advertising. The papers agreed to publish the actual front page of the paper blurred out of focus. The unreadable cover was highly intrusive. A corner turn message asked consumers to turn the page where they saw the over replicated, but this time in-focus, with the branded Sears Optical ad on the opposite page. The creative message read “Bring It All Into Focus” with a local call to action pushing consumers in to store.

The eyewear category in Canada has become increasing competitive and price driven both at the retail level and with new online aggressive marketers. Sears Optical needed to drive immediate store traffic and sales for a product that has a longer than average purchase cycle during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. The Sears Optical consumer is an older and cost conscious customer who shops for value and is constantly looking for a true deal. Our message had to be in an environment conducive to resonating with their mind set of looking for ‘a deal’. Community papers over indexed for this target, (68% read with an index of 124), and are the preferred medium for promotional sales. After determining the ideal medium to reach our target, our task was to find a partner that would bring our idea to life.