Scotlens celebrates 20 years of Nocturnal

Scotlens has launched a new advert to celebrate 20 years of the Nocturnal ortho-K product.

The advert forms part of its ‘#nightlenses revolution’ campaign, through which the company has swapped the terminology ‘ortho-K’ for the “easy to use and remember” term ‘night lenses.’

Scott Brown, optometrist and clinical director of Scotlens, called it “a simple marketing idea that will single-handedly make night lenses a mainstream eye care option next to glasses, day lenses and laser eye surgery.”

The new advert illustrates some of the benefits of the lenses, and introduces viewers to the concept of ortho-K.

Brown shared: “Celebrating 20 years of our Nocturnal ortho-K product with this ground-breaking night lenses advert feels like an important milestone for me.”

Explaining the vision behind the advert and campaign, Brown said: “Because of adverts like this and the new, easy to use and remember night lenses terminology, within two years the public will know ‘night lenses’ like they know ‘laser eye surgery.’”

The Scotlens story: 20 years of Nocturnal and more

The milestone for Nocturnal has a personal significance for Brown, who reflected: “When I left school, I became a scuba dive instructor. If you had told me then that I would follow in my dad’s footsteps as both an optometrist and a lens designer, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“20 years of Nocturnal is special to me,” he said. “It’s a product and brand that I’m particularly proud of and it’s fantastic to see it finally coming into its own in 2023.”

Brown brought the company out in 2014, following in the footsteps of his father, and Scotlens founder, Jack Brown.

Looking back, retired optometrist, Jack Brown, shared: “As an optometrist in the early 1970s I couldn’t get quality contact lenses anywhere in Britain, so I decided to try and make my own. I just gave it a go and learned the hard way.”

Jack Brown shared that he first heard about ortho-K at a British Contact Lens Association lecture around 1975 or 1976.

“The theory seemed good, but the materials were wrong, mainly that they didn’t allow the cornea to get oxygen. So, we gave up,” he said. The arrival of gas permeable lenses in the 1980s led to success, however.

“I’m certainly proud to be one of the first ortho-K pioneers in the UK, and to have been the first company in Europe to get a CE for GP lenses,” Jack Brown said.

“The original concept back in the 1970s was to take night lenses to the world. It’s great to see my son, Scott, now doing that with nightlenses.com and night lenses starting to become mainstream,” he added.