It's ad time for Vonage

Adweek reports that Vonage, our fave broadband telephone company, is looking to blow $50 to $75 million on an advertising campaing. Normally, we wouldn't comment on the billions companies spend on technology advertising, but a lot of money gets wasted on ads that not only don't help sell things, but often just confuse people even more (see TiVo's early advertising). 

That's why with a company like Vonage, where it's a new convergence technology that's already kind of difficult for most people to get, you gotta wonder whether a massive branding campaign is the way to go. The early adopters have all signed up, but there are still a lot of tech savvy consumers out there who haven't tried it yet. They already have to have broadband, aren't afraid of technology, and if they had a chance to see how it worked would likely be ready and willing to ditch their land line. The problem is that a 30-spot on network TV or a full page add in the New Yorker isn't going to do the trick here. 

So why not take $2 million of the budget (a tiny percent of the total) and send out those analog telephone adapter units with one year of service to people at tech sites and blogs all across the country (we're already paying subscribers, so we're not recommending this to score free service)? They all have broadband and they all love to talk. A lot. They'll help educate folks on what VoIP is better than any ad, and advertise Vonage free because, well, it's great. How's that sound?

[Snapster @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

people who post comments on such blogs as well, while they are at it.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

That's actually a damn good idea; the adapters are pretty inexpensive, all things said, and I'm sure they could even cut that to 3 or 6 months of service and have a pretty good success rate.

[TLD @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

As good as this serivce is, i think it's still putting too many eggs in one basket. If the power goes out, so does your phone. If the cable(/Satellite) goes out, so does your phone. In this time of "heightened security" I can see that this would be a major turn-off for man people

[Stan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I agree that the problem with Vonage is the power issue, especially for those of us in New York, which is some sort of Disney World for terrorists. Anyone know how hard it would be for Vonage's box to come with a battery pack that would kick in if the power went out, something like the back up on a standard clock radio? Would this even solve the power problem?

[Dan Sherman @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I just wrote about a way for someone to make a business selling TiVo, over at my blog, by selling TiVo service door-to-door:

http://www.dansherman.com/2004/08/door-to-door-tivo-sales.html

For $75 million, Vonage could get a whole heck of a lot more units into people's homes using the method I describe than showing ads for a technology most people don't really understand. In this case, they can't afford to just educate in their ads, they need to move units.

BTW: Battery backup wouldn't help. You need an internet connection for it to work. If the power goes out, so does your broadband modem and presumably, your internet provider's system as well. (Unless they have back up power, of course.)

["-" @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This is a great way to promote anything: let them try it for awhile. And yes I agreee that this is exactly the product and pretty much the right group of users for the product.

Keep innovating! It's our net.

"-"

[Stan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Dan, Thanks for explaining the power issue to me. Does the POTS system have back up power built in, or do regular phone lines not need power to transmit calls? Just curious.

[Stan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Dan, Thanks for explaining the power issue to me. Does the POTS system have back up power built in, or do regular phone lines not need power to transmit calls? Just curious.

[Dan Budiac @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Vonage is spending $375 to acquire each customer, not including the cost of the analog adapter or shipping. This reeks of dot-com bubble math.

http://www.corante.com/voip/archives/005616.html

[dave @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

how did vonage get to the top of the voip heap? what is its main advantage over other voip providers? hasn't it already spent a ton of money advertising, at least comparitively to its technologically advanced competitors?

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