2027 RFP Response
Prepared for BC Doctors of Optometry
Prepared by Blink
Executive Summary
BCDO's 2027 program should move British Columbians from passive belief - "eye health matters" - to active recognition - "my eyes may be telling me something, and a Doctor of Optometry can help." The creative platform for that shift is: "Give your eyes a voice."
BC Doctors of Optometry represents more than 800 optometrists across British Columbia and is working to strengthen the public understanding of optometrists as primary eye care providers. The RFP asks for an integrated partner who can provide annual advertising strategy, creative services, media planning and buying, campaign management, reporting, actionable insights, and earned media.
Help people understand the full scope of optometric care beyond prescribing glasses.
Drive people to take a next step, especially through Find a Doctor and related education pages.
Show the board and members how the PR levy is being used strategically, visibly, and fairly across British Columbia.
Give BCDO a clear, repeatable campaign platform and OP usage system that can build equity over a multi-year cycle.
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The program is designed to launch quickly after board approval, with strategy, KPI refinement, OP standards, and budget confirmation in the first six weeks of the engagement. Always-on activity would begin in January 2027, with quarterly creative refreshes and a fall mini-pulse campaign planned well in advance of the back-to-school / Children's Vision Month window.
The proposed base plan fits within a $500,000 all-in annual envelope. It allocates approximately $235,000 to strategy, creative, production, media management, reporting, and PR, and approximately $265,000 to paid media. The model can be adjusted after discovery, but it is deliberately built to avoid treating $500,000 as paid media only.
All-in annual program
Professional services
Working media
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Important budget interpretation: Blink has built this response around the Q&A clarification that the $500,000 is the total annual envelope, not paid media alone. That is why the media plan, creative plan, reporting plan, and earned media plan are integrated into one all-in budget model.
Understanding the Opportunity
of British Columbians say regular eye exams are important even when their vision feels fine
of Canadians say they'd know if something was wrong with their vision
would only see an optometrist once their vision started to deteriorate
of British Columbians would go to the ER before an optometrist for an urgent eye issue
associate optometrists with managing eye emergencies at all
For those who already show symptoms that need attention, previous campaigns have shown success linking symptoms or environmental triggers to booking eye exams: people can emotionally relate to struggles with street signs, dry eyes from scrolling, flashes or floaters, or allergy-like irritation, making these a useful entry point into the funnel.
This isn't widely understood: 72% of British Columbians would go to the ER before an optometrist for an urgent eye issue, and only 22% associate optometrists with managing eye emergencies at all. A comprehensive exam can also catch broader health conditions (like diabetes or high blood pressure) before they're diagnosed elsewhere.
Cost remains one of the biggest obstacles to regular eye care, and it lands unevenly across audiences: MSP doesn't cover exams for ages 18–64, which is likely to impact audiences without insurance coverage the hardest.
Members need to see the association using its budget strategically, visibly, and to benefit the whole province. Proof is dependent on having an evidenced and defensible marketing KPI baseline. Success today is judged by 'Find a Doctor' hit counts and GA4 tracking, with limited understanding of where a click originates from, what's genuinely working, or which messages and audience are performing best. Blink proposes establishing this baseline in Year 1, by implementing better digital tracking infrastructure and rigorous campaign and message testing.
Parents and children remain an important audience priority, particularly around the fall campaign and Children's Vision Month. However, the Q&A identified a larger year-round gap among Millennials and Gen Z. These adults may not have a regular optometrist, may not know when to see one, and may not yet connect optometry with whole-eye health rather than glasses.
Strategic Recommendation
Build a year-round campaign and digital ecosystem that ultimately drives increased eye examinations across BC, with clear, trackable pathways from awareness through to booking and education, where needed.
Establish a rigorous marketing KPI baseline based on a validated audience, messaging hierarchy, and channel strategy.
Evolve BCDO's existing campaign messaging, creative and content ecosystem to better align with target audience positioning and drive stronger overall performance.
Build the platform, tracking architecture, always-on model, seasonal bursts, and board-ready KPI framework.
Clear source-of-click reporting, Find a Doctor trendline, regional proof, creative learnings, earned media results, and 2028 roadmap.
Scale the best-performing symptom triggers, expand regional precision, and introduce reminder or nurture opportunities where BCDO has appropriate data and permissions.
Improved efficiency, clearer audience lift, stronger regional engagement, expanded earned media authority, and stronger member confidence.
Move from campaign platform to sustained public education ecosystem, positioning Doctors of Optometry as primary eye-health providers for lifelong care and integrating expanded scope messaging if approved.
