The mobile giant has created a war chest dedicated to funding a series of cutting-edge online experiments aimed at strengthening its brand online.
"We ring-fence a small percentage of our marketing investment just to do things that might be cool," said Justin Billingsley, UK brand director at Orange.
Orange currently spends £13m a year on digital marketing, according to figures from Nielsen. However, the company expects this figure to double as it diverts budget away from TV and other forms of above-the-line advertising.
The network operator's ultimate aim is to make the internet its main consumer touch-point. "We are going to invest in a good, solid year of traditional communications and then I hope we can do less of it," added Billingsley.
Orange has already rolled out a series of innovative online campaigns, including its recent Playballoonacy initiative that saw 37,000 virtual balloons released across the internet.
"Someone asked me the other day: how do you justify the ROI of spending money on an internet balloon race?" said Billingsley. "We actually don't ask the question, is the first thing. We ring-fence a small percentage of our marketing investment just to do things that might be cool."
The mobile company is also giving the internet a central role in its 'Together We Can Do More' campaign, which launched in the UK in August. In an effort to manage the gradual transition from traditional media to digital, Orange has merged its digital and advertising teams into one entity.
For more information see the September issue of Revolution, which is it out next week.
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