The number of subscribers joining the Partner-Orange network since it went into operation has reached twenty thousand. Since the company launched its advertising campaign, three weeks ago, seventeen thousand customers have joined. The company also has 3,000 customers who joined during its three month soft launch commencing October 7, 1998. This emerges from a "Globes" survey and from assessments by communications sector sources.
Sources in Partner, Pele-Phone and Cellcom, as well as other sources in the sector, confirmed the above figures. According to the competitors, Partner has made a very weak market debut. However, according to Partner’s deputy general manager for marketing, Yaakov Kedmi: "Partner’s penetration has been an astounding success story".
It is assessed that Partner’s 1999 advertising budget stands at $17 million. Of that amount, the company invested $2-3 million in the official launching campaign, which began on January 1. The current campaign is being conducted under the slogan of "The future sounds excellent, the future sounds Orange".
This will be a campaign on a tremendous scale, including TV advertising, massive coverage by outdoor billboards, whole page press advertisements and Zeppelins, all taking place within one month. The company started advertising in September 1998, in anticipation of the soft launch stage, in two rounds of direct mailing to two hundred thousand decision makers.
The Partner Orange campaign aims to undermine the credibility of the two long standing operators. Cellcom responded by launching a low key campaign in which it presents a comparative table, and also a "Cellular Telephone Purchase Guide". At this stage, Pele-Phone is completely ignoring Partner’s existence, as far as advertising is concerned, and has not launched any responding campaign.
Published by Israel's Business Arena January 21, 1999