In its most recent ad campaign, Orange has teamed up with Norman Thavaud to push their most recent set-top box, the LiveBox Play. It’s pretty normal for Orange to pick up well known TV stars to gather interest and attention; however, this tishome Orange partnered up with one of France’s biggest YouTube stars. Known for his account “Norman fait des videos,” Norman Thavaud began posting videos on the web in the early days – I would liken him to a French Ray William Johnson, along with Cyprien (AKA Monsieur Dream) and a few other young video bloggers who’ve managed to make a living off of YouTube revenue in France.
What is interesting about this story is that, just like the Music industry was shocked with “Call Me Maybe” being the #1 Summer hit last year, a song which gained its popularity not by being pushed by big labels, but from YouTube; so it seems the TV industry is starting to feel that push too. Instead of getting TV actors, well-known journalists, or comedians, Orange went with a 24 year-old YouTube star with no experience other than the 1M+ followers he has across the web.
Then again, he is pretty freakin’ funny. If you have even a beginner level of French, you can understand his videos – he’s got great ones on Masturbation, people who own Apple Computers, and Bilingual People. There are even English subtitles, so no excuses.
The Ad below is more in English than French – and that’s a whole different conversation about the changes in France.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSHo39hGo1M