Launching a revolutionary children's eye health product during a time of crisis is complex. With the world off its axis, breaking through with a compelling value proposition requires authenticity and clearly targeted messaging. From August - November of 2020, CooperVision launched the first ever consumer campaign for MiSight® 1 day contact lenses, their groundbreaking product fighting myopia (or nearsightedness) for school-age children. To ensure we reached the target demographic thoughtfully and on brand, we launched a micro-influencer strategy and campaign. By optimizing their reach and appeal as subject matter experts, we empowered our partners to build awareness and educate their audiences on why addressing myopia in children is important.
Our key objective was to introduce CooperVision’s Brilliant Futures™ Myopia Management Program and launch MiSight® 1 day into the market as the first and only FDA-approved* soft contact lenses proven to slow the progression of myopia in children, aged 8-12. By providing parents with a path to learn more and seamlessly find qualified eye care practitioners (ECPs) in their area to prescribe the MiSight® contact lenses, we set out on our goal of establishing CooperVision as the leader, innovator, and category creator in myopia control.
The campaign aligned to the brand’s KPIs, while building a vital sales funnel. Targets included reaching 5.26M potential parents across influencer activities and successfully moving them into consideration, as measured by our goal of 32.9k engagements with influencer content across channels.
The 2020 back-to-school season was extraordinarily different than previous years. With many competing messages in the marketplace related to health and well being, launching a new product in the category for children required sensitivity, yet had to resonate with parents. To further the challenge, we needed to tell a complicated narrative in a native and digestible manner.
Critical to any social campaign involving influencers is authenticity. Few know that as many as 40% of Americans have myopia and the severity is rising. Providing helpful information without being alarmist required choosing influencer partners aligned to the brand and its key messages. To reach our niche audience of moms with children ages 8-12, we partnered with influential eye care providers (ECPs), a health care provider (HCP) and mom influencers. The mom influencers each had a personal connection to myopia, whereby they themselves have myopia, their partner has myopia or a family history exists. By engaging individuals who have or are struggling with the vision condition, the team was able to develop content that spoke to the brand’s key messages including the relevance of genetics, the vision condition worsening over time, and why MiSight® 1 day is the best product solution. This personal connection allowed for authentic posts and dialogue that encouraged their audiences to engage with the content.
We first identified the channels in which our partners had the highest audience reach and most engaged content. We then developed a mix of static and video content across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube that drew in our audience to learn more. The team coordinated the integration of social media content with 11 ECPs/HCPs and mom influencers, generating 86 educational, easy to digest and engaging social posts.
Through insight mining, we found that TikTok specifically had a large community of ECPs creating fun yet educational content around eye health. We selected 2 of our more prominent ECP TikTok partners and created 11 dynamic videos to provide a visually entertaining narrative on myopia and the product launch.
We also identified that often, health issues could result in more private social communities forming to share and discuss personal experiences and treatments. Armed with this insight, we integrated a community strategy with our pediatrician partner, Dr. Jen Trachtenberg. By leveraging a private and secure parental Facebook group that she is involved in, she shared the campaign content as a trusted authority on the program and product, driving deep engagement within an established group of our target consumers for MiSight®.
The call to action for the micro-influencers drove qualified leads from their social content to branded landing pages that contained additional education, an at home assessment, and further benefits of the product and program. An opt-in for an email drip sequence to receive educational materials created a continuous loop that allowed us to track their path through the consumer journey, all the way to making an appointment. We made campaign adjustments along the way through social listening and feedback tools, continually optimizing creative and messaging.
Our strategy delivered on our launch objectives and translated to tangible sales. According to the post campaign brand tracking survey we completed, influencers across the campaign drove key results. Moms were talking about MiSight® with an impressive 64% engaging with an influencer’s content, 52% visiting the landing page and 28% recommending MiSight® 1 day to friends and family. 25% of moms who saw an ECP after engaging with our influencers went on to purchase MiSight® 1 day for their child.
Our 11 micro-influencers garnered 1.4M total impressions across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. Across all the social content, 34.4K likes, 524.6K video views and 862 comments were generated including heartfelt gratitude for the information about myopia and putting MiSight® 1 day on their radar as a possible solution. The microsite had close to 500 link clicks specifically from our influencers and all of our ECP partners received calls, emails, or walk-in visits from parents, asking for MiSight® 1 day contact lenses by name.
TikTok specifically received over 457K impressions and 481K engagements, raising awareness around myopia and the Brilliant Futures™ Myopia Management Program with MiSight® 1 day contact lenses as the product of choice.
Our campaign provided even further long-term value by building a network of ECPs who continue to be brand ambassadors, educating their followers on the importance of treating myopia and even referring other ECPs in their trusted network to register to become certified providers, organically growing CooperVision's sales goals!
