ooVoo Throws Down The Gauntlet at Skype

I get hundreds of junk emails just like you do every day. The crazy and outrageous offers never seem to stop. As an ooVoo customer, this one made it through and really made me take note. The offer says that if Skype is down, ooVoo will be there for you. Specifically, for every hour Skype is down, you’ll get a free DAY of 6-way video calls on ooVoo. The announcement platform is Facebook.

Now, this is a reason to become a fan of a company. There’s real value here.

The marketing is brilliant as well. ooVoo doesn’t have to shout out that Skype is down every once in a while or take cheap shots. All it’s doing is offering to step in and help in the event Skype does go down. The point (IMNO) is that they’ve introduced doubt and put themselves in consumers’ minds as a backstop in case of failure. Anyone that’s a backstop is in the same category, so that’s a coup from a positioning point of view.

ooVoo knows that trials are the way to success. The more trials, the more service sampling, the more sales, the more regular users. So, it’s a numbers game. In response, this offer is super specific. It is clear about how much and how often and how much. It tells you what to do and where to go to take action. While it isn’t all that easy to keep watching Facebook for a specific announcement (so usage probably won’t go through the roof causing ooVoo to go down as well), the feeling of the offer is authentic and legit. All in all–a good customer experience.

Kudos to the marketing team at ooVoo. Brilliant offer, great copywriting, and good strategy! Let’s see how the campaign does at winning trials–then new customers.