Comments on: Answer My Office Floats Confusing Ad Offering

By: Melanie Jones

Melanie Jones — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:53:55 +0000

I think @Elizabeth may be on to something. Either that, or this virtual office company is sinking a lot of resources into a dead end strategy. With all of the Web analytics gurus out there, though, and even software that tracks offline response, I can’t see how they can compete with the accuracy of an Omniture — though I’m sure they can compete on price.

By: Elizabeth Sanchez

Elizabeth Sanchez — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:12:10 +0000

You know, Answer My Office is an Australian company. Things could be a bit different over there. Who knows? I can only imagine the tested this concept, or at least I hope they did. In the U.S., I can’t see a virtual office provider succeeding at something like this. But maybe there’s something about this Asian market we don’t understand.

By: Bill Brookshire

Bill Brookshire — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:32:15 +0000

Hmm. I can see some value in tracking offline ads and working up some data around it, but I don’t see anything new about what they are doing. And I can’t see how a virtual office company has the skillset to do it. This requires more than a virtual receptionist asking a few questions.

By: Rob Zeus

Rob Zeus — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:25:56 +0000

I don’t get it, no. Sounds like adding an extra step in the process of measuring advertising success. In any case, I don’t think a virtual office provider has any business trying to launch an ad service. I think they’ll be very disappointed in the results, and so will anybody who pays for it.

By: Maggie Correta

Maggie Correta — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:19:23 +0000

I can’t make sense of this either. Its seems really opportunistic for an 800 number to go into an advertising scheme. I can’t see how folks think they can outperform Google or Microsoft’s adCenter or some of the larger ad networks. And so far as analytics go, these networks offer all that. I think they should stick to virtual receptionist services.