Specsavers Says "Should’ve Gone to Emmerdale"

Today Specsavers announces its sponsorship of ITV’s Emmerdale, as the brand continues to raise awareness of its expertise in sight, audiology and home visits service.

The soap’s audience is a key demographic for Specsavers and the sponsorship, negotiated and bought by MG OMD, is the brand’s first prime-time UK TV partnership.

Starting on 26 August, viewers of the daily ITV drama will be treated to Should’ve gone to Specsavers moments exclusive to Emmerdale, either side of the programme and its commercial breaks.

Directed by Ollie Parsons, who also worked on Specsavers’ Countdown and Neighbours TV sponsorship campaigns, the team has created mini soaps within a soap, played out by a parallel community that brings together the dramatic, modern and diverse edge of Emmerdale with the comedic twist of Specsavers.

There are 15 idents with creative executions around sight, audiology and home visits. All begin with the characters involved in what initially appear to be tense and dramatic scenes. But then unexpected twists reveal harmless scenarios all along, with just visual or hearing mishaps to blame for any confusion. Whether it’s a policeman checking the rear of a horse rather than the rear of a house or a wife getting hold of the wrong end of the stick about a photo on her husband's phone, Specsavers’ trademark comedic timing and delivery are unmistakable.

The individual idents will be planned for each episode by the Specsavers team, depending on the nature of the daily storyline. They will appear on linear viewing and feature on all streaming of Emmerdale on ITVX, as well as being supported by comprehensive digital and social support.

Victoria Clarke, Specsavers; marketing services director, commented, “Emmerdale gives us a great platform to highlight the fact people’s eyesight and hearing changes through their lives. It’s important that people feel confident and comfortable talking about hearing and sight issues from the minute they arise, and our Specsavers humour makes that just a little bit easier.”

Richard James, global creative director at Specsavers added, “We’ve created a parallel community that has the dramatic, modern and diverse edge of Emmerdale combined with the iconic Specsavers ‘Should’ve’ humour. I hope Emmerdale viewers enjoy watching the series of idents as much as the team enjoyed making them.”

Bhav Chandrani, director of BE Studios, added, "This new sponsorship is a fantastic partnership between one of TV's best-loved and longest running programmes and one of the most recognisable TV advertisers. Specsavers is a brand which has consistently proved the longevity and success of TV advertising and the creativity of the new sponsorship idents builds on both Emmerdale and Specsavers' enduring appeal."

Matt Mint, executive director, client team at MGOMD, added, “Specsavers and Emmerdale have been entertaining the nation for decades and this new partnership is sure to continue that fine tradition whilst also raising the importance of sight and hearing tests. It’s a one-two punch of the right property and the right creative that you can’t help but fall in love with.”