Sunglass Hut is making linked TV a key a part of its imaginative and prescient for courting shoppers.
This summer time and final summer time, Sunglass Hut ran CTV advertisements with the aim of getting viewers to return by its shops. The corporate initially included a QR code that individuals might scan to get instructions to their nearest Sunglass Hut location, the tackle of which might even be proven on display screen. This 12 months, Sunglass Hut added a code that linked to a 3D sun shades try-on filter. Sunglass Hut, which is owned by Ray-Ban dad or mum EssilorLuxottica, labored with the programmatic media platform Blockboard on focusing on and subsequent re-targeting for each advert campaigns.
Whereas Sunglass Hut continues to be crunching information for this 12 months’s marketing campaign, final 12 months, it managed to extend year-over-year retailer visitors by 6X from July to September, which is when the marketing campaign ran. Sunglass Hut additionally noticed a 76% year-over-year lower in price per retailer go to, it instructed Fashionable Retail. Each years, Sunglass Hut ran advertisements throughout the U.S., the place it has 1000’s of places. The platforms it used included Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max and Paramount+, mentioned Matt Wasserlauf, CEO and founding father of Blockboard.
Though Sunglass Hut created digital streaming advertisements, it wished to drive buying in individual, as that’s how the corporate makes most of its gross sales, defined Caroline Proto, director of worldwide media for EssilorLuxottica. “Individuals nonetheless must put sun shades on their face,” she mentioned. “They nonetheless must see the way it matches and the way it matches their type. Brick-and-mortar [retail] is our No. 1 income driver, and that’s why visitors is our No. 1 KPI [for this campaign].”
Globally, for its first half of 2025, EssilorLuxottica posted a ten.2% enhance in year-over-year gross sales for its direct-to-consumer phase, which incorporates its shops and web site. Gross sales inside North America had been up 4.9% 12 months over 12 months, at fixed trade charges.
For its 2024 marketing campaign, Sunglass Hut ran an preliminary linear TV advert for mass attain. Sunglass Hut then ran a devoted CTV video focusing on a number of audiences, together with these whom Blockboard decided had been extra seemingly to enter a retailer. Sunglass Hut and Blockboard then retargeted this viewers with a 15-second video on cellular, desktop and pill. After operating its CTV advertisements, Sunglass Hut measured foot visitors in its shops by way of Cuebiq, a third-party accomplice.
‘Streaming tv is tv’
Sunglass Hut is one among quite a few retail firms — from Muffins Physique to Saatva — making CTV an integral a part of its total video combine. Whereas streaming advertisements are usually costlier than linear advertisements, additionally they permit advertisers to draw extremely particular demographics. Platforms like Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video have additionally elevated their advert stock lately, leading to extra slots for manufacturers seeking to experiment with CTV.
What additionally helps with adoption is that consumers are open to watching advertisements on streaming platforms, mentioned Tony Marlow, CMO for LG Advert Options, which runs CTV advert campaigns. A survey by his firm discovered that 67% of streamers right now favor free, ad-supported streaming tiers, which Marlow attributes to components like greater costs for streaming providers and issues about budgets. On common, streaming video subscribers within the U.S. pay for 4 providers totaling $69 monthly, up 13% from final 12 months, per Deloitte.
EMarketer predicts that whole CTV advert spending will surpass conventional TV advert spending for the primary time in historical past in 2028. “I believe it’s vital to understand that for many individuals, particularly below a sure age, streaming tv is tv,” Marlow mentioned. “[For brands], it was that linear TV was the primary purchase, after which all the opposite items — social, on-line, CTV — fell round that. We’re beginning to see media planners understand we’re in a CTV-first world.”
Trade information additionally reveals that prospects are responding to shoppable streaming advertisements. LG Advert Options discovered that almost all (79%) of CTV viewers mentioned streaming advertisements affect their buying selections. After viewing a related CTV advert, 39% of individuals looked for a product on-line. Just a little greater than one-fifth (21%) made a purchase order, and 19% visited a bodily retailer.
Customized advertisements — as within the case of Sunglass Hut’s current CTV campaigns — can transfer the needle, Marlow identified. Amongst CTV watchers surveyed by LG Advert Options, 75% most well-liked advertisements that felt “regionally related.” Certainly, location focusing on was a should for Sunglass Hut, Proto mentioned. The Sunglass Hut advertisements beneficial a retailer inside a five- to 25-mile radius of a viewer’s tackle. It primarily based this suggestion on visitors patterns inside sure areas, equivalent to if areas had been extra conducive to strolling or driving and had entry to subways or buses.
Sunglass Hut’s 2025 marketing campaign with Blockboard wrapped on August 2, however the retailer plans to proceed to spend money on CTV. “You probably have a video technique, it’s a must have,” Proto mentioned. “After every marketing campaign, we’re analyzing precisely which audiences carried out, and that enables us to be extra knowledgeable in future campaigns.”
Blockboard’s Wasserlauf added, “We’re displaying that CTV actually is an outcome-driven medium, and that’s what I discover to be probably the most thrilling facet of this.”
