Orange Different Business

Background

Orange is such a powerful consumer brand it struggles to connect with a business audience. The agency was briefed to make Orange more business-like. But they said, don’t try to be more business-like, talk to business people who are Orange-like.

Orange is a brand that has always been different. They were the first mobile phone company to charge calls by the second; the first not to charge for dropped calls; the first to give away free pizzas. Why not connect with those business people who are attitudinally aligned?

Idea

The agency created the Orange different business competition: an opportunity for people to pitch their idea for a different business and get up to £200,000 of backing to make it happen.

PR and social media spread the story throughout the business community. Once a shortlist of entries was drawn up, business people were invited to vote for the finalists via LinkedIn. The site itself turned into a source of inspiration for the wider business community. It was full of rich content and resources for SMEs. It included short films and case histories about businesses from Dyson to Rapha that showed what Orange meant by ‘different business’. It gave details of the panel of different judges, including lawyers, marketers, entrepeneurs and inventors – like Sir Trevor Bayliss. And it also included a strong call to action asking for entries.

To drive traffic to the site and build response the agency ran ads on and offline asking for entries. They organised ambient activity and stunts to tell people about the competition. And ran a PR campaign to get the competition talked about everywhere from Management Today to the outer reaches of the small business and entrepeurial blogging community.

Results

Out of 143 entries, 10 were shortlisted and invited to record a pitch video. 3 finalists attended a special event in London and met the panel of judges. After much deliberating, they awarded the funding to LornaLou Ltd, whose Pillpod concept will help people take their medication safely and correctly. 

The campaign drove over 30,000 unique web visits across 2 months over and 42 million online impressions, all-in-all driving a unique reach of just under 5 million. That’s 131% against the target.

The competition received extensive coverage in the business press, the blogosphere and social media. The final round of judging and the announcement of the winner was covered by Sky News.

And brand tracking results highlighted a positive effect on the brand consideration for small business with +5 point shift - putting Orange at number 1.