Beware the smug Orange Film Thursdays customer
I sat up late last night and watched The Ghost. It’s the one with Ewan McGregor and Piers Brosnan.
I watched the movie on my iPhone and frequently across the 2 hour film, I felt smug. I felt smug — and I felt valued. Thank-you-very-much, Orange.
It’s all thanks to this rather smart marketing arrangement from Orange called FilmToGo (or, “Orange Thursdays” as I think many folk are beginning to refer to it — after the company’s Orange Wednesdays 2-for-1 cinema ticket deal).
For a paltry 35p I was able to download the film at no further cost since I’m an Orange customer. Mind you, it was just a rental. You’ve got 30 days to watch it — and once you’ve started watching it, it will expire after 48-hours.
More than once, I was able to validate my expenditure on Orange. I have accounts on all networks so it’s difficult for me to evaluate how I’d be feeling if I was just a Three customer or an o2 customer. I think I’d be a little bit irritated. Especially when my smug friend on Orange tells me what he’s been watching ‘for free’. As I’m no doubt sure the Orange marketing team are aware, it’s the little things that can start to annoy you. For many people, 4 free movie rentals each month could well become highly, highly persuasive in terms of swapping to Orange.
I imagine it’s a bit of a tightrope to walk in terms of film choice for Orange. You’re already restricted because Apple doesn’t have the most extensive offering. And you need to choose something that’s going to appeal to a wide range of people. They’ve got to be fairly decent too. We don’t want any straight-to-VHS specials.
So The Ghost was suitably rewarding. I guessed the ending – but I thought Roman Polanski did a good job. Next week? It’s Che: Part 1 featuring Julia Ormond and Benicio Del Toro. Bring it on.
This week I’ve met a few normobs (“normal mobile users”) with iPhones who have been enjoying their first ever movie experiences on their devices thanks to Orange.
How about you? Did you manage to catch The Ghost? How was the ordering/download experience for you?
