Optus rebrands mobile as "The Open Network" with Disney-inspired TV commercial

Stuart Corner
Friday, 10 September 2010 17:06

IT Industry - Strategy

Optus has taken inspiration from Walt Disney's 1940 animated movie Fantasia for a new TV commercial to launch the new brand name for its mobile network: 'The Open Network'.

The ad will screen on Australian TV channels for the first time on Sunday Night featuring assorted digitally created creatures cavorting to the Cossack Dance from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Optus has also launched a new web site (http://www.optusopennetwork.com.au/) to promote the new brand.

Michael Smith, Optus' corporate marketing director, said: "The Open Network brand campaign brings Optus' 3G dual band, 3G single band and 2G mobile networks under one umbrella. There has been a seismic shift in how people are using their mobile devices '” a mobile network is no longer just technology that allows you to make calls and to send messages.

"The explosion of mobile broadband and the rise of smartphones have fuelled people's insatiable appetite to consume information on the go. It is this world of possibilities that makes this the right time to create a standalone brand for our network."

The 30 second commercial rattles off statistics on the usage of the Optus network in one day: "Today 26,000 messages will be sent on the Optus network 37,000 people will check the weather, 17,000 people use the network to find love'¦"

According to Smith, "It is an advert that has been built on customer insight about how we have enabled our network to do those things. The Open Network is about a network that is open for business and open for the way people want to use it, and open for real possibilities."

He added: "There has been a lot of advertising about networks. We have a lot of different technologies in our networks: 2G, 3G, HSDPA; we are moving to LTE so it is really important to have something that stands the test of time."

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