August 2021

Insight, Interactive, Internal communication, Training

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the opticians…

An interactive teaching video

On the whole, opticians are a lovely, conscientious, intelligent and professional bunch. However, there is a lot of misunderstanding as to the concerns, fears and motivations of customers who, when they reach their 40s or 50s have to reluctantly admit that they need help with their eyesight.

So customers are often approached in ill-conceived, heavy-handed and off-putting ways by the optician.

Our brief was to create a film that engaged, informed and motivated opticians, of all levels, to understand the best ways to engage, reassure and encourage new customers to try multifocal contact lenses.

With humour, charm and empathy, this interactive video explores the right way and some of the wrong ways to engage someone new to contact lenses – to achieve the right outcome and a happy, long term, customer.

Working to our client’s initial concept, the idea was developed, written and produced in-house. 

This was a mid-size project with some ambitious elements – particularly with regard to timescale.

Covid was a major factor, of course, so we devised scenarios that could be filmed under strict Covid protocols while maintaining dramatic integrity and deliverability. Locations were carefully chosen and we developed scenarios where actors could both wear masks when needed (following current optician guidance), and also be free of them to better engage the audience.

The main drama sequences were filmed with two DOPs so we could maximise efficiency while creating the requisite atmosphere and creativity.

Our cast was a mix of professional actors (whom were cast virtually, drawing from a wide and diverse range of actors) and opticians professionals, so we could deliver the drama and humour, while keeping things realistic and believable.

Training for opticians can be very technical and dry. Our client wanted us to be more adventurous and creative, breaking the mould.

Interactive video

Because the difference between good and poor practice is often subtle – with a lot of confusion between the two – we wanted to be able to show and compare both good and poor practice. CPD training is more often than not self-paced, so interactive video was the obvious solution.

In this way we could show a range of potential solutions and differentiate between the right and wrong way. It also allowed us to introduce a level of humour, particularly for the wrong choices.

So we created a storyline of a person – Ben – who is in denial about his eyesight and who needs to be persuaded to try contact lenses.

Meet Ben…

At each stage of Ben’s journey, the audience is asked to decide what they would do and identify the correct behaviour and decisions the optician should make.

We created characters and situations that the audience would all recognise and relate to – even if their own occasional bad practice is brought into the spotlight (although we hope none of them will need to resort to hiding behind a cushion!).

Experience the film: