Padulo Integrated to Handle Launch and Rollout of Centrsource.com Marketing Technology

URL: http://www.pubzone.com/newsroom/printerversion/2003/1x20031001x123556-P.cfm


by Gail Chiasson
Oct 01, 2003
Toronto-based CentrSource Corp., developers of the patents-pending CentrSource marketing technology, has appointed Padulo Integrated as its Agency of Record with responsibility for its launch, its marketing communications, and the sales rollout of CentrSource.com and its B2B technology platform, ResponseExchange.com.

In development since 2000 and involving an investment of more than $6 million, CentrSource turns every medium into a permission-driven direct response vehicle, by providing an Internet facility where consumers can respond to advertising messages in which they’re interested, and receive value-added offers from the advertisers. And it essentially makes every medium measurable.

Advertisers place the CentrSource identifier on ads, commercials, signs, and even packaging, directing consumers to the Web site. At the Web site, consumers can, within three clicks, find the ad or commercial they were interested in and then choose from a variety of offers, tailored by the advertiser to meet their specific sales and marketing needs. Consumers can get more information, print a coupon, get a sample, enter a contest, request a phone call, request a test drive or product demonstration, purchase the product, and fill out a research survey.

With its ability to show all the commercials on any given day, the system also has the potential to become a catalogue of ads.

There is no cost to either the consumer or the advertiser – the advertiser pays only for the names of the consumers who have responded. And with the agency and media commissioned by CentrSource, they participate in the revenue stream.

CentrSource will launch in one Canadian city - yet to be announced - in November/03, and roll out across Canada next spring. The technology is geared for both the French and English markets, and has been developed to go global, says Bob Westrope, president and CEO of CentrSource. U.S. patents are pending.

The concept for CentrSource originated at the eStrategies Group of BearingPoint Canada (formerly KPMG Consulting), of which Westrope was a founding principal. Westrope, a direct marketer whose background includes Maclean Hunter, where he created the Laser Response group, Southam Graphics Group and several new media initiatives, is the largest shareholder in CentreSource. The company has several investors, including Landmark Global Financial.

Senior staff, in addition to Westrope, include Marty Rothstein, executive vice-president and COO, former president and CEO of MacLaren McCann Canada Inc.; Sue Jaffe, senior vice-president marketing, former managing director of SMW and then with Publicis; Chuck Truax, chief technical officer;' and Gord Macilquham, senior vice-president operations.

"CentrSource is both a conceptual and operational breakthrough," says Richard Padulo, president of Padulo Integrated. "For the first time, advertisers can follow through with direct response offers from every piece of marketing communications – and do it at no risk. They can carry out much more sophisticated tests of creative and value-added offers, while building consumer relationships. And the CentrSource model destroys conventional worries about percentage response rates, since the advertiser pays nothing for using the service, but pays only for names actually received.

"This is the most exciting system I have ever seen, to leverage technology to further sales and marketing objectives. It speaks to all the urgent issues of today – the need to drive down costs, the need to build permission-based one-to-one relationships with consumers, the need to validate marketing communications spending through actual measurable results."

Padulo is now developing a number of market tests, in which both broadcast and print media will promote the CentrSource system to their advertisers, and also provide time or space to inform their audience about the concept, and motivate them to go to CentrSource to respond to selected ads and commercials.

The system isn't limited to the traditional medium however.

"It's media agnostic, and can involve everything from advertising on packaging to advertising on a blimp," says Westrope, who says that a wide variety of senior, experienced advertising and direct marketing professionals were consulted throughout development of the offering.


The fine folk at Padulo can be found at http://www.padulo.ca/