2023-10-24 14:38:06
As the legendary operators’ Christmas ads approach, the communications director of Bouygues Telecom has agreed to share his communications secrets with us, and to present the brand’s latest tech innovations to us. High-speed meeting.
In 2022, the Nperf barometer ranked Bouygues Telecom number 1 in WIFI in France, with performance superior to that of your competitors. What is your secret?
Anthony Colombani: We realized that WIFI was an extremely important element for our customers. Looking at their uses, we see that today this is an essential criterion for choosing your operator, because it determines a quality experience for the whole family. To meet these expectations, we have carried out real technical optimization work, involving both the choice of components for our boxes and their design. We are also the first operator to have launched a vertical box, for optimal WiFi broadcasting.
Your motto in communication?
Using digital technology and networks to bring together rather than to divide, because we are convinced that it is the quality of human relationships that makes us happy and allows us to form a society. We also attach great importance to including a form of humanity, empathy, and care in all our campaigns. Our communication stems from who we are. Today, we must be transparent and efficient.
The issue of environmental protection is very important today for the French, how do you approach this aspect?
Greenhouse gas emissions from digital represent around 3 to 4% of the total, which is significant, but very far from certain other sectors of activity. In 2030, this figure is expected to rise to 8%. This is important, but it encompasses the entire sector: networks, their electricity consumption, but also and above all the production of smartphones, digital terminals, PCs, etc. The electricity consumption of the networks is, overall, quite low.
What does not prevent you from taking action to reduce this consumption?
We do this in particular through our smartphone recycling programs, an object which, alone, corresponds to more than 80% of an operator’s environmental footprint. Changing your phone less often, having it repaired rather than replacing it, that’s the key. On the other hand, it is important to realize that the uses themselves have an impact. We offer the “source” package, the first responsible and supportive mobile plan: your unused gigabytes are transformed into drops to support associations. We also do this through the “my smartphone footprint” application, which converts gigabytes into grams of carbon. It’s a fun app that raises awareness and helps people adopt the right actions. It has been downloaded several hundred thousand times. Our reconditioning programs work extremely well, because they combine reduced purchasing power with a reduced environmental footprint.
We know that TikTok videos consume up to eight times more data than Instagram or Facebook. Should we individually tell ourselves that we can lower the resolution of the videos we consume on networks?
There is no need to watch a 4k video on your phone. It is entirely possible to reduce the definition to 720p and enjoy quality content with lower power consumption and more reasonable use of mobile networks. Nothing prevents a customer from moderating their consumption by reducing the definition of their content or by favoring a WIFI connection. We often forget it, but the simple use of WIFI can reduce consumption by a factor of three to four! We must also set an example and this is what we are doing through our responsible communication approach and our eco-production and eco-distribution projects by massively reducing the carbon footprint of our campaigns.
Another important subject is that of digital inclusion in France. To what extent does digital technology help people who are far from it but also vulnerable people?
Some studies estimate that 13 million French people are far from digital, and the world is becoming digital at a frightening speed. Covid has accelerated the use of digital tools, notably with the generalization of teleworking. This digital technology must not leave behind people who do not feel comfortable with these new tools or platforms. Like the elderly, for example, for whom it is sometimes complicated to use the Internet or a smartphone. Age is an important criterion, but there is also disability.
“OUR RHETORIC IS SIMPLE: ONE PROBLEM, ONE SOLUTION. »
Despite what we may think, this also concerns young people who are connected and very skilled with certain digital tools…
Yes, I have noticed it, I sometimes intervene in local integration missions, with young people with a very advanced level of digital agility. But when we ask them to upload a CV to a site for an internship, or to use word processing software, we realize that they are in difficulty.
How can we meet this need?
This is a subject that must be addressed collectively. We focused on a particularly vulnerable population, young people dependent on child welfare. To help these children, we worked with the Break Poverty foundation, which asked us to provide 4G Boxes to emergency shelters during the health crisis. This partnership has become the “connected success” program, which consists of equipping these children with recycled computers, an internet connection, software, and above all supporting them in their digital uses.
