Orange – I am Campaign

It is interesting to see Orange using a search based call to action in their latest ‘I am’ campaign. You might not have noticed, and that’s kind of the point, but there aren’t any URL’s in the ads.

As more and more content becomes available via the Web, people aren’t necessarily caring for URL’s anymore, and as such, this seems like a smart idea, and is a big shift towards a brand understanding the importance of search marketing.

The ‘I Am’ positioning sees Orange expanding the brand’s conviction in the power of community, with the key point being its ability to build relationships and help users connect, collaborate, and co-create, rather than the usual focus on numbers of minutes, or speed of connectivity.

All points of the campaign start with the line ‘I am’, which continues through press, print, and online, telling the story of the various people, ideas and loves that make up individuals - I am all the gigs I’ve ever been to; I am my parents; I am who I am because of everyone.

Once the key thrust of the campaign has been firmly established, longer executions, such as an evocative piece from Rose Tremain, winner of this year’s Orange Broadband Prize for fiction, will be released. Nevertheless, one of the most powerful parts of this campaign is its integrated nature. There are 120 different executions, touchpoints along the consumer journey.

In keeping with Orange’s recognition of how people use the internet, instead of using the campaign to direct people to a specific website, you are invited to search online for ‘I am’ to locate the site. And online will be where the campaign will come into its own. Not only with the overall idea offer huge potential for individual interpretation, but has campaigns specifically aimed at the under 25s.

The Unlit Sessions will comprise of a tour of the UK by an up and coming band in an Orange Winnebago, “powered by relationships”. Followers can offer the performers a venue in their living room or a place to stay, as well as embedding widgets into social networking sites to follow the band. Also keep an eye out for Geriatric 1928, which will follow an elderly gent travelling the UK from top to bottom.

The campaign is a refreshment of what the brand supposedly stands for, while creating a big idea that they can live off, and organise the brand around. With the campaign’s reach extending both externally and internally, as far as company business cards bearing individual manifestos, it looks set to emphasise Orange’s commitment to supporting relationships in a digital world, and how these relationships embrace the digital / real world cross over, and that the journey is powered by interactions and relationships.

No URL here, instead why not search for “I am”.