Sunglass Maker Sees Advertising Through New Lens

Lulu Frenchie is changing the face of advertising by turning sunglasses into billboards. The French company has taken customized apparel to another level, offering customers the ability to customize their sunglass lenses with logos, messages and images that do not affect vision.

Customers are not the only ones taking note, though. Companies such as Playstation, Mini, McDonalds and Vogue Paris have all used Lulu Frenchie in advertising. With the backing of some of those top companies Lulu Frenchie has sold 500,000 pairs of sunglasses since opening in 2010. That growth and popularity has helped the company become the top eyeglasses advertiser in Europe.

Despite its current success, the company, which was started with an initial investment of just 5,000 Euros, has experienced several challenges in its short history.

"It's actually been quite hard because you don't have any advice around you for dealing with this kind of thing," said Paul Morlet of Lulu Frenchie. "It's not at all the destiny I planned for myself, and if I'd known at the time some of the problems I was going to have I might not have done it. But it's been quite an adventure…it's been two years now and I'm pretty happy."

Customized sunglasses are just the latest in a line of unique advertising opportunities that has included advertisements on toilet paper and more recently 3D posters.  The following video profiles the story of Lulu Frenchie.

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