Orange's New Vision and Brand Campaign - Premiers in the UK tomorrow with its new “I am” film.
So exit "the Future is bright" and welcome the new vision expressed in the statement "together we can do more".
The rationale behind this global campaign is quite interesting. See excerpt from the PR: “The Orange brand was originally developed for one technology in one market – mobile telephones in the U.K” says Caroline Mille, Senior Vice President, Brand and Communications. Orange. “Today, just 14 years later, the brand now spans a range of technologies (internet, T.V content) and reaches consumers in 26 countries, covering very different cultures".
So contrary to some sarcastic comments I read in the UK press, this is not only about boosting the UK business but about positioning the company as the leading global provider of digital communications.
Interestingly and logically, Orange's claim that "Bringing people together is why Orange is here in the first place" is not that far from a certain "Connecting People".
France Telecom/Orange is entering a new stage of change, highlighted by recent news announced by the company:
- TeliaSonera's abandoned merger. "Too bad, we shall start by taking modest actions, which will not be on the front page of newspapers but rather in page 25" said CEO Didier Lombard. Indeed, there are few equivalent targets that could offer such a complementary geographic expansion, to the exception of Telenor. Strategically, it was also a way to be able to compete with the Internet giants and handset manufacturers with a larger installed base (handset procurement negotiations, return on investment on content/media investments, capacity to negotiate...). So now the company will continue its fight with other operators (Ghana is a good example) to acquire smaller companies in the developing world.
- new content strategy symbolized by the satelitte TV offering launched yesterday and the forthcoming Orange Foot channel. By the way, I attended a panel discussion at a conference from Daily les Echos the other day and was amazed by the agressive tone between Roverato (Orange) and Lafarge (Canal+). Not that common for such high-level executives.
- flaw of constant innovation with services just launched or announced in the coming months such as: Orange Musique Max, 3D TV (nice show off effect from the demo I saw - to be launched end 2009?), Warhammer Online (a MMORPG game expected in H2 2008), My personal TV adviser (easy and simple access to discover the VOD catalogue of 24/24 video - to be launched in 2009), Orange Maps (to le launched in q3 2008 in the UK, q4 in France and q1 2009 in Spain).
So we heard from a very reliable source that mobile user interface guru Matias Duarte -- who you may know as the man behind the 
