Glasses Direct drafts in London 2012 heavyweight Magliano to boost brand

David Magliano, the former London 2012 Olympics marketing director, has joined the online retailer Glasses Direct to advise the company on its marketing strategy and brand image.

David Magliano, the former London 2012 Olympics marketing director, has joined the online retailer Glasses Direct to advise the company on its marketing strategy and brand image.

The online retailer is embroiled in potential litigation with high-street competitor Specsavers, because of a row over a marketing campaign depicting customers of Specsavers as mindless sheep.

Magliano, who was awarded an MBE in recognition of his efforts to help secure the Olympic Games for London, joins the board of Glasses Direct as a non-executive director with immediate effect.

It is understood that he will also liaise with the company’s public relations and advertising agencies.

This is the first project Magliano has taken on since leaving London 2012, a role for which he won the Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix – together with London 2012 chief executive Sir Keith Mills – in 2005.

Founded by entrepreneur James Murray Wells in 2004, Glasses Direct was founded when, as a final year student, Wells was taken aback by the &£150 price tag of a pair of reading glasses.

Convinced there was a way of supplying them more cheaply, Wells contacted glazing laboratories and found that the actual cost of making the lenses was between &£3 to &£7, and that the majority of the work was done by a machine in just 20 minutes.

Believing that once a customer has an accurate prescription, Wells could supply an order directly from the laboratories at a much lower price, he launched the website in July 2004, which to date has completed 40,000 orders and received 4 million hits.

In 2005, Wells won the Shell LiveWire Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, the Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of Year at the National Business awards and the Natwest Business of the Year award.