Alcon's Challenge:

The contact lens market has grown tremendously. However, with increased consumer demand came greater competition in an already significantly fractured market, where the top five players only account for around 25%. 

Alcon, a global leader in eyecare, lets consumers trial contact lenses through their website before buying them. Because of the ultra-competitive market, Alcon has struggled with their DTC capabilities and brand recall among the key gatekeepers, the in-store/providers. These challenges translate into scenarios where Alcon successfully drives qualified consumers to a provider, only to have those consumers purchase lenses from another brand. Something needed to change so that Alcon could increase revenue from their marketing efforts.

Alcon sought an innovative way to efficiently target qualified customers while ensuring authorized contact retailers/optometrists suggested their brand over others. Alcon had a clear sense of their target and used that to develop key target personas that combined key demos and lifestyle attributes.

Audigent's Solution:

Audigent utilized curated private marketplaces (PMPs) to target a wide array of audiences that matched Alcon’s key personas. Then, they used the real-time campaign data to inform on-the-fly optimizations and further boost performance via Audigent’s data-management platform (DMP). 

Through curation, large, premium PMPs can deliver real-time insights into data performance—something impossible with legacy DMPs—made possible because of supply-side activation. These PMPs’ scale can include hundreds, if not thousands, of publishers, providing the broad optionality required for advertisers to optimize campaigns in flight. This new programmatic approach of curating data together with inventory, rather than the standard approach of applying them sequentially, provided an incredible advantage in the campaign’s efficiency while ensuring the entire process was more privacy-centric.

Alcon worked with Audigent to define two key segments and a target key performance indicator (KPI): cost per online eye exam (CPOEE). Alcon uses this KPI across all of their partners. It indicates a quality booking relative to brand recall and allows them to track actual in-store conversions more accurately.

To focus the media on hitting the performance goals, Audigent developed a wide array of target audiences, such as users In-Market for Contact Lenses, Designer Eyewear Shoppers and Designer Fashion Aficionados. Audigent utilized display creatives to meet Alcon’s goals of maximizing both reach and efficiency in the marketplace. To ensure accurate reporting, Alcon appended a conversion pixel on their floodlight, a tag that tracks conversions.

Finally, Audigent applied the real-time campaign data, which gave their trading team insights to make informed on-the-fly optimizations, further boosting performance.

Campaign Results:

Through curation, Audigent exceeded Alcon’s target KPI by 27%, reducing the cost per online eye exam by 87% from the start of the optimizations.

Beyond the direct marketing goals, curation helped build general awareness and interest in Alcon. During the program’s quarter, a key segment achieved a +1.5 share gain for Alcon, the brand’s highest single quarter year to date, and revenue grew +32% in a second segment. The campaign’s momentum was so strong that it positively impacted the next quarter when Alcon continued to gain even more shares (+1.9).

Finally, as a further testament to the success of curation, Alcon shifted their budget from another partner to Audigent during the campaign.