Uhuru Network

Please describe your company and your position there.

easy-donate is a social platform and enable for charitable giving. The mission of easy-donate is to inspire and enable compassion in this world. We believe that  compassion is the key to a happier and a kinder world. We drive awareness of the needs of others, and create opportunities that motivate and enable giving.  I am the founder of easy-donate.

For what projects/services did your company hire Centrico Digital?

Centrico Digital was created to modernize the UX for our website and mobile applications. The earlier design was done by the development team, and we wanted a design that could better communicate our intentions, and also make it easy, attractive and intuitive for our users.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Centrico Digital was recommended by our development partner in Ecuador. They had earlier used Centrico Digital and had good experience with them. We looked at some of the work that they had done in the past, and also at the cost of the project, before deciding to move forward.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We engaged with Centrico Digital in March of 2021 after creating a commercial agreement with their team. The team allocated UX design resources to our team. There were two UX teams, the first team was mainly responsible for building out the wireframes, and the second team, was responsible for creating the mockups, that would then be directly folded into the software deliverable by our development team.

The Centrico team also worked on the easy-donate logo. In the early stage of the project, we communicated a set of requirements. Since we already had an application in place, there was a baseline reference to build the new UX, although the new UX had to be re-imagined to convey a modern and attractive look and feel. After Centrico completed the on-time delivery of the first phase of the project, we continued to place them on a retainer to help us with any new issues or changes that we would need to do the UX.

The Centrico team worked well us, used the latest toolkits, to ensure that integration of their changes was easy.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In total