Bangkok--Feb 22--Aziam Burson-Marsteller
TA Orange, Thailand’s leading wirefree? operator, today launched Music World, the latest value-added service in the Orange World family. Music World offers an attractive selection of basic mobile music services plus exclusive “Extras” that make Music World stand out as the fun choice with activities to build communities of music lovers with similar tastes.
“It was one year ago when we changed the face of non-voice services in the Thai market with the launch of Orange World, reflecting our strategy to be Number One for Fun & Games,” said Khun Supachai Chearavanont, CEO of TA Orange. “The various innovative services within Orange World, including Photo World, Toon World, Game World, and others drove our revenue from non-voice services to 700 million Baht last year. With even more exciting non-voice services such as Music World, we expect non-voice services to enjoy revenue increasing to 1.6 billion Baht by the end of 2005.”
“Music World reflects the Orange philosophy of delivering a more entertaining and satisfying user experience, packed with content and applications that fit the lifestyles of Thai teens and young working adults,” added Khun Supachai. “It delivers on the concept of being Thailand’s Mobile Multimedia Community Content provider, bringing together people of similar interests. Everyone enjoys music, and Music World will offer many extra features that only Orange can provide to bring together teens and young adults to share in the fun.”
According to Khun Ardkit Suntornwat, Chief of Multimedia Business for TA Orange, Music World is poised for success as it was developed following considerable market research. “Our research showed that music plays an important role in the lives of Thai teenagers and young people — it represents who they are, expresses what they feel, keeps them company when they’re alone and helps them to feel part of a group. Music was cited as one of the tools that helps Thai teens assert their identity,” said Khun Ardkit.
“At the same time, Thai teens consider their mobile phone an essential part of their lives. New mobile phones have features that will enable them to become a new channel for teenagers to demonstrate their musical knowledge and tastes.”
Khun Ardkit added that Orange looked at the basic music services that were available and then developed new approaches that would offer higher-value content, greater depth and more fun to Thai teens and young people. Bringing music to life, and bringing together individuals with similar musical interests, was a key consideration in developing Music World. It is a distinct product with positioning and personality, reinforcing the individualistic nature of music preferences, ease of use, the desire for more features and greater selection, and a creative approach to mobile music.
Khun Piroon Paireepairit, Multimedia Services Director for TA Orange, explained that Music World’s featured extras focus on three main areas known as the 3Cs. These are: extra components, extra content and extra community. Available only from Orange, these extras let customers bring out their own musical identity, reflecting their individual needs and tastes.
“This differentiates us from our competitors while making Music World more relevant for our customers. It’s fun, young and cool with a variety of musical styles including Jazz, Pop, Metal, Electronic, J-Pop, Hiphop, Reggae, Rock and Indy. Geared to a hip society, Music World will create communities of individuals with similar musical tastes,” said Khun Piroon.
Music World kicks off with an exclusive extra service called “Music Gangsters”, led by popular DJs such as Map, Palm and their gang. They make it seem like you have a personal DJ available 24 hours a day. Music Gangsters aims to create a hip society and enables customers to enjoy a 24-hour Music Station by calling IVR number 5555. Orange customers can download a variety of music in true tone, polyphonic or monophonic formats. The “Song Dedication” feature lets customers make emotional expressions even more touching by sending their friends songs with personalized voice messages. There is also extra exclusive content and special songs from sources such as Boyd Love Tone, Small Room, Work Point and Moindi for customers to download.
The “Fan Club” lets customers get in-depth, up-to-date information about their favorite singers as well as listen to special interviews. “Personal Album” lets customers create their own album and easily add or delete numbers in their phone book. “Hip Society” is another feature that provides updates on monthly activities, including information in “Gangstology”, which lists the coolest places to hang out, categorized to reflect various musical tastes. There is also fashion advice and tips on shops where music lovers can buy merchandise that matches their particular tastes, plus “Shout Out”, where customers can chat and share their own music.
Orange Just Talk and Talk Plan customers can use the service at 1 Baht/minute (reduced from normal rate of 3 Baht/minute) from today until 30 June 2005. Song Dedication is charged at 15 Baht per song, which will be collected only when the recipient successfully receives the song.
“Color Ring”, a ring back tone service, is another Music World highlight. It lets customers creatively express themselves with personalized ring back tones by calling IVR number 8888 (charged at 1 Baht/minute, down from the normal rate of 3 Baht/min, until 30 June 2005). They can also call a special agent via Orange Assistant 2222 (charge at 3 Baht/minute). There is a 30 Baht monthly fee and Color Ring download charge of 15 Baht per song. A special 3-song Trio Pack is available for 30 Baht. Color Ring will be commercially available soon.
The Music World launch will be supported by an IMC campaign with TVCs that will air on channels 3, 5, 7, 9 and iTV starting 21 February 2005. There will also be radio spots, print ads in newspapers, magazines, billboards, cinema advertisement, a new series of 50-Baht and 90-Baht Music World top-up cards with cool designs, decorations in Orange Shops and a “Let’s Play Gang” to educate and assist Orange customers about Music World.
“Orange makes Music World better than our competitors’ music offerings and a lot more fun. It will build a community of music lovers through a more extraordinary music experience. Watch out for an exciting year of announcements and many more extras to come with the 3Cs concept from Music World,” added Khun Piroon.
About TA Orange:
TA Orange provides about 3.4 million customers throughout Thailand with innovative, high-quality wirefree? communications services on its nationwide 1800 MHz network under the Orange brand name. Orange, the world’s first global wirefree? brand with operations in 18 countries across Europe and beyond, aims to have a presence in markets covering 1.5 billion people worldwide by 2005.
TA Orange’s vision is to create a pioneering, wirefree? future where people can communicate wherever, whenever, and however they wish. The company delivers superior coverage, quality, value and service represented by the Orange brand and its values: straightforward, honest, dynamic, refreshing and friendly. Leveraging its relationships with True Corporation and CP Group, TA Orange offers unique, integrated products and services to the Thai market.
Products and services:
TA Orange offers quality communications services including Just Talk for pre-paid customers; Talk Plan with a range of calling plans from which to choose; Groupshare for small office and home office customers; a Corporate Solutions program for enterprise customers; and innovative services such as Thailand’s first fully functional Thai SMS , Voice SMS and real per-second billing.
For further information, please contact:
Steve Vincent/Porntip Lertvechakul Jiraporn Cheewatham/Salitta Subpinyo
Aziam Burson-Marsteller TA Orange
0-2252-9871 0-2647-5247 End.