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Orange Ad Campaign: I Am… Lost?
Earlier this month mobile phone firm Orange launched its biggest global ad campaign ever across traditional and new media to rebrand the company with a new phrase. Apparently, the future is: "I am".
Unfortunately the billboard and press ads that call on people to search online for "I am" have left many users phoning a friend since Orange have had to pay through the nose for a sponsored link on Google instead of appearing anywhere in the first eight pages of naturally ranking results. It would appear to be a case of "I am" not working very well, after at least a fortnight.  Considering the campaign developed by ad agency Fallon is worth tens of millions of pounds and is supposed to promote the themes of “the power of community” and “together we can do more”, it doesn’t appear to be doing very much within the global community on the internet.
No doubt the mobile phone operator will be hoping that its marketing in traditional media is more financially friendly and that Google users will be able to find their way to www.i-am-everyone.co.uk. Perhaps we’re just being pedantic. Any user who knows their backspace from their elbow would search for "I am" with the word "Orange". That search does currently reveal some naturally ranking news about the campaign, but most of them are around two weeks old. Still no sign of the official Orange site for the ads in the natural results at the time of writing. Surely they should have used some of their reported £30m advertising budget in the UK to employ some search engine optimisation to ensure users are lured to the correct website?  Jonathan Morley, the vice-president of global brand at Orange, said the campaign would "inform everything we do".
Justin Billingsley, brand director at Orange, added that "the most powerful part of this campaign is its integrated nature – there are 120 different executions, touchpoints along the consumer journey to make sure that it feels consistent with a closer connection between the campaign and Orange.” Informed and integrated? I am at a loss for words. Orange News posted on 18/07/2008 11:07:44 CommentsReply InterestingIt's amazing that large companies such as Orange can make mistakes like these.Comment posted by Anonymous on 23/07/2008 09:36:53 Reply Share and share alikeWith the likes of Vodafone losing massive amounts of value on its shares, Orange could be next if it doesn't make the most of its online advertising budget.This could have been a really cool ad campaign featuring people contributing their own "I ams" - a bit like the famous PostSecret blog - but I think Orange has missed a trick. Comment posted by Anonymous on 23/07/2008 15:54:10 Reply It's silly!Comment posted by Anonymous on 23/07/2008 19:26:22 Reply Missing the pointYou make an interesting argument, however, I think you are missing the point. Orange’s call to action mirrors user behaviour online and highlights how search behaviour has changed.Orange has always been one step ahead of the rest when it comes to producing cutting-edge advertising and it's definitely not that they forgot or didn’t factor SEO into their budget. They have used a technique that I think we will undoubtedly see more of over the next year. They are capitalising on user behaviour - the amount of times users type a brand or part of a URL into a search box instead of the actual link is growing tremendously and is potentially going to change the search marketing landscape. Comment posted by Anonymous on 18/08/2008 22:25:21 Reply Really?Do you have any evidence to support your claim that 'it doesn’t appear to be doing very much within the global community on the internet'.[sic]?Comment posted by Anonymous on 19/08/2008 14:07:14 ReplySurely the fact the writer has used the words, and quot;after at least a fortnight and quot; and and quot;at the time of writing and quot;, as well as a screenshot of the results at that time means that this is a very time-specific story. I agree that there's no way that this ad campaign wouldn't eventually succeed though. Comment posted by Anonymous on 19/08/2008 15:45:31 Reply I agreeTrue - there's no way it wouldn't eventually succeed. Orange are a powerful advertiser and this scheme is most intriguing.Comment posted by Anonymous on 19/08/2008 22:36:01 Have your say!Race against iPhone heats up as Orange announces Bold release date
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