Essilor is counting on Mido
Luca Strigiotti, Managing Director of Essilor Italia, explains exclusively to WMIDO why his group has decided to focus on the Milan exhibition. This year Essilor will be at Mido with twice the display space and also with lenses. What factors led to this decision?Mido represents an opportunity given the way we closed 2015, a year that exceeded all expectations with regard to results. The two-figure growth was supported essentially by our media campaign linked to the “Raddoppia le tue lenti” (double your lenses) program which was successful with eye care professionals and the general public. 2016 opened in pursuit of "innovative continuity": we are looking at the future and aim to capitalize on the good results achieved. From this point of view, Mido is the beginning of a challenging season with a wealth of developments, the starting off point for the promotion of a series of actions designed for our customer-partners.For a company like Essilor, what is Mido’s added value compared to other exhibitions?In recent years the Milan exhibition has evolved in line with the drive toward change shown by the entire eyewear sector and has become an essential business tool and an important showcase; a result achieved thanks to a marketing strategy that takes into consideration the needs of operators and the requests of a continually-developing market. These elements represent the added value which, together with the various new products we want to present, encouraged us to return and present not only the Instrument Division as in the past two years, but also ophthalmic lenses. Our return is in recognition of the Milan exhibition’s relational value and experience in the field.What developments will you present at the event?Sun, Instruments and Transitions are Essilor Italia’s three macro areas at Mido. The setting will be integrated with a “Nautilus Point”, where it will be possible to try the first innovative 3D demo-visor that enables optical centres to give their customers an entirely new experience: testing the benefits of lenses by trying out the vision solutions offered by different types of lenses. Also fundamental for us is the re-launch of the M’eye e.Store in an e-commerce version and other developments and initiatives designed for eye care professionals which we will present in detail at the exhibition.How was 2015 and what do you forecast for 2016?As I said, for Essilor Italia 2015 was a really good year with growth that went beyond all expectations, important recognition that validates our marketing strategy and allows us to tackle 2016 backed up by the results achieved. Obviously, our objective is to continue to improve.
