Sight and insight

Pearle Opticiëns meet The Human Cannonball

Objective: to grow from 70 branches to more, and more, then even more.
Case: seeing is surviving (zien is overleven)
Problem: once upon a time opticians could rest on their laurels; customers “sought’ them out. With arms that were too short for the morning daily. And with a headache, and burning eyes. How could the Cannonball shake up the market?
Started with: finding out who has good eyesight and who hasn’t, objectively speaking. We asked the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Amsterdam Free University) and they did some research. Well, seek and you will find, as they say?
Shockingly: it turned out that the eyesight of over 15% of motorists, whether they wear glasses or otherwise, is so bad that their opticians would advise them not to drive. The Dutch road safety organisation and the Dutch Ministry of Transport backed the Pearle campaign, entitled “Seeing is surviving” (Zien is Overleven).
Results: Pearle became the market leader. Is it just a coincidence that Pearle now has over 400 branches? This particular Cannonball was declared the world’s best marketing campaign.