Longer-term brand tracking, more mature funnel attribution, stronger public understanding of optometric care, and a defensible multi-year PR levy strategy.
Key Masterbrand Campaign Insight
Many British Columbians already believe eye health is important, but they do not always know when their eyes are giving them a reason to act.
Strategic Response
Position eye health as a lifelong, routine, proactive practice, in the same category as a dental check-up or other regular health maintenance, not something you wait to need.
Give your eyes a voice.
Book an exam today and give your eyes a voice.
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Audience & Insights
Why they are a priority
Audience insights
As a parent
Chronically busy; child's eye care matters, but it's one more thing that keeps slipping. Building routine early supports lifelong proactive behaviour for both parent and child. Opportunity: family bookings.
For themselves
Vision changes at this life stage are often hormonally driven, not just "getting older," but the connection is rarely made. Opportunity: normalize eye health as part of the health conversation this audience is already having elsewhere.
Supporting statistics
school-aged children in Canada has a vision problem (CAO)
of BC parents are concerned about their children's screen time, up from 65% the year before
of link clicks across every channel in BCDO's 2021 campaign were driven by women
Why they are a priority
Audience insights
Screen-immersed
Most screen-immersed generation, and consciously aware of it. Without MSP coverage or extended benefits, cost is a real barrier.
Opportunity
Relatable symptoms (headaches, eye strain) rather than abstract long-term risk. Positions a Doctor of Optometry as more credible than AI self-diagnosis.
Supporting statistics
believe an exam is only necessary once eyes hurt — the highest reactive-mindset figure of any generation
already use AI to self-diagnose eye symptoms — again the highest of any generation
globally say they spend too much time on their phones; 63% are already trying to cut back (national data, not BC-specific)
Creative Approach
The line is intentionally flexible. It can function as a public education idea, a direct response CTA, an OP-led social series, a seasonal campaign structure, and a member-facing proof system: "Book an exam today and give your eyes a voice."
OP should remain central to the campaign where appropriate. OP can make the subject approachable without relying on generic stock photography, cold clinical imagery, or overused white-coat visuals. In the revised creative system, OP is not a child or a novelty character. OP is an adult, knowledgeable translator who helps people understand what their eyes may be trying to tell them.
During the proposal process, we learned that BCDO does not currently have a complete OP asset library, dedicated OP standards, or confirmed font documentation for OP usage. Rather than treating that as a limitation, we see it as a useful Year 1 opportunity: Blink would formalize a revised OP usage and campaign standards system so BCDO has greater consistency and influence over how OP appears across paid media, social, earned media support, member materials, and future campaigns.
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Pain point: Delaying their own care while worrying that screen time or vision issues may affect their child's learning.
Creative hook: Squinting at signs, rubbing tired eyes, buying drops, scrolling for hours, or seeing new floaters.
Resolution: Normalize family checkups and connect vision care to learning confidence, parent self-care, and routine behaviour.
Pain point: Experiencing screen strain, headaches, dryness, or blurred glare while self-diagnosing online and worrying about cost.
Creative hook: "AI can guess why your head hurts. A Doctor of Optometry can actually tell you."
Resolution: Replace search-engine anxiety with expert clarity, clear next steps, and realistic coverage expectations.
The following are sample creative expressions, not final production copy. Any clinical claims, statistics, treatment references, and coverage details will be reviewed with BCDO before launch.
Always-on
Eyes will not always tell you when something is wrong. Doctors of Optometry know how to spot signs early. CTA: Book an exam today and give your eyes a voice.
Millennial Parent
Nearly 1 in 4 school-aged children in BC has an undiagnosed vision issue that can directly affect their reading, focus, and classroom confidence. And while you're crossing off their back-to-school list, don't ignore what your own eyes are saying after long days of balancing work and family. Make eye health a family routine this fall.
Gen Z
When you're locked onto screens for hours, your blink rate drops by more than half, leaving your eyes dry, irritated, and exhausted. That end-of-day headache or blurry glare isn't just "part of the job", it's your eye muscles overworking to keep up. While blue-light filters help, a BC Doctor of Optometry can look beyond screen settings to evaluate your tear film, test focus strain, and recommend tailored digital vision care.
Seasonal
Rubbing your eyes or relying on temporary drops may not solve the problem. A Doctor of Optometry can help decode the difference between seasonal irritation, dry eye, allergic eye disease, and other concerns. CTA: Stop itching and give your eyes a voice.
