AT&T CallVantage Gets BestBuy

In what is rapidly becoming a clear cut roll out of AT&T’s CallVantage’s strategy to insure that anyone who wants to have VoIP in their home, the telecom giant has announced a relationship with BestBuy, one of the nations largest big box retailers of home electronics and appliances that makes it easier for consumers to sign up and replace their existing telephone service or add CallVantage as an additional phone line.

By striking the relationship on the heals of the cable broadband reseller relationship last week, and just after the run of the Olympic television advertising campaign ran, the crafty marketer hand of Dave Dorman and his team is very apparent. First the commercials built awareness. Then the relationships with the cable companies added the solution to access without issues (i.e. no blocking of ports regardless of how the customer gets CallVantage). Now anyone walking through the BestBuy (and I anticipate others) retailer locations will see in store display, likely demos but more importantly, have someone face to face to ask questions of about how to add the service. Add in the Best Buy circular advertising support and co-operative advertising that Best Buy, like all mass market retailers require, and you have a fully looped marketing campaign built around a channel partner.

You can find the offer online here already and in stores in early fall.

For AT&T, they become the second VoIP player sold in Best Buy stores along with Vonage. But for chains like Best Buy which have become one of the largest sellers of consumer electronics that are based on technology the weight of an AT&T versus a Vonage is equal to Microsoft support the sales of Office via the same channel.

This first retail relationship is significant for AT&T, but more importantly all of the VoIP world, as this will do a great deal to propel the industry, something smaller players will appreciate, but not be able to match. For those companies, it will be loyalty and unrelenting service that will keep them alive.

As they say in tennis. Advantage-CallVantage.