Hubert Sagnieres.

CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France—Essilor is planning to step up its media spending considerably and will release a stream of new lens products, in the second quarter of 2015.

Speaking to financial analysts during a conference call yesterday to discuss Essilor’s first quarter 2015 results, Hubert Sagnieres, chairman and CEO of Essilor said, “We are going to increase our consumer media spend to 200 million Euro from 150 million Euro last year. That includes online activities and our sun[glass] business.”

In conjunction with the increased media spend, Sagnieres told analysts that Essilor will also ramp up its sales promotions to consumers, opticians and optometrists during the second quarter. “Our media spending is really driving the activity up,” he noted.

Sagnieres also said Essilor has “a strong pipeline of new products” that it plans to launch in the second and third quarters of 2015. These include EyeZen, a lens for relaxing the eyes when viewing digital devices that Essilor will release first in France and later in the year in the U.S. and Asia; Varilux 3.0, which will be launched in Asia; a line of XPerio colored polarized lenses for the U.S. market; and a full line of Transitions XTRActive, a photochromic lens that darkens behind the windshield of a car.