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Orange Wednesdays + 2-4-1 Pizza

Marketing Week reports: Orange has partnered with Pizza Express for a six-month customer meal deal as part of a £7m above-the-line marketing campaign for Orange Wednesdays.

As the mobile operator’s Orange Wednesdays popular cinema tickets offer approaches its fifth anniversary in March, Orange has launched a new campaign promoting the 2-for-1 cinema tickets deal.

Orange Wednesdays customers who text to get their cinema tickets  will be directed to  download a Pizza Express 2 for 1 meal deal voucher, with a free garlic bread or dough balls included.

The Orange Wednesdays campaign will also appear across cinema, radio, press and outdoor and follows the re-launch of Orange’s film online portal last week.

Orange Wednesdays has been hugely popular since the start. Mid-week cinema sales have always been notoriously low, making it a great deal for the cinemas, the consumer and of course Orange who have built a great customer loyalty scheme. Extending the offering to 2-4-1 on Pizza Express meals updates the scheme and will appeal to a wider audience. With the current economic climate, and a sharp rise in consumers making use of retailer vouchers, this will be a big hit.

The network operator’s quest to offer its customers that little bit extra is an interesting move as they battle for declining talk time revenues, especially in the saturated pay-as-you-go market. O2 have been the leaders in offering extra services to bolster brand loyalty. With agreements in place with Live Nation/AEG, ‘O2′ prefixes many of the UK’s major venues, including ‘The O2′ and most recently ‘O2 Academies’ taking over from Carling. These tie-ups allow O2 customers to be given priority tickets and more. The venues also home branded areas exclusive for its customers.

Blyk, the free mobile operator for 16-24s followed the same path to aid its acquisition plans, and chose music inline with its youth skew, teaming up with a roster of musical talent including The Kooks and Dizzee Rascal. On top of the free content and tailored brand experiences members receive direct to the handset, they are also offered the chance to appear in DJ Ironik’s video shoot, attend special televised gigs (Mike’s Skinner’s Beat Stevie show on Channel 4) and even have their names appear in artists album sleeves. This is an exceptional way to build brand loyalty.

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