Alain Afflelou
Alain Afflelou: from 0 to 700,000 followers on TikTok
Since the account launched in 2024, tigrz has supported Alain Afflelou in building its TikTok strategy. In November 2026, the brand passed 700,000 followers and established itself as the optical retailer with the largest TikTok community in France.
Launching a historic brand on TikTok
When tigrz began supporting Alain Afflelou on TikTok in 2024, the account was launched with no existing community. The goal was to build a presence able to translate the retailer’s expertise into the platform’s contemporary codes, without losing its brand DNA.
In November 2026, the community reaches more than 700,000 followers, starting from zero.
An editorial strategy in continuous renewal
The strategy relies on continuous renewal of concepts, formats and writing styles. It combines content produced by tigrz, the brand’s own messages, influence and collaboration with creators.
Each piece of content seeks to translate Alain Afflelou’s premium, modern and innovative DNA into formats that are immediately understandable and engaging on TikTok.
Combining organic growth and paid amplification
The growth of the account relies on a strategy combining organic and paid media. Content builds the relationship with the community while amplification widens its reach, speeds up recruitment and establishes the brand with new audiences.
In November 2026, Alain Afflelou has almost three times as many followers as the second optical retailer in the category in France and generates around three times more likes and engagement.
Source: tigrz competitive benchmark, November 2026.
Afflelou vs ChatGPT: putting optical expertise back at the centre
With the “Qui est l’expert ?” (“Who is the expert?”) campaign, Alain Afflelou and tigrz chose to take on the new uses linked to generative artificial intelligence.
The principle was simple: pit ChatGPT’s answers against those of Jackson Agboke, an Alain Afflelou optician and optometry trainer at Afflelou Academy. The activation showed that users can look for advice anywhere, but that the expertise of a visual health professional remains essential to provide an accurate, personalised answer adapted to each situation.
The campaign thus subverted the codes of LLMs and ChatGPT to reassert the value of the advisers present every day in Alain Afflelou stores.
An activation consumed across all platforms
The campaign saw strong consumption across all platforms:
- 2.7 million views on TikTok
- Almost 580,000 views on Instagram
- 520,000 views on YouTube, where a longer format was offered
The community reacted positively to the concept and asked for a second episode.
A campaign rewarded by Stratégies
In September 2023, “Qui est l’expert ?” received the bronze medal at the Grand Prix Stratégies de l’Expérience Client, in the “Innovative use of technology, Artificial Intelligence” category.
This distinction rewards the campaign’s ability to use an emerging technology to demonstrate and enhance the essential role of Alain Afflelou’s expert opticians.
Alain Afflelou’s perspective
“I am very proud of this unprecedented initiative, which positions Alain Afflelou, once again, as the most innovative expert optical retailer in its sector. In the end, our expert optician wins by a wide margin against AI, and that is truly the best reward for our Alain Afflelou brand.”
Official press release (PDF) ↗Campaign page on Stratégies ↗
The results
TikTok Pulse: raising awareness of MAGIC Glasses and MAGIC Clips
Alain Afflelou also used TikTok Pulse to give strong visibility to its flagship product, MAGIC Glasses, and its MAGIC Clips: a magnetic clip system that turns glasses into sunglasses, adds a blue-light filter or 3D lenses. Pulse displays campaigns alongside the top 4% best-performing content on TikTok, with hyper-contextual messages, on the Beauty and Fashion lineups as well as across all Pulse lineups.
- +4% ad recall
- +181% 6-second view-through rate versus non-Pulse campaigns
- +7% engagement rate versus non-Pulse campaigns
Pulse also showed that users outside the Beauty and Fashion category consume this type of content: several interest categories were identified and then built into the in-feed campaigns. According to Bénédicte Chalumeau-Vignon, Communications Director at Afflelou, Pulse was “a suitable solution for this campaign, with very encouraging results” (our translation).
Source: TikTok for Business case study, Alain Afflelou. Claims made by the brand are neither endorsed nor verified by TikTok.
Expertise and resources
The content
Collaboration