(Press Release)
As parents and children alike get ready for the back-to-school season, Think About Your Eyes is gearing up its Q3 advertising campaign and educating the public on the importance of regular comprehensive eye exams for the 38 million school-aged children in the United States.
The national campaign, ‘The eyes you’re born with’, began on July 20 and can be viewed online at thinkaboutyoureyes.com/videos.
According to separate research studies from Think About Your Eyes and the American Optometric Association:
- 89 percent of parents incorrectly believe that vision screenings, as offered in schools and at pediatricians’ offices, are an effective way to detect vision problems in infants and children.
- 34 percent of parents have never taken their child to an eye doctor.
- Of parents of children under age six, 49 percent have never taken their child to an eye doctor.
“The vision community, through Think About Your Eyes, is dedicated to educating parents on the difference between school vision screenings and a comprehensive eye exam, and ensuring that they know the importance and life-long value of regularly scheduled comprehensive eye exams for their kids,” said Dave Plogmann, managing director of Think About Your Eyes.
“We have a responsibility for the eye and vision health of our nation’s children, because healthy eyes—as well as good vision—are as essential as schools to a child’s ability to learn.”
The 2015 Think About Your Eyes campaign has been even bigger and is reaching even more consumers than ever before. Nearly 1.3 billion consumer advertising impressions will be generated this year, and the message has been seen or heard by over 132 million adults.
This year’s advertising includes 7,300 television spots across 31 targeted cable networks such as USA, A&E, TBS, ESPNU and Comedy Central, primarily during primetime. In addition, nearly 600,000 radio spots will air across more than 5,200 stations on five different national radio networks – mostly during peak AM and PM drive times, with 30 million online radio ads to be heard on Pandora and Spotify. Digital ads can be seen across desktops, mobile platforms and tablets, generating more than 105 million impressions over more than two thousand sites, including ESPN, YouTube, WebMD, Time, Sports Illustrated and Yelp.
Most importantly, Think About Your Eyes is working. More patients are getting eye exams. Since the campaign’s inception, eye exams have grown by 5.2 percent, resulting in over 9.1 million additional eye exams in the US, and more than 1.7 million people have visited the campaign website where they can find local Think About Your Eyes eyecare providers.
Additionally, according to VisionWatch, eye exams grew by 4.1 percent during Q1 of 2015 – which is the single largest quarterly increase seen in the last several years. This important campaign is truly changing consumer attitudes about eye exams, and driving growth for the eyecare industry.
For general campaign inquiries, or for industry members interested in becoming official Think About Your Eyespartners, please contact Dave Plogmann, managing director of Think About Your Eyes.