Setting our challenger brand sights on the eye drop market
Global ophthalmology specialists Santen approached us to focus on raising consumer brand awareness for their newly launched artificial tears range.
But it soon became clear we also needed to set our sights on other audiences too.
Eyes down as we explore the marketing challenges and the strategic approaches needed to navigate a brand to the competitive eye drop market.
Focusing on a new challenge
The UK eye care market is a competitive and highly regulated space, making the introduction of an eye drop brand both a simultaneous opportunity and challenge.
With an ageing population, rising screen time, and increasing cases of dry eye syndrome, demand for eye drops is growing.(1,2,3)
However, breaking into this market requires overcoming several hurdles, including strict regulatory approval, fierce competition from established brands, and the need for strong brand differentiation.
Additionally, consumer trust and healthcare professional endorsements play a crucial role in product adoption.
As a world leading specialist ophthalmic pharmaceutical company Santen was founded in Japan over a century ago with a mission to provide innovative eye care solutions that enhance the quality of life for patients.
Their objective was to establish a strong OTC presence in the UK.
Having seen the success we’ve achieved with challenger brands , Santen was looking for a UK consumer marketing agency that could help them increase brand awareness and visibility, driving audiences to their e-commerce site with a planned launch via wholesalers to independent pharmacies.
On hearing more about their pharmacy intentions, we identified a critical gap in the original approach: the need to target both consumers and trade professionals.
With our deep industry knowledge, we advised Santen to adopt a dual-focused launch strategy to maximise brand awareness, credibility and sales potential among the pharmacy trade and healthcare professionals.
Our approach
While their UK team knew the dry eye relief demand was there, like all challenger brands, it can be hard to chart a way through the dominance of well established brands.
After focusing initially on brand positioning and market fit, we commenced a full-scale marketing strategy and creative and brand direction.
As a premium-priced product the quality of ingredients, efficacy and innovation needed to be conveyed succinctly to both consumers and HCPs alike.
For consumer and trade campaigns we leaned on crisp and fresh campaign creative to reflect this alongside targeting key demographics, ensuring the right messaging resonated with the right audience.
‘Hello hydration’ launched across trade and consumer media as well as Santen UK’s owned channels including social media and website.
We unveiled the Ocutears trade campaign in style – taking pride of place on the front cover of CIG’s Independent Pharmacist Magazine.
Press ads and strategically placed product placements followed in line with seasonal conditions and target audiences across trade media alongside invited expert commentary in eye care features and solus emails to HCPs.
Excitingly all three products were shortlisted for the MVP (Most Valuable Product) Awards – an accolade voted for by influential pharmacy experts so no mean feat for a newly launched brand!
For the consumer campaign we created engaging lifestyle content across targeted media including Good Housekeeping, Top Sante and Platinum magazines.
We implemented an always-on digital approach through paid campaigns and social media to drive brand awareness and engagement and SEO to improve Google search rankings.
A year after the range was launched, we moved away from ‘new product’ messaging and adopted an adjusted look and feel campaign – ‘Care and expertise in every drop’ – which endorsed key USPs and company heritage.
Delivering impactful results
Our fully integrated 12-month marketing strategy delivered exceptional results, surpassing KPIs across multiple channels:
→ Increased brand presence and reach by 32M (123% of target).
→ Consumer PR reached 23.2M consumers (110% of goal).
→ Trade PR reached 809,499 HCPs (153% of goal).
→ PPC achieved 8M+ paid impressions (161% of target).
→ SEO ranked for 3,373 organic keywords (112% of goal) with four keywords on the first page.
Conclusion
Through a strategic and multi-channel approach we certainly helped to put the Ocutears range on the radar during its first year of launch.
By advising Santen to expand their focus to both trade and consumer marketing, we helped solidify their credibility, increase brand visibility,and drive engagement across key audiences.
Santen’s UK launch is a testament to the power of a well-executed, integrated marketing strategy – one that not only meets but exceeds objectives.
1 https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/otc-dry-eye-drops-market-131800059.html
2 https://theophthalmologist.com/issues/2025/articles/july/screen-time-driving-dry-eye-epidemic/
3 https://www.sightresearchuk.org/sight-issues/eye-conditions/dry-eyes/
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