MARKETING MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 13, 2004

Clutter control
By Chris Powell

Consumers sift through offers

Bob Westrope estimates that between 10 and 20 billion ad impressions are delivered in Canada every day. "It's more unsolicited stuff being blown at (consumers)," says the president and CEO of a new company called CentrSource. "It's not rocket science; there's just too much."
Soft-launched in March, with a major consumer marketing and PR campaign slated for late November, CentrSource is a permission-based online utility that Westrope calls a "clutter control panel." The site allows consumers to treat these billions of ad impressions as a database they can sift through to extract offers relevant to them.
Participating advertisers, such as Procter & Gamble, will tag their ads with the CentrSource logo-a red- and-white swirl (there's also an audio identifier) that Westrope hopes will become as recognizable as the "Intel inside" logo-which directs consumers to the CentrSource Web site.

There, consumers can browse ads, obtain additional product info, request a sample, get coupons or shop-all within three mouse clicks of the home page. The site also allows marketers to see which offers are resonating with consumers-and they pay only when someone takes an action toward a purchase, such as requesting a sample or a test drive.

"There's been an inherent assumption that the tension between the advertiser and consumer is zero-sum: somebody wins and somebody loses," says Westrope. "We believe there is a model now where everybody wins. If you treat the consumer with dignity and do precisely what the consumer wants, that's the most important place to be for advertisers and everybody that serves them."

The result of over 6,000 development days and more than US$7.5 million (C$9.9 million) in funding, CentrSource is an "unapologetically big idea," says Westrope. And, it's one that dovetails with empowered consumers and increased advertiser demand for marketing that is accountable and measurable.

Patrick Walshe, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group Canada and a member of the CentrSource's advisory board, sees an opportunity for the Web-based service in our complicated advertising environment. "It's often hard to remember who's saying what to whom and what a specific offer is," he says, "I think more and more people are persuaded there's a glimmer of an idea here, and it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out."

CentrSource is actually comprised of two components:

CentrSource.com and a B2B application open to all advertisers, agency and media called Response Exchange. The latter enables marketers to create what Westrope calls "response boxes," a virtual call centre where they can create and track offers. These offers can be tailored right down to an individual street, says Westrope: "We want the local pizzeria in Kapuskasing to be able to use this to post today's specials."
Procter & Gamble Canada is currently using CentrSource for its Olay line of skin-care products, enabling consumers to request a sample.

CentrSource recently retained what Westrope calls a "significant" European investment bank to help raise up to $26.4 million from "tier one" venture capital firms by Q1 of 2005. The securing of funds will coincide with what Westrope calls a "serious push" in consumer marketing.

CentrSource's will launch in the GTA in late fall, followed by the rest of Canada in 2005 and the U.S. by September 2005.