An in-depth look at Orange's marketing communications from launch to the present day with Robin Wight, President of Engine & WCRS and Laurence Green, Chairman of Fallon.

This film is part a series celebrating some of the top case studies from 30 years of the IPA Effectiveness Awards; brilliant campaigns that still have much to teach us about planning effective communications today.

Robin Wight, President of Engine and WCRS tells the story which began 17 years ago when WCRS helped to transform the fortunes of the fledgling 'Hutchison Microtel' into the multinational success story that is Orange today, creating a whole new style of advertising along the way. In 2004 WCRS took home a Gold from the IPA Effectiveness Awards, with a case history that still resonates today about the direct effect that advertising can have on shareholder value.

Laurence Green, Chairman of Fallon, Orange's current agency brings the story up-to-date, looking at how the brand has evolved and its future, in what is now a vastly different telecommunications landscape. Discussing initiatives such as Orange Wednesday and Rockcorp; moving from 'The Futures Bright the Futures Orange' to 'Together we can do more'; and diversifying the brand into new areas.

Additional effectiveness insights are provided by Andy Nairn, Executive Planning Director MCBD (Convenor of Judges, 2009 IPA Effectiveness Awards) & David Golding, Founding Partner, Adam & Eve (Convener of judges, 2010 IPA Effectiveness awards).

The Orange success story clearly demonstrates the power of emotional advertising, great brand building and the direct effect advertising can have on shareholder value.

"In this paper it talks about an extra £2.9 billion of shareholder value being created by this campaign, and we were very proud about that, but it was a huge under-estimate. Because, one year later, this company was not sold for 2.9 billion pounds, it was sold for 29 billion pounds. How much profit was the company making at that stage? Scarcely a million pounds profit a year. So it's an incredible multiple: perhaps the biggest multiple, ever, in financial history and it was created at its heart by a communication programme, and at its heart, by a very brave client who was willing to go against the recommendation of old fashioned research. And well done them!"

Robin Wight, President of Engine & WCRS

Our thanks to Robin and Laurence for helping to make this film; to Andy and David for their contributions, and also to Dan Izbicki and Cameron Saunders for writing the original paper.