Eye on millennials and vision care
Online eyewear firm Coolwinks.com’s maiden television commercial hopes to break stereotypes even as it appeals to the youth
Three youths who are reading books and sipping coffee at a pavement café notice a woman in her car pull up next to them. They look at her and shake their heads, teasing her for what they assume is an unlikely task for a woman driver — park the car comfortably between two vehicles that have left little room. The bespectacled young woman coolly mimics them to shake her head, but Convenience has overtaken discounts as key driver of buying online Convenient to order online Offers highest discounts Availability issues in retail stores/city Offers more variety Helps making informed decision takes the car slightly ahead and swerves back in the blink of an eye to park the vehicle expertly. As she walks away confidently, the line “Women can’t drive?” pops up on screen, followed by “#OpenYourEyes”.
The maiden television commercial (TVC) of Coolwinks.com, a new entrant in the online segment of the eyewear market in India, tries to establish its appeal for a millennial target audience while trying to build value with a message to break gender stereotypes.
Ganesh Iyer, country head, Coolwinks.com, says, “The TVC takes forward the brand’s core communication and philosophy, ‘Discover the power of vision’. Through our premium ad positioning, we expect a hike in our brand search queries and a boost to our overall digital campaign performance. We are confident that this TVC will further help us establish our brand identity and augment our position as a highly preferred vision care platform.”
The 15-second ad was conceptualised and created by Cheil Worldwide. Aneesh Jaisinghani, group creative director, Cheil India, points out that millennials are India’s most sought-after consumers and Coolwinks.com is a brand for this generation that defies stereotypes.
He argues that eyewear, which until a few years ago was associated with being boring, now defines one’s attitude. “Our brief was to create a brand image for Coolwinks.com that the millennials today could relate to. Given that our audience already had a plethora of platforms, online and offline, to choose from it was extremely important for Coolwinks.com to have a strong point of view (POV). That’s why the campaign is based on a POV that reflects youth’s attitude of breaking stereotypes.”
The eyewear market in India is worth over ~20,000 crore, with more than twothirds of it unorganised, and growing at 15 per cent annually. Coolwinks.com, which began operations in mid-2016, has seen traffic grow at over 100 per cent a month, according to Iyer. “In just six months we have managed to serve 50,000 customers and we aim to reach 12,000 pin codes. Coolwinks.com is a key solution provider to the underserved eyewear market in India. Our target is 550 million people who suffer from uncorrected vision.”
Besides holding appeal to millennials, the company wants to project itself as a catalyst in spreading awareness. “While the TVC is meant to promote the product, we choose to associate ourselves with a message ‘#openyoureyes’, as we stand for building awareness not just for vision but also we aim to focus on different segments.”