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Your voice in the media

Our key campaigns and media coverage highlights

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Through our national and regional media campaigns, we aim to ensure that the voice of our members is heard on important issues impacting the profession.

Set up in 2017, our annual Voice of Optometry insight survey which invites members to share their experiences, has been instrumental in helping us to do this. Using our Voice of Optometry findings we’ve launched public awareness campaigns on a range of topics including driving and vision, children's eye health and lifestyle choices.

Media coverage highlights 2025

We continued to build momentum across the media landscape in 2025, securing more than 700 items of coverage and reflecting the steady growth we have tracked since 2020.

This activity delivered an advertising equivalent of £2 million and achieved a combined reach of 8.6 billion, further cementing the AOP’s position as a leading voice on eye health and healthcare policy.

Our You won’t see it coming campaign, which highlighted regional disparities in glaucoma care, achieved significant traction. Coverage spanned seven national newspapers, more than 150 regional outlets, and 30 broadcast interviews, including BBC One’s Morning Live, The Telegraph, and The Independent, ensuring the issue resonated widely and reinforced the importance of optometry in tackling inequalities in eye care.

Alongside this, our broader media presence gained strong cut-through across online, broadcast and print channels. We achieved 553 online article mentions, 19 television interviews, 45 radio features, and 104 print articles. Importantly, our voice was heard both nationally and regionally, with one-third of stories appearing in national and two-thirds in regional press. Our campaigning on vision standards for driving especially gained impressive traction throughout the year with coverage including the BBC, ITV, The Standard and The Express.

We also maintained a consistent presence in the media through expert commentary and spokesperson interviews, ensuring optometry remained visible in conversations about healthcare.

Our stories in the news in 2025

Media coverage highlights 2024

We had consistent media pick-up throughout the year with over 700 items of coverage secured in 2024, and more than 100 of these against our top tier media targets. This achieved a combined audience reach of over 6bn, cementing the AOP position as an industry thought leader on eye health topics. Our campaigns gained traction across national, regional, sector and online press, acquiring cut-through with key target audiences and the wider public.

Don’t swerve a sight test, our annual campaign on vision standards for driving, amassed over 400 pieces of coverage in the latest wave of activity. Key highlights include a BBC Breakfast interview with AOP Head of Clinical, Henry Leonard - with a news package which ran across all counties as well as BBC News at One, TV interviews on ITV and BBC Scotland, and coverage across regional and national media including the Daily Telegraph, The Sun and Express.

Our One million appointments campaign, earlier in the year, on the need for optometry to be optimised to address the GP appointments crisis performed well on a regional level with broadcast highlights including BBC Breakfast Midlands, BBC Radio Scotland, Greatest Hits Radio London, and Hits Radio.

Our Sight won’t wait campaign on the eye care waiting list backlog also continued to gain traction in the media across national and regional  outlets such as, BBC Morning Live, BBC Wales, Daily Mail online, and Express.

Throughout the year we also maintained a voice in the media agenda through spokesperson interviews on eye care and eye health advice, including a feature on BBC’s The One Show, Radio 4's You and Yours, BBC Radio Lancashire, and BBC Radio Manchester.

Our stories in the news in 2024

Further 2023 highlights

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