O&M wins £12m Vision Express

Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has won the £12m ad account for high street optician chain Vision Express after a pitch against McCann-Erickson’s London office.

Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has won the &£12m ad account for high street optician chain Vision Express after a pitch against McCann-Erickson’s London office.

Vision Express, which is rebranding its stores Vision Express Optical Labs following its acquisition by French opticians Grand Optical in 1998, called the review after its previous agency, Ammirati Puris Lintas (APL), merged with Lowe Howard-Spink to form Lowe Lintas. Lowe already handled the &£5m ad account for rival opticians chain Dollond & Aitchison, which it decided to keep. Four agencies were shortlisted for the Vision Express account, O&M, McCann, Joshua and Leo Burnett.

The chain has worked with five different agencies in the past two years. It appointed APL in July 1998 to replace Saatchi & Saatchi just two weeks after Saatchi’s had launched its first campaign, using the line “There’s a revolution in sight.” The line was used on posters featuring a man with a clenched fist and copy explaining the chain’s revolutionary “manifesto” for selling glasses.

Saatchi’s had been hired to replace McCann-Erickson Bristol, which had worked for the chain for three years.

The retailer also appointed Climating, an offshoot of St Luke’s, in 1998 to help launch a chain of upmarket opticians called Grand Optical.