In another genre, you launched the first Live Shopping service on your boxes, borrowing the codes of streaming… What is the idea?
We wanted to innovate and offer our customers the Live Shopping experience, on TV. A first in Europe. We have partnered with major brands such as Decathlon, Monoprix, and campings.com, who were looking for proximity and interactivity with their customers. B-Live Shopping allows them to offer, via spaces in their colors, interactive sessions where our customers can interact directly with them, and thus offer more direct consumption codes.
Is it ultimately a bit like teleshopping 2.0?
Absolutely. Today we see a real need for proximity, trust and transparency between brands and their customers. And what better way to do it than TV, which is the preferred media in the home.
How can I make it not too invasive?
We are very careful regarding this. The B-Live shopping application is available from the interface of our Bboxes (for Bboxes equipped with a 4K HDR TV decoder, editor’s note) like any other channel that can be found there. Our customers are free to consult it or not.
Still on the innovation side, you created Inno’lab, a collaborative platform involving your customers but also your prospects and collaborators in your innovations of tomorrow. Is it part of your DNA?
For several years now, we have set up the Bouygues Telecom Customer Committee: around a hundred customers who we regularly question regarding our offers, who are given previews of new products, new services, etc. With Innolab, of which our innovation department is at the origin, we have extended this concept to our prospects and our collaborators, via a participatory digital platform, always following our logic, which is that of useful innovation . We focus on the real needs of our different audiences and less on pure innovation. And we are committed to involving them in the design of our innovations and services of tomorrow.
You also launched an offer with an Xbox… for 1 euro. Is the video game console a good appeal product for adults in 2023?
The end of the console has been predicted for several years, and every time I buy an Xbox, I am told that it will be the last, and yet…! (laughs) The Gaming offer is part of our desire to democratize access to our services. Customers who subscribe to this package can have an Xbox from 1 euro and the latest Xbox Game Studios games as soon as they are released.
Micromania also makes very good sales via your Live Shopping service…
To mark the release of the latest Zelda game, a Live Shopping session hosted by one of the Micromania managers was offered on the box, to demonstrate it and answer customers’ questions. A session which was a great success. And for Micromania, a Live Shopping such as this generates income equivalent to the turnover achieved per store on a Saturday.
Why are gamers a particularly interesting audience for Bouygues Telecom?
This is a very demanding audience, very attentive to the quality of their connection, PING, speed, etc. We don’t joke with gamers (laughs). Because on a game like the latest Starfield, which is more than 100 gigabytes, it is better to have optical fiber and a good connection to avoid latency. This is an audience that interests us, because it allows us to promote the quality of the performance of our network.
Beyond connection, are we now finally recognizing gaming as a serious culture full of promise?
It’s a wonderful universe. I recently met psychiatrists who use video games for therapeutic purposes. And I remember a game developed by Sony, which consisted of guiding the character of a little girl, without ever letting go of her hand for too long, and when you held her hand you might feel the beat of her heart in the controller . It is a game used in communication with autistic children for example. Gaming applications are numerous today. It’s a real culture in its own right.
On the communications side, what are the new developments from Bouygues Telecom for the end of the year and the year to come?
Corporate communication plays a valuable role, because it helps develop a link with internal and external targets by asserting identity and transmitting the company’s own values. This is essential to develop our Employer Brand and convince new talents to join us. We are a particularly human company in addition to being expert, it is important to make this known to new generations in search of meaning. We recently launched a new communications territory that we call FIB, the Bouygues Telecom intervention force. Using the codes of detective series, this saga highlights Bouygues Telecom’s expertise in our box and mobile businesses through the offbeat staging of three investigators. Our rhetoric is simple: one problem, one solution. archyde news is only effective when it meets a customer need. Making a nice, poetic, aesthetic advertisement is great, but today customers expect their questions to be answered – all their questions!
Interview Jean-Baptiste Chiara
Photo Arnaud Juhérian
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