NEW YORK--2007 has unofficially been dubbed by Luxottica as the “Year of Ray-Ban.” In the seven years since the company acquired the brand, Luxottica has worked to clean up its distribution, develop new products, extend classics, and, as a result, has seen steady, often double digit growth from year to year. Now after a successful re-launch of the Ray-Ban Wayfarer in late 2006, they have introduced a new strategic platform and media campaign titled “NEVER HIDE.”  

Clockwise from left, Marcello Favagrossa, Vittorio Verdun and Fabio D’Angelantonio of Luxottica.

“We have actually doubled the size of the brand by doing many things but one of them was to really control and re-organize the distribution in the way it would be respectful and enhance the brand.” said Pierre Fay, executive VP of Luxottica N.A.  

“When Luxottica acquired the brand it was at five million units and now it is at 13 million, so we have more than doubled the business,” added Vittorio Verdun, VP of marketing for Luxottica. 

“It is a very dynamic brand today, there is one overall trend and quality to Ray-Ban and that is that it is a brand for everybody. Everybody can find themselves and what they want in Ray-Ban. That’s what has made the brand so popular and so strong. What we are doing with the brand now, for example with the Ray-Ban Wayfarer sessions we hosted for the launch of the Wayfarer and what we are doing at the Sundance Film Festival with the Visionary Award, is really re-focusing the brand with the influential younger segment of the market; which is very, very important to the brand,” said Fay.

New ad images stress “real people” in Ray-Ban.

“From a creative and media standpoint, we are really targeting a younger audience and also, which hasn’t been done a lot in the past, more of a female audience. It is a brand that is about lifestyle, it’s about personality,” stated Verdun.

To that end, with the creative help of the TBWA\\\\CHIAT agency and the media planning help of Carat International, Luxottica conceived the Ray-Ban NEVER HIDE campaign.

It is comprised of a short film and a series of real life themed situations that will appear in print media, outdoor and on Internet sites like MTV.com, MySpace.com, UTube.com and RayBan.com, which will also feature consumer generated viral content. The campaign images, which portray regular guys and girls living their day-to-day lives with authenticity and the courage to express themselves and their unique individuality, is based on the premise that “the most fashionable thing to be is yourself,” said Marcello Favagrossa, global brand director for Ray-Ban.

The roll out of Ray-Ban NEVER HIDE started this month in all major countries with a special project in New York City’s Times Square from March  8  to 13 when Ray-Ban gave people the chance to participate directly in the new campaign. Twelve screens in Times Square, including the Nasdaq and Reuters billboards, projected photographs, in the Ray-Ban campaign format, of people in the area who had their pictures taken by roaming photographers. Photos were also submitted via the RayBan.com Web site. The images broadcast in Times Square were then captured by photographers there on location and loaded back on to the website into a gallery of all of the images collected on RayBan.com for downloading.

The multimillion dollar effort marked the largest consumer campaign ever for the brand.

“This campaign more than doubled the marketing investment in the U.S. over last year. This new campaign is looking back on the essence of the brand with new inspiration for certain actions. It will debut in the U.S. first then Europe. We expect sales to double again over the next five years, helped along by countries like India, China, Eastern Europe and Brazil,” concluded Fabio D’Angelantonio, group marketing director for Luxottica.  

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NEVER HIDE Launch Party

NEW YORK-- Ray-Ban hosted a party here on March 7 to kick off their new NEVER HIDE consumer campaign, featuring a guest list of 700, a screening of the NEVER HIDE short film and a performance by rap star, Ghostface Killah.

Andrea Guerra, Fabio D’Angelantonio and Pierre Fay of Luxottica. Ghostface Killah and entourage perform.
Claudio Del Vecchio (l) of Brooks Brothers and Andrea Guerra of Luxottica. Party guest, director, Spike Lee.