YOU’RE A GAMER AND YOU DON’T KNOW IT

In 2019, Multiópticas presented its narrative Screen Pollution. After two years working on this narrative, the need arose to adopt a different approach that allowed us to continue strengthening the strategic positioning through a major action capable of generating media conversation and open up a debate regarding a very active digital community that was unaware of the excessive use that senior citizens were making of screens.

Until now, when people spoke about gamers, we tended to think of those young people who spend hours playing video games. However, we discovered that despite the fact that 70% of the Spanish population aged between 45 and 75 do not identify themselves as gamers, 85% of them spend 1 hour and 20 minutes on average playing with devices with screens. An activity they undertake in the worst conditions for their eye health: using small screens in the dark.

Multiópticas wanted to raise awareness of the responsible use of screens, focusing on those people that are gamers without knowing it, since they spend a great many hours playing video games, so as to make them aware of the impact on their sight and so that they look after their eye health. But the campaign also sought to make this reality more visible by challenging the stereotypical image of gamers and empowering senior citizens to enjoy video games.

The campaign obtained incredible results, generating a major debate on social media and also considerable repercussions in the traditional media, thus enhancing the visibility of a group of people who are not normally considered to be technology-driven. The great reception of the campaign, which aroused the interest of more than 350 people in the Screen Wolves team, between candidates, photographers, editors and a long list of others, was an example for professionals of how to combat ageist prejudices.

To achieve this, we got in touch with a public figure who had shown she was a gamer in view of all of Spain but had denied it for years: Celia Villalobos, who was caught out playing the popular video game Candy Crush in the Lower House of Parliament. With her help, we produced an unexpected advert based on her own past and directly related to the narrative that the brand had been constructing for two years.

Together with Celia Villalobos, we created Screen Wolves, a fictitious eSports team that she captained, which, according to the presentation narrative, was set up to tackle all the criticisms. To create expectation, we launched an initial publication to generate uncertainty in the public about which people would become members of the team.

After 48 hours of debate and theorizing on who might be behind the team, we broadcast live on the Twitch channel of Screen Wolves, along with Celia Villalobos, where we revealed the initiative promoted by Multiópticas, thus achieving the dual aim of enhancing the visibility and raising awareness about the daily use of screens, above all when we play games with them, thus showing the commitment of the brand to this reality.

This approach totally falls outside the usual dichotomy of the optician sector in Spain. Firstly, due to the use of a politician as the brand ambassador, something never seen before in the sector. And secondly, we broke away from the traditional paternalistic discourse that tends to be employed in the sector for those campaigns aimed at senior citizens, empowering this community and changing the perception that only young people play video games.