Tony Hallett's After These Messages: Orange's hard-nosed businessman

An outburst last week by former Orange CEO Hans Snook got me thinking about the latest high-profile advertising campaign from the mobile operator, focusing on the 'hard-nosed businessman'.

Two things come to mind about the series of ads, which features a literally hard-nosed man in a suit - played by comedian Neil Mullarkey - in humorous situations with his son and others.

First, the company is primarily concentrating on defining its business services. Many companies will be aware of Orange as their mobile supplier of choice and indeed it has taken the lead on a number of occasions, offering pre-3G videophones, a faster-than-basic GSM data standard called HSCSD in addition to GPRS, and other services ahead of the competition. But plenty of potential users consider Orange more of a consumer, lifestyle brand than rivals O2 or Vodafone.

Second, the ads are markedly different to past campaigns. Out is the moody, slow motion photography and voiceovers. In is in-your-face slapstick and obvious punch lines.

Anyone who recognises Neil Mullarkey and knows his career - from Comedy Store improviser and stand-up to bit player in the first Austin Powers film (he is a close friend of star Mike Myers) - will be ready for what they get. For anyone else, and we can only assume Mr Snook falls into this category, the offering is a little, well, different.

In a Daily Telegraph article last week, Snook is quoted as saying: "It was the only campaign they have run since I left where I had people ringing me up and saying 'you must be really upset'. It was completely off the rails and insulted the business people they were targeting."

Meanwhile The Guardian chose to lift this stark statement from a Snook chat with the FT: "The hard-nosed businessman commercials are absolutely the worst things I have ever seen." He's not one for mincing his words.

However, the Telegraph piece also gave space to a brand manager at Orange who defends the ads, calling them "disruptive communication" (which is pretty apt for a mobile phone firm) and saying they have been a lot more effective than usual spots in terms of instant recall by punters.

Part of the reason for the change in tack has been Orange's switch to a new agency, Mother (whose most famous son was 'Monkey' of ITV Digital fame). Previously Orange had been with WCRS, who famously helped come up with the classic line 'The future's bright, the future's Orange'. The jury is still out on the move - I think it's too early to say they've got it wrong.

What is interesting is the feeling that Orange - now owned by France Telecom - is moving on. Every great brand - and I think it is fair to call Orange just that - must keep on innovating but is it moving forward or merely letting a rival steal its position?

What I'm talking about is the past year of jockeying from rival network O2, which seemed from day one of its re-brand (remember BT Cellnet?) over a year ago to be selling itself on optimism and 'cool' - key Orange qualities. Its ads - look out for all those bubbles - look like they were plucked from the Orange 'How To' book circa 1999. And even the Sean Bean voiceover works.

If Hans Snook, who knows a thing or two about a thing or two, wants to criticise Orange in terms of customer service and overall strategy - which he does, by the way - than that's one thing. It should also be noted that he's not merely the ex-boss having a go but a large private investor. But when it comes to questioning the way the operator presents itself, even this brandmeister may not have all the answers.

Let's see how a new £10m campaign is received.

Tony Hallett will be back next month, when he won't be writing about another mobile operator.

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Neil Mullarkey's website can be found here.