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All creative will be reviewed against BCDO's regulatory language requirements before production. Blink will use "Doctor of Optometry" confidently, avoid restricted uses of "specialist", avoid disparaging comparisons with opticians, ophthalmologists, or other providers, and ensure all health-related claims are reviewed for accuracy before release.
Tone will be friendly, plain-language, and action-oriented. The campaign should make eye health easier to understand without trivializing symptoms, overpromising outcomes, or creating unnecessary fear. OP gives the work warmth and memorability; BCDO gives it authority and trust.
Media Planning & Buying
Build understanding of proactive eye care and the broader role of Doctors of Optometry.
Explain symptoms, preventive care and recommended examination frequency.
Help people recognize when they should seek care.
Direct qualified audiences to a basic lead form, where appropriate, and then to the Find a Doctor tool.
The strategy will maintain a province-wide foundation, with investment weighted by audience opportunity, regional need and clinic availability.
Paid and earned media will direct audiences to one campaign landing page, providing the education and context needed before asking them to take action. The landing page will create a relevant destination for each audience while allowing BCDO to measure education, consideration and action.
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The plan will deliver province-wide reach without dividing the budget equally. Investment will reflect opportunity, need and access, while optimization will be tied to meaningful education and action rather than the lowest-cost impressions or clicks.
Regional allocation will reflect
Media will be reviewed based on
Quarterly reporting will show regional spend, reach, engagement and Find a Doctor activity where data volume and privacy thresholds permit. Budget will move toward the audiences, messages, regions and channels generating meaningful education and action.
Media Budget
Year-round demand capture and audience education
Concentrated family and children's eye-health campaign
Testing, regional opportunities, PR amplification and scaling
Final allocations will be refined after the analytics audit, platform forecasts, regional clinic review and programmatic DOOH pricing. The $25,000 reserve will be released incrementally based on performance, regional opportunity, emerging public-health topics and confirmed media costs.
The always-on program will use Search to capture demand while Meta, Performance Max and YouTube build the journey. Google Search will remain active and organized by intent. Meta will be the primary audience education and creative-testing channel. Performance Max will be activated after the landing page and meaningful conversions are ready. YouTube will run in focused video flights rather than equal monthly spending.
Capture symptoms, examination and provider intent
Educate priority audiences and test messages
Extend conversion-focused reach across Google inventory
Build understanding and message recall through video
The fall pulse creates a memorable moment for parents and families. It will connect the back-to-school season and Children's Vision Month to comprehensive eye examinations, family routines and Find a Doctor, while remaining connected to the annual "Give your eyes a voice" platform.
Reach and educate parents
Create visible regional awareness
Capture family eye-exam intent
Extend video reach
Extend Find a Doctor actions
Support the strongest opportunity
Campaign themes:
Programmatic DOOH will focus on selected markets where audience scale, inventory and clinic access can deliver meaningful reach and repetition. Potential environments include transit and commuter corridors, shopping and family environments, community and recreation locations, and relevant family destinations.
KPI, Reporting & Analytics
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Primary media KPI: qualified reach at effective frequency. Primary action KPI: Find a Doctor outbound clicks.
Reporting will turn media activity into board-ready evidence. The cadence below is designed to help BCDO understand what is working during the year and show members how the PR levy is creating visible province-wide value.
By year-end, BCDO will understand what drove Find a Doctor activity, what content educated the public, how each channel contributed and how the PR levy delivered visible province-wide value.
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Earned Media & PR Approach
The goal is to position BCDO as a useful source for journalists and a trusted public voice for British Columbians. Paid media will create consistent visibility; earned media will add authority and timeliness.
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Work Plan, Timeline & Governance
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Blink will tailor workflow to BCDO's preferences, but our recommended operating system includes Teamwork for project management, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 for collaboration and file storage, Figma and Adobe Creative Suite for creative development, Frame.io for video and motion review, and GA4/GTM/Looker Studio-style dashboards for reporting.
Agency Overview & Proposed Team
Blink's strength is in translating complex or low-interest topics into clear, human-centred communications that people can understand and act on. That is highly relevant to BCDO's challenge: the public may know eye health matters, but many people do not know when to see a Doctor of Optometry or what optometry can help with beyond glasses.
Annual communications strategy, audience segmentation, messaging, board-ready planning, and three-year roadmap thinking.
Campaign platform, OP integration, copywriting, art direction, social/video assets, OOH, and creative refreshes.
Paid search, paid social, YouTube, programmatic, retargeting, selective OOH/transit, optimization, and pacing.
GA4/GTM, UTM taxonomy, dashboarding, Find a Doctor source tracking, quarterly reporting, and strategic recommendations.
Story calendar, pitch materials, journalist outreach, spokesperson support, and earned media recaps.
In-house Blink Studio for cost-efficient video, photography, motion, and rapid asset adaptation.
President
Executive sponsor / client service lead
Senior relationship, budget stewardship, strategic alignment, and executive escalation.
Creative Director
Creative lead
Campaign platform, OP integration, creative direction, copy/art direction, and quality control.
Brand Strategist
Strategy and messaging
Audience insights, messaging architecture, research synthesis, and campaign strategy.
Head of Media
Digital, media, analytics lead
Media strategy, paid search/social/programmatic, optimization, source-of-click reporting, and dashboard strategy.
Digital Strategist
Digital strategy and content
Channel strategy, audience segmentation, paid/organic social content frameworks, and testing.
Art Director / Senior Designer
Design lead
Visual systems, multi-format design, OP asset adaptation, and digital asset production.
Senior Account Manager
Day-to-day account lead
Timelines, approvals, status, meeting notes, briefs, and cross-team coordination.
Creative Services Director
Resource and production operations
Resourcing, workflow, production planning, QA, and delivery efficiency.
Relevant Experience
Multi-year agency of record
Services: Brand strategy, creative, digital media, production, annual planning, performance optimization.
Results
impressions
full video views
landing-page clicks
Canadians reached
email database growth
Relevance to BCDO: Shows Blink's ability to manage an annual, multi-message program with ongoing optimization, creative refreshes, and performance reporting.
#SoundingTheAlarm
Services: Public education strategy, narrative development, motion graphics, video production, digital, social, radio, and paid/earned/social amplification.
Results
impressions across BC
interactions
Relevance to BCDO: Shows Blink's ability to handle sensitive public-interest messaging, province-wide awareness, and trust-building around an essential health-adjacent service.
Ingredients Guarantee - Long-running omni-channel platform
Problem: In 2013 A&W's sales were flat and they knew they could no longer rely on the aging Baby Boomer demographic.
Strategy: Knowing Millennials and Gen X were health conscious and cared where their food came from.
Solution: A&W made an aggressive pivot from nostalgia brand to ingredient-led leader in one of the most successful brand turnarounds in Canadian QSR history.
Results
same-store sales
The campaign ran for over 12 years and won many Effie and Cassie awards for effectiveness. In its first year alone.
This campaign was created at Rethink, where Blink Creative Director Eric Arnold helped develop it and led it for more than a decade across channels.
Free Unlock Campaign
Services: Behaviour-change campaign, digital and social advertising, out-of-home support, promotional messaging, and user activation path.
Results
usage rate on the promotion
redemptions
Relevance to BCDO: Demonstrates action-oriented creative that moves people from awareness to trial or first action - directly relevant to Find a Doctor behaviour.
We Love Teachers
Services: National contest, campaign identity, UGC strategy, social content, paid media, landing page, PR, in-store integration, and monthly winner content.
Results
Relevance to BCDO: Relevant to parent, school, and back-to-school audiences, as well as monthly content cycles and public engagement mechanics.
Blink will also build from BCDO's past work. The 2021 Look After Yourself campaign shows the value of always-on search and Find a Doctor tracking. The 2023 Superpower of Sight exhibit shows the power of making children's eye health experiential and emotionally memorable. The 2025 summer campaign reinforces the importance of parent education, mini-sites, Find a Doctor usage, social followership, and province-wide visibility.
Budget & Pricing
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If BCDO's board is open to increasing the PR levy and there are concrete reasons to do so, Blink recommends an optional $600,000 scenario that is tied to incremental outcomes rather than simply a larger version of the same plan.
Total incremental investment: $100,000 → Enhanced program total: $600,000 all-in.
Only recommended if tied to board-approved incremental outcomes.
The fixed annual plan above is recommended for budget control. For approved out-of-scope work, Blink's standard rate card is above.
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Risk, Regulatory & Quality Management
Why Blink
Closing
Blink believes BCDO has a powerful opportunity to make optometry more visible, more understood, and more valued across British Columbia.
The public already understands that eyes matter. The next step is helping people recognize the everyday moments when their eyes may be asking for care - and making a Doctor of Optometry the obvious first step.
The program we have proposed is built for that task. It is behaviour-led, OP-friendly, media-efficient, measurable, regionally mindful, and designed to show members how their PR levy worked. It also gives BCDO a strong foundation for a multi-year communications cycle that can be expanded with clear evidence and board confidence.
We would be honoured to partner with BC Doctors of Optometry in 2027 and help build a communications program that is strategically clear, creatively memorable, and accountable from the start.
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