Launching with full service commercial offers from 1 February, Orange Shots will initially be available to brands who want to interact with an audience of 100,000 customers from part of Orange’s Pay As You Go Monkey customer base. New profiles and customer segments will quickly follow, matching Orange’s ambition to significantly grow this audience.
Orange Shots will enable participating brands to create rich, creative, engaging and fun mobile advertising campaigns targeted towards customers’ interests and preferences.
Working with brands directly relevant to the customer audience, Orange claimed Orange Shots will allow these companies to benefit from: Real time conversation with customers happy to hear from them; A highly targeted audience base with no wastage; An opportunity to build an engaging and enduring relationship with customers as they get to know more about their profiles and interests; High response rates, strong returns on investment and great viral potential; Their brand being seen by 100,000 customers who have opted in to receive contact from organisations like them.
The interactive Orange Shots service works across SMS and MMS mobile platforms, encouraging customers to message back and give views and opinions. In addition to offers, customers will also receive a variety of benefits, including exclusive news and gossip, amusing and entertaining content, film and games previews, and up to date sports information.
Since September, Orange has been testing Orange Shots extensively with its own content and great brands including 4Music, Ubisoft, COI and Snickers who have already trialled the service and found it to provide a higher conversion rate than any other media, offering response rates of between 21-39%.
Orange’s priority is customer and brand satisfaction and as such the audience roll out programme will be considered and measured. Orange customers have the opportunity to opt out at any stage, and Orange customer data will not be shared externally to third parties.
Marc Overton, VP of wholesale, business development and partnerships, Orange UK: “Orange Shots will transform mobile advertising as we know it. It’s a win-win for brands, as well as our customers, with advertisers continually seeking new and innovative ways to engage with consumers, and our customers getting rewarded with access to exclusive, interactive content and offers, knowing that they’re tailored specifically to them and their interests.”
Commenting on the announcement, Alex Rahaman, director of mobile, Unanimis UK, said: “Unanimis is excited to be selling such a dynamic, high response product that will open the way for brands to interact and build enduring relationships with an engaged audience. Agencies will also benefit from the experience of Blyk, whose innovative technology has built a reputable name for them within the industry”.
Orange plans to make Orange Shots, powered by Blyk Media, available to its entire mobile customer base over time, giving brands the opportunity to engage with a variety of specific demographic segments. Blyk has a wealth of media and technological capabilities, which will help compliment Orange’s existing platforms. By working with Blyk, Orange is able to offer consumers propositions unseen before in the UK market place.
Brands will initially be able to use Orange Shots to target a select audience from Orange’s Monkey tariff, the only Pay As You Go package for the UK market that offers free music and texts to customers when they top up their mobile.