2021
The Transitions Innovation Awards program recognizes and celebrates loyal partners and individual optical industry professionals from Canada and the U.S. who have shown the highest level of commitment to growing its business with Transitions Optical’s family of products and programs over the past year. Award categories include innovation and creativity in executing marketing programs; training and dispensing; strong results and growth with Transitions® lenses; and overall passion for and devotion to the Transitions® brand.
Who is eligible to apply?
Nominations are open to:
- Independent eyecare professionals and practices
- Optical industry professionals and educators
- National and regional retailers
- Optical laboratories
- Managed Vision Care companies
- Lens manufacturers and buying groups
All Transitions Innovation Award finalists will receive a trip for two team members to attend the 2022 Transitions Academy, January 16 - 19 in Orlando, Fla. Please note, if selected as a finalist for more than one category, two total spots will be provided.
If you and/or your team are already registered for Transitions Academy, two of those existing reservations will be covered.
Some restrictions may apply. Eyecare professionals are invited to consult their professional code of ethics.
- Awarded at Transitions Academy in Orlando
How to Enter
Show us your Transitions achievements and commitments in 2020! Using the evaluation areas provided below, create
your entry in a PowerPoint or Word document (feel free to use these suggested templates at Transitions.com/awards). Include any supporting materials, such as images and links to examples, to help tell your story.
Nominations for the Transitions Innovation Awards are now open until October 31, 2021. Visit Transitions.com/awards to complete the online nomination form and submit your entry. An unbiased judging committee will evaluate the program/work based on the four evaluation areas - commitment and inspiration, goals, plan and creativity, and impact and results. Nominees are welcome to enter more than one category and can self-enter, or can be nominated by a lab, lens manufacturer, industry colleague or other industry organization representative. Please submit a separate entry for each category that you are entering.
Award finalists will be notified in October to secure travel plans. For additional information and questions, please contact Transitions Customer
Service at CustomerServiceCanada@Transitions.com.
Some restrictions may apply. Eyecare professionals are invited to consult their professional code of ethics.
Commitment and Inspiration
What prompted your dedication to the Transitions brand this year? What was the inspiration behind your work? Was it in response to an existing problem or was it a new objective?
Goals
What did you hope to achieve? Who were you trying to reach and how did their needs, preferences, opinions play a role?
Plan and Creativity
How did you plan to achieve your goals? What innovative approaches did you use to help you succeed? Did you use a completely new approach, a tried-and-true tactic or a mix of both? How was the Transitions brand or products included in your plans? Be sure to take pictures along the way and include them in your entry!
Impact and Results
How did things turn out? How did you evaluate your success? Did you meet - or exceed - your goals? How will you build on your success? How did you impact Transitions lens sales? If relevant, be sure to include your photochromic lens sales (including pair growth and share of overall mix).
Nominate Now
Vision Care Centre is an independent optometric practice in Toronto, Canada.
Vision Care Centre developed a comprehensive approach to include Transitions lenses as a part of the patient journey. They began pre-testing all patient lenses to see if their current eyewear had sun protection and practiced doctor-driven dispensing. They also created a Transitions Style Bar and encouraged patients to try the lens.
After attending Transitions Academy in 2019, they recreated the experience for staff by reviewing the educational content and creating new scripts to overcome patient objections.
Through these efforts, Vision Care Centre was able to reach all patient demographics, change perceptions about the brand and grow their penetration rate to 36.5%.
Walman Optical is the largest independent wholesale lab in America with a 2019 objective to leverage the Transitions® Signature® GEN 8™ launch to help eyecare professionals increase revenue and patient satisfaction.
They created a robust training program through a combination of in-person trainings, webinars and a new Transitions Ambassadors Program. Walman Optical saw an average of 5% share growth from the accounts that participated in the Transitions Ambassador program, showing that a focused effort on select accounts pays-off.
Walman Optical also used the Transitions® Signature® style colors and Transitions® XTRActive® style mirrors lenses and put them in Walman Optical Frames to offer a differentiated product in the marketplace. By focusing on style colors and the Transitions Signature GEN 8 launch they were able to continue to grow their Transitions lens share, which resulted in around 5,000 more pairs per month over the last 2 years.
Henry Ford OptimEyes is a team of highly skilled doctors and healthcare professionals dedicated to providing the full spectrum of quality eye care for the whole family at 20 locations around the metro Detroit area.
With the launch of Transitions style colors and style mirrors, Henry Ford OptimEyes created excitement and awareness around the products through many efforts! They featured Transitions lenses in their In-Focus Magazine, sent out postcards promoting the new style colors and style mirrors to over 13,000 homes, set up hold message for all offices throughout the year that included information on the new products, trained all employees on new Transitions lens products, and offered all team members a free frame and a free pair of Transitions style colors or style mirror finishes to create excitement.
As a result of their efforts, Henry Ford OptimEyes achieved double digit growth every month of 2019.
Founded in 1980, Grimard Optique currently has 22 eyewear stores with over 130 opticians, assistants and optometrists.
Grimard Optique’s challenge was to educate customers on the benefits of Transitions lenses, in terms of eye health, practicality, aesthetics and fashion. To help achieve this, Grimard Optique set monthly objectives at all their clinics and focused on increasing patient awareness on Transitions lenses. The monthly objectives were accompanied by training on Transitions products through a new approach pertaining to sensitivity to light, a monthly webinar by the sales director to inform teams of the Transitions lens sales results for each store and each group, and monthly incentives for store employees for meeting their objectives.
To help increase awareness with patients Grimard Optique organized 14 “Open-Door” events where Transitions lenses were offered to every customer, had Transitions lens displays in every office, ran promotional radio ads, and sent an electronic text or email message accompanying each appointment confirmation with “Don’t forget to ask for your Transitions lens rebate at your next visit.”
Through their efforts, Grimard Optique Saw a 153% increase in Transitions single-vision lens sales.
Professor Edward C. August is a master optician with nearly 50 years of optical experience, president of August Enterprise and owner of The Optical Retail Group (TORG). As a huge advocate, he speaks regularly on the Transitions brand, including it as a part of his Sunwear-o-logy presentation. In 2019, he spoke to over 10,000 eyecare professionals in the U.S. Canada, England, Scotland and China.
Through TORG, Professor Edward C. August encourages retailers to prescribe Transitions® lenses to every patient and discuss the family of Transitions brands. He also teaches prescription analysis which is the art and science of communicating the features and benefits of products, utilizing the quality education products supplied by Transitions lenses.
These collective efforts have helped him increase Transitions lens sales for TORG by 25%.
Spring Hill Eyecare is a privately owned optometry office located in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Spring Hill Eyecare’s secret to success started with education--discussing Transitions lenses at meetings, holding training sessions, and sharing experiences and patient responses. They also fitted each staff member with a pair of Transitions Signature GEN 8 lenses.
In their optical, they encouraged engagement with the Transitions brand by asking patients to leave a written review. The positive patient feedback reassured new wearers in their decision to purchase. They also created an interactive lens display where patients could demo the Transitions Signature style colors in frames.
These initiatives helped Spring Hill Eyecare increase their Transitions lens share by 22%.
In 2019, Value Optical focused on reaching a younger demographic through colorful campaigns featuring Transitions Signature GEN 8 and Transitions style colors. Their campaigns used a combination of traditional advertising, social media influencers and presence at trade conventions.
Value Optical launched a Carnival campaign, an Easter campaign and a style colors campaign that featured their own staff modeling the lenses. Social media influencers were also used during the style colors campaign to feature the style aspect of Transitions lenses. Value Optical also introduced Transitions Signature GEN 8 at their largest regional trade conference and ran a billboard advertisement that saw 100,000 viewers monthly.
Value Optical’s combined efforts led to 84% sale increase of Transitions lenses in 2019 and an increase in their single-vision sharing showing a positive impact of their campaign strategy.