How does one impact a billion lives with a $1 product

Vision Spring is a social enterprise founded by Jordan Kassalow and Scott Berrie in 2001. They have been striving to ensure that “equitable and affordable eyeglasses are available to every individual to live a productive life”.

The World Health Organisation estimates that over 700 million people who need eyeglasses do not have access to them. This leads to an estimated 35% loss of economic productivity, children falling out of school and a significant loss of quality of life. Since inception, Vision Spring has sold over 1.6M eyeglasses to their target customers who typically earn between $1-$8 per day. They have been successful at deploying philanthropic capital to uncover economically viable business models that can scale through market forces.

Vision Spring partnered with us to create compelling and clutter-breaking communication that works across various media channels and languages.

Along with their leadership team, we did field visits and understood the context. We decided to completely do away with imagery that was meant for donors and had somehow slipped into their mass campaigns. With communication that the masses would love – Hindi movie like renditions of creatives, bright yellow glasses and colourful backgrounds; everyday people were made to look like movie stars, thus creating a sense of aspiration around the product.

The new campaign not only eliminated the stigma of wearing glasses, it celebrated the idea that eyeglasses can actually transform lives in magical ways. The name Chamatkari Chashma (Wonder Glasses) and the imagery has stuck on ever since and the campaign is now reaching Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of Africa in their local languages.