Byte Interactive Develops Ground-Breaking Digital Marketing Solution for Nestle Waters North America.

Business Editors

NORWALK and WESTPORT, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 2003

Implementation of CentrPort's E-Business Marketing Platform(TM) Enables Industry's First Dialogue Marketing Solution

Describing it as a ground-breaking technological implementation that "delivers the right message to the right consumer at the right time," Byte Interactive, the South Norwalk, Conn. strategic digital marketing firm, has announced the successful launch of an innovative and complex digital marketing solution to meet an extraordinary marketing challenge faced by its client, Nestle Waters North America, Inc. (NESTLE WATERS).

Nestle Waters is the world's largest spring water home and office distributor whose U.S. brands include Poland Spring, Deer Park, Arrowhead, Ozarka, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills and Calistoga. Since Nestle Waters' regional brands are tied to specific spring water sources dispersed across North America, the company's marketing base is segmented geographically, by brand, product lines, and by delivery method/availability (e.g. at retail vs. through home and office delivery services).

Consumers respond better to messages containing a brand name (for example, "Poland Spring") than a generic one ("spring water"). In order to deliver an appropriately branded message, Nestle Waters must first learn the consumer's geographic location. The company's marketing challenge, therefore, was how to geographically identify and profile prospective customers through their interactions with online media alone, while at the same time preserving consumer anonymity.

According to Chris Butler, Nestle Waters' senior market manager, new customer and e-business, "Our company's commitment to providing the highest quality spring water from regional spring sources presents the formidable marketing challenge of a segmented nationwide consumer constituency. We wanted our consumers to be treated individually, so we looked to Byte to enable us to better understand them and build upon the positive name recognition of the brands."

"Our intention was to enable NESTLE WATERS to build a lifetime relationship with consumers by speaking to each with relevance through use of digital media," agreed Byte Interactive's vice president of client services Gene Tiernan. "For example, we wanted to prevent delivering an acquisition message to an existing customer, or delivering a generic unbranded message to a consumer who has an affinity for a certain NESTLE WATERS brand."

To execute this cutting-edge application, Byte Interactive called upon the expertise of CentrPort, a Westport, Conn. provider of e-business solutions that enable online dialogue marketing.

Conceived and designed by Byte Interactive and modeled and executed with its vendor-partner CentrPort, this "next generation" technology transforms untargeted online mass marketing into targeted messaging. Anonymous consumer profiles are built based upon each consumer's behaviors with NESTLE WATERS's digital media, on-site and off-site. The consumer's geographic location is deduced and captured within a profile, allowing NESTLE WATERS to deliver the appropriate brand and product message. Furthermore, profiles include behavior related to the consumer's interactions with NESTLE WATERS's home and office services - enabling the company to distinguish "customers" from "prospects" in order to send the appropriate messages.

Equally valuable is the company's ability to identify "application bailers" - consumers who initiated but inexplicably never completed the online purchase process. Remarkably, regardless of where that individual next interacts with a NESTLE WATERS online message - for example, a banner ad at iVillage.com - that high-potential prospect will receive a message specifically encouraging him to complete the application process to become a NESTLE WATERS "customer." This permits synchronization between on-site and off-site messaging, while providing NESTLE WATERS with maximum flexibility to place digital messaging through any channel or vendor.

The result enables NESTLE WATERS to dynamically target the right marketing message to each individual in its segmented consumer marketing base, while preserving consumer anonymity - thus empowering the company to employ its marketing dollars strategically and with precision.

"CentrPort allows us to do something none of their competitors could accomplish, which is to allow the capture of valuable, anonymous consumer-behavior profile data both on-site and off-site, and then to apply very complex rules to insure appropriate messaging across channels," said Tiernan. "The superior technological capabilities of this innovative company allows us at Byte Interactive to deliver this first-ever marketing solution to our client. It provides NESTLE WATERS with a powerful marketing tool and most importantly, the ability to better serve its customers and consumers."

"The ability to integrate all of its online marketing data, and more accurately target the right brand of water to the right geography, will help Nestle Waters North America better serve its customers," said Bill Zierolf, president and CEO at CentrPort. "We're pleased to help the world's largest spring water distributor improve their online marketing efforts and grow customer revenue."

"This delivers on all of the promises of the internet," said Michael LeBeau, CEO and founder of Byte Interactive. "Respecting consumer privacy, we are now able to deliver the right message based upon that consumer's relationship with their respective brand, converting prospects into customers, and guiding customers to higher-value activities throughout a lifetime."

Byte Interactive LLC is a leading provider of digital marketing solutions and strategies for Global 2000 companies. Providing a blend of strategic marketing consultation with leading-edge digital marketing technology, Byte Interactive works with clients to build Web sites, develop enterprise-wide Intranet solutions and deliver e-commerce applications. The company's client roster includes AIWA, Allied Domecq, Nestle Waters North America, Coty, Guinness/Bass Import Company and Olympus. Founded in 1997 by CEO Michael LeBeau, Byte Interactive is headquartered in South Norwalk, Conn.

Nestle Waters North America, Inc. is the number one bottled water company in the U.S. and Canada. Its family of 15 well-known brands is built upon natural spring water products, including Poland Spring from Maine, the leading spring water brand in America. Consumers around the U.S. enjoy other popular regional brands such as Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Ozarka and Zephyrhills. Nestle Waters North America also owns and imports globally-recognized brands such as Perrier and S. Pellegrino. The company's parent organization is Nestle Waters, based in Paris, the bottled water division of the Swiss company, Nestle, S.A.

CentrPort, Inc. of Westport, Conn. is a leading provider of outsourced e-business marketing solutions that enable Fortune 500 organizations to better acquire, retain and grow customers by creating and maintaining sustainable online marketing dialogues. The company has worked with the world's largest marketing organizations, including 5 of the Fortune 10, to increase customer acquisition rates, decrease customer attrition and grow customer profitability.