Orange is the leading telco operator in France. It is a heritage brand as it is the former French telecommunication public service (France Télécom). Orange has built a trusted relationship with customers and beyond selling web devices or mobile plans, the brand has been developing a new strategic approach for the last few years: enable consumers to enjoy a safe and responsible digital life.

Each year, millions of people are affected by cybercrime, in their personal life or at home. The financial cost of it amounts to tens of millions of euros. Yet, “123456” or “password” are still among the most used code words. This is the cyber paradox: cybercrime is a real threat but digital behaviour does not change substantially.

As we think we become conscious of risk after having experienced it, the objective was to make people go through the threat and then deliver tips to avoid them.

The first of July 2019, France woke up with an incredible phone package offer: 6G unlimited for free and for 100 years only for the first ten thousand people providing personal data such as name, surname and birthdate on a dedicated website 6g100ans.fr. By doing so with their mobile or computer, people were told they had been scammed and were provided with pedagogic tips and tools to recognize phishing attempts and avoid risks in the future.

This fake advertising message was built like millions of phishing ads that can be found on the Internet as it was supported by a wrong logo (ORNGE), as it featured a false offer (6G does not exist yet, 100 years is not credible), as it included spelling mistakes and as it requested personal data.

This awareness campaign on the risks of phishing is directed towards every French people as they all are potential victims. Yet, as we wanted the issue raised on social media, we mostly targeted digital people through outdoor ads in important urban crossroads and banners and social media implementations.

The approach is a two-stage operation: a “teasing” launch phase (2 days) featuring the false offer and a revelation stage giving clues about the wrongfulness of our campaign and tips to avoid risks (6-7 days).

We created a fake web platform 6g100ans.fr where people gave their personal data and from where they were redirected to pedagogic content on orange.com (official website of the brand) as soon as they had been scammed.

- Billboard ads in the three most crowded cities in France (Paris, Lyon, Marseille) / DOOH in major train stations / national banner and social media plan including video posts (live coverage of the operation and video capsules) / national press plan in 7 leading daily newspapers.

- 2 days of reveal, 6 to 8 days of pedagogic revelation.

- Pedagogic content from orange.com directly delivered to those who have been phished.

105 million contacts delivered for the whole campaign (teasing step and revelation stage) / 18 million digital impressions / 1,5 million Twitter impression / 53,266 phished people / 156,320 connections to the digital pedagogic content on Facebook and the brand website / 1,2M€ advertising equivalent for our operation through the media coverage