Disposable contact lenses advertisers are major market participants in personal care sector in Hong Kong digital marketing since 2008. Acuvue, Bausch & Lomb and CIBA Vision were the top 3 advertisers in the sector; in which they had 13, 11 and 5 campaigns launched respectively in 2009. The 3 brands spent totally 3.6M on display ad campaigns in the year. It increased by 30% when comparing with that in 2008; while Acuvue and Cooper Vision were the first and third top advertisers in the sector of the year according to both number of campaigns and total adspent. In 2010Q1, Acuvue and Fresh Look had spent 1.2M already, and it is suggested that the market will become more and more competitive.
Bausch & Lomb spent more on display ad campaigns than Acuvue; while Acuvue had more campaigns launched in 2009. Free trial, sales promotion and user feedback sharing were the main tactics of those campaigns. Acuvue had fewer campaigns in 2009 than 2008, from 24 to 13 campaigns, and the total adspent had decreased by 30%. There was a significant change of their strategy from female market to a more mass and also youth market. The budget spent on lady portals had decreased from 15% to 6% of the total adspent in 2009. Some publishers, such as 881903.com, TVB.com, My903.com and Uwants were newly imposed in their media selection. One of their promotion themes in 2010Q1, ‘Child-ready-for-contacts’, might also explain the change of their strategy. They are trying to expand their market to children and teenager users recently. Comparing with Acuvue, Bausch & Lomb was much less active in display ad campaigns in 2008. In fact, after a year, it became the top advertiser in terms of adspent in the sector. Sales promotions, e.g. cash coupons and bulk discounts, were commonly found in their banner ads. They were more focus on mass and female markets. Yahoo!HK, MSN Buddy List, Jessica and Lisa were widely engaged in their media plans.
As there are more and more function and styles of disposable contact lenses, it becomes part of fashion and apparel. It leads to more participants and keener competition in the market. CIBA Vision had increased their adspent 5 times in 2009 and Fresh Look had spent half million in the first quarter of 2010. It is believed that personal care, or disposable contact lenses advertisers, will be one of the focus for Hong Kong digital marketers in this year.
Chart 1: 2009 Top 15 Advertisers in Personal Care Sector (no. of campaigns)
