PSINet takes shot at national profile (Ad Campaign)
First nationwide push: Aims to make ISP name brand among decision makers
Paul Brent
Financial Post
After quietly operating in Canada for the past five years, PSINet
Ltd. will today unveil its first national ad campaign, in an
attempt to make the Internet service provider a household
name among the "business decision makers" who give the
go-ahead for expensive Web projects.
PSINet is spending more than $1-million over the next three
months on a campaign that includes 1,000 billboards in the
corporate centres of Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and
Vancouver and will back the outdoor push with magazine ads,
as well as ads aimed at business travellers in the country's
major airports.
The effort bills the Toronto-based company as the first
"Internet Super Carrier" and gives it brand-name status in the
otherwise generic Internet services business.
"We very much wanted to build our brands and with billboards we are in a position to
choose our locations and where we are putting out the message," said Robert Offley,
president and chief executive of the Canadian unit of PSINet Inc. of Herndon, Va. "The
company's point of view is we have almost been the best-kept secret up here in Canada."
By providing Internet services, everything from Web hosting to creating an e-commerce
site, PSINet should have a pretty good handle on who its competitors are, but Mr. Offley
said that is not the case, hence the need for an ad campaign. "You could say our
competitors are the telephone companies, but they are not really because they have a
different focus. You could say it is some of the other ISPs but they tend to be focused on
consumers.
"Certainly in the Canadian market there is no one really focused on delivering solutions to
businesses," Mr. Offley said.
PSINet, which boasts approximately 400 employees in five offices across the country,
could be accused of being tardy with its advertising efforts. The Canadian division will not
release revenue figures but said it works with about 6,000 business clients ranging from
small enterprises to large corporate clients.
The company has yet to take the wraps off the magazine portion of its campaign but with
luck it will take a cue from the simple message of its billboard effort. (The parent's
homepage quickly succumbs to the jargon of the Internet world, describing itself as "a
global facilities based Internet protocol data communications carrier focused on the
business marketplace.")
pbrent@nationalpost.com
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