Seen in Contagious Newsletter
In the UK, when we think of Orange, fluorescent canaries, panthers and racoons spring to mind (the mobile price plan representations - not hallucinations brought on by having a whiff of the office glue stick). However, in Europe, Orange is known for being more than a mobile company - a whole lot more.
A recent re-vamp of the online portal along with confirmation that Orange is now the leading provider of IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) in Europe, has proven that the company is now capable of providing content across three digital screens - not just the one which you keep in your pocket. As a result of this, Orange has unveiled plans to step-up their digital advertising initiatives - utilising their existing integrated content strategy to deliver across all three platforms. Contagious caught up with Paul-Francois Fournier, senior VP in charge of online advertising, who explained this change in direction - starting with the Orange online portal.
‘Last year, the Orange website ranked among the world’s 25 most visited, with 58 million unique visitors every month. We are by no means saying that we want to compete with Google and MSN, however, we do believe that we have the ability to be the number one local player with the content which we have.’
Furthermore, Orange currently has 1.4 million customers subscribing to its Home Digital TV in Europe - a figure which they are hoping to improve on, no doubt, as the service rolls out globally, starting with the UK later this year.
But what makes Orange think that it can oust the Sky Boxes from our fair nation’s host of plywood TV consoles? Well it turns out that Orange has a crafty trick up its sleeve - 3DTV! We were lucky enough to receive a demo at Roland Garros where full live coverage of the Grand Slam tennis tournament was being broadcast in 3D. For this particular service you require a compatible TV which we are informed are now being produced and cost little more than a normal flat-screen unit. Of course there is still the need to wear the painfully cool 3D glasses (yes we have pictures of this bespectacled Contagious reporter and no - you can’t see them), however we will be checking out new technology from Philips this week which apparently doesn’t require glasses - so be sure to catch next week’s newsletter for a write up on whether this could be the perfect marriage with Orange’s trump broadcasting card...
Clearly therefore, although still a modestly-sized fish in a rather large new pool, Orange does indeed have the content and the platforms necessary to court a host of prospective advertisers. Volkswagen, adidas and Calvin Klein are amongst those who have already seeded integrated campaigns across all three screens; however, perhaps the best example of this is the deal agreed between Nokia and Orange to deliver advertising on the Nokia Maps mobile application. Paul-Francois Fournier concludes - ‘These are early days, however we have proven that we have the tools at our disposal - out attitude has been and will be - Let’s create value and let’s share value.’
Lastly, in the meantime Orange has come up with a cute campaign of its own hosted at playballoonacy.com. By visiting this microsite, you can assign your name to one of thousands of balloons which will be released across the internet on June 23rd. The balloon which travels the furthest will scoop its lucky launcher a trip for them and seven pals to Ibiza, worth £20,000. There are various bonus items in the form of stars to collect on the way - collect five of these and you could win one of many smaller prizes available in the competition.
You can track and control your balloon by visiting websites which have signed up to the initiative - every page you visit counts as one internet mile. Bloggers and website owners can get on board by adding a small snippet of widgety code which will embed their home page as part of the track. Neat huh?
