Q: What do you think the most exciting development in mobile advertising
will be?
David Edwards, London
David,
As the most personal electronic device anyone can own, mobile phones have
become the ultimate mass media, delivering reach and relevancy that blows
away traditional media formats. Mobile advertising brings immense benefits
to both customers and advertisers, personalising and targeting information
in a way quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The key to
advertising on mobiles is to do it in a contextual and non intrusive way and
to absolutely ensure that customers willingly opt-in to the service.
Mobile ads in the UK are already enjoying significant success. Initial
research shows that the response rate is three times that of traditional
advertising media like TV or radio.
Blockbuster is one of the first brands to take advantage of our Top-up
Surprises reward scheme that allows companies to reach O2’s 10 million Pay &
Go customers. Fifty two per cent of its customers have already taken up
special offers of free rental trials — an unprecedented response compared to
traditional advertising channels. And in May this year we launched a
campaign for Fitness First, offering five days’ free membership and a
personal training session via SMS to O2 customers in specific postcodes near
Fitness First gyms. Fitness First said that the promotion was one of their
most successful to date.
Q: How can you justify charging at least 10p to 20p extra on top of the
cost of calling a premium rate number, for example, voting in X Factor or
Strictly Come Dancing? Does it make you smile or cringe when they read out
that mobiles would cost considerably more?
Robert Jones, London
Robert,
I think it’s great that modern technology allows audiences to interact and
take part in these very entertaining shows from the comfort of their
armchair, and influence the outcome. In terms of the pricing, ITV and the
BBC would probably be able to tell you why they choose to make these numbers
premium rate. The “considerably more” wording at the end isn’t ideal. An O2
customer would pay 50p per call, as opposed to 34p from a landline.
Q: The proposed T-Mobile/Orange merger would leave 3 in a very vulnerable
position. What are your thoughts, and do you see 3 as the next acquisition
target?
Katie Gold, London
Katie,
We are watching developments between T-Mobile and Orange with interest, but
our focus is very much business as usual. We won’t be distracted by this or
any other merger. Giving O2 customers a great experience remains our key
priority. Even after a merger, the UK market will remain highly competitive
with four network operators and many powerful ‘virtual’ operators like Tesco
Mobile. I see no reason why this should change. As far as 3 is concerned,
I’m sure they will run their business according to their strategy as they
have been doing in recent years.
Q: As a subsidiary, do you find your attempts to expand outwards into new
markets are held back by your owner?
Chris Trotter, Belfast
Chris,
Quite the opposite. The O2 brand has extended into new territories such as the
Czech Republic and Slovakia since we were bought by Telefónica and the
company is going from strength to strength. However, further expansion into
new geographical territories is not in our plans at the moment — we’re
focusing on building the business we already have. With Telefónica, we’re
bigger, better and more innovative than we were before. The success of our
launch into the UK broadband market, for example, would never have been
possible without the depth of knowledge and expertise provided by
Telefónica. Our UK broadband customers enjoy by far the best service and are
repeatedly named the country’s number one supplier by independent surveys.
Q: Is there any truth in the rumour that after Orange and Vodafone are able
to sell the iPhone you will not allow people to unlock their iPhone, even if
they are out of their contract period? If so, how can you justify this
action if the customers have paid for the phone over the life of their
contract and you will not be the sole carrier? Do you not think this would
possibly be illegal under EU law?
Andy McConn, Glasgow
Andy,
There is absolutely no truth in that rumour. Once the iPhone becomes available
on other UK networks, we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones,
although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract
period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely
free to move to another operator — though naturally we hope they won’t want
to!
Q: How far will O2 go in becoming a bank, following the launch of O2 money?
James MacAonghus, London
James,
Mobile is still at the very core of our business and O2 and O2 Money will
focus on the synergies between money and mobile. We have no plans to
directly compete with UK banks. O2 Money allows us to explore and drive
forward the synergies between mobile and money. It’s a new area for O2 but
it also builds on our core competency around mobile. In addition, we’ve been
conducting trials of the ‘mobile wallet’ — using your mobile as a means of
paying for smaller items like tickets to shows and tube fares — and the
feedback has been really positive. It’s a very exciting area to watch for
the future.
Q: Why is your 3G coverage so appalling? Now that Orange and Vodafone, both
of whom have better coverage, have the iPhone, will O2 be improving theirs?
Nikesh Patel, London
Nikesh,
I accept that our network has been under pressure in parts of London, where we
see the highest concentration of smartphone users. For two years we have
been the exclusive provider of the Apple iPhone — the fastest selling and
most powerful phone in the world. It’s been a steep learning curve for the
industry and ourselves — the O2 network has seen an 18-fold increase in data
carried over the network in the last year and traffic continues to double
every three months. This level of throughput increase would cause pressure
on any business. To put this into some context, watching an average YouTube
video on a smartphone can be the network equivalent of sending 500,000 text
messages.
We are constantly increasing the capacity of our networks and the good news is
that we now better understand and know what fixes we need to put in place to
improve our levels of service. Fortunately, it’s not about needing new mast
sites and we are investing more than £30 million to address capacity issues
in London alone between now and Christmas and I’m confident that we’ll see
much improved levels of service as a result.
Q: What do you see as the greatest challenge O2 faces from the planned
merger between Orange and T-Mobile?
Tim Miller, Bournemouth
Tim,
The question I am asked the most about this is whether we are worried that we
are going to lose the number one slot in terms of customer numbers in the
UK? The answer to that is simple — we have this great challenger mentality
and great energy within our business. Our greatest challenge is to retain
our position as the most trusted and best-loved brand in our market, to
continue to have the highest level of customer satisfaction and remain the
leader in innovation. There is a big difference between counting the number
of your customers to be number one and being a true leader. Also, this
merger will see the entry of a strong new competitor in the market, and
competition is a good thing — especially for mobile phone customers.
Q: What exactly does it take to reach the top i.e. chief executive? How far
above your actual responsibilities do you have to go? How do you get noticed
by the people the matter?
Conor McLoughless, London
Conor,
I would say the most important thing is to be true to yourself — if you try to
be something you aren’t, you’ll soon be found out. And be prepared to swim
against the tide. You could argue that bidding for and winning the rights to
the Millennium Dome was outside O2’s day job as a mobile phone network. Most
companies saw the Dome as a white elephant and wouldn’t touch it with a
bargepole. But we absolutely thought The O2 was the right thing to do. The
rest is history and The O2 is now undisputedly the world’s number one
entertainment venue. At O2, we have four key values — we try to be
bold, clear, open and trusted in all of our dealings — and to all aspiring
leaders, I’d say you are at your best when you’re bold. Another piece of
advice I would offer would be to invest in people and build a great team
around you. Finally, always focus on what your customer wants. Then you
can’t go wrong.
Q: Do you think you're leading the market in customer service? Which other
companies do you admire for their ability to deliver great customer service?
Sarah Gregory, London
Sarah,
All the market information we have tells us we lead the market in customer
service, although we can never be complacent. Independent surveys
consistently rank us highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and
fixed broadband and our mobile customers are the most loyal in the UK. But
I’d be lying if I said we got it right every time. I believe the reason we
are number one is that if we do get it wrong, we recognise the issue and put
it right straight away.
Other companies I admire would be Tesco, for its unerring focus on what the
customer wants, and firstdirect, for empowering its customer service
representatives to resolve a customer’s query at the first call.
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