Specsavers’ £5m Home Visits campaign launches with Neighbours C5 sponsorship

Specsavers has launched a £5m media campaign for its home-visit service, starting with a title sponsorship of Australian soap Neighbours on Channel 5.

The campaign, created in-house and brokered by the brand’s media agency MG OMD, is meant to raise awareness of Home Visits, its eyecare service for people who can not get to a Specsavers store unaccompanied.

Starting this week, the £500,000 nine-month sponsorship of Neighbours features idents in which classic episode clips are recut to appear as if characters Harold, Madge and Phil are speaking to a Specsavers rep about getting new glasses at home.

The advertiser said it chose Neighbours because the programme delivers “substantial reach and affinity” among the Home Visits core audience, 60% of which are ABC1 adults aged over 55.

Over a third (35%) of that audience segment is over 75 and are long-term loyal viewers of the show.
The brand estimates the market for Home Visit is about 1.2 million people and will be worth £100m to Specsavers’ business by 2025.

This is the first time the company’s domiciliary business has been promoted at scale and is part of a projected £5m marketing investment in the service during the next year.