EYEWEAR company Just Spectacles is punching well above its weight in terms of advertising spend, according to industry research.
EYEWEAR company Just Spectacles is punching well above its weight in terms of advertising spend, according to industry research.
The research shows that in the 15 months from January 2002 to March 2003 the total eyewear advertising spend for Western Australia was $3 million, with Just Spectacles accounting for $1.4 million of that.
About $720,000 of Just Spectacles’ advertising budget was spent on metropolitan television and $500,000 was spent on radio.
Next was Laubman and Pank with about $500,000, Optical Superstores with $414,000, OPSM with about $383,000 and Budget Eyewear with $117,000.
Of those, OPSM owns Laubman and Pank and Budget Eyewear, making the group’s total advertising spend $1 million. In WA, Budget Eyewear trades as Vision Plus.
Just Spectacles director Paul Hyde said the firm’s advertising had been “pretty full on in the past couple of years”.
“We’ve done it pretty hard [marketing] for the past 15 years,” he said.
Mr Hyde said the company had not set out to outdo anyone in terms of advertising.
“We’re just doing our own thing and worry about what we’re doing,” he said.
“It is very competitive. I guess it’s like anything. You need to get your message across.
“Generally, I think, when we advertise, we’re advertising for everybody.”
The company has 12 outlets around WA and is renowned for its advertisements featuring West Coast Eagles players Michael Braun, Drew Banfield and Chris Judd, often alongside attractive young women.
Mr Hyde said he had noticed increased advertising coming from the OPSM group and admitted it was probably aimed at his company.
Leon Sainken, principal of the company’s advertising agent Leon Sainken Advertising, said the Just Spectacles advertising budget was only increasing as the company’s turnover grew.
While there seems to have been an increased amount of advertising in this sector, the research shows that the actual advertising spending has not grown much since 2001, when the total outlay was $2.249 million.
However, those figures were calculated on the period from January to December 2001.
Over the two periods Laubman and Pank’s advertising spend showed the biggest jump. In 2001 it only spent $159,000, indicating an increase of $341,000 to March 2003.
Budget Eyewear’s advertising spend showed a drop. In 2001 it spent $174,000 and that came down $57,000 in the period ending March 2003.
Interest in advertising circles has been piqued by what could happen if the Italian eyewear giant Luxottica goes ahead with its proposed takeover of the OPSM group.
Both Marketforce director Howard Read and Gatecrasher Advertising director Paul Yole say they believe that the takeover could lead to some interesting develop-ments on the creative side.
“There’s been some interesting advertising in other areas around this sector,” Mr Yole said.
“Over here it’s mainly football players and scantily clad women.”
Mr Read said he believed there was quite a lot of room to advertise in this sector.
“It’s really making eyewear into fashion,” he said.
“It’s [eyewear] like watches were 20 years ago. Back then a watch was just a timepiece. Now you can have a watch for every occasion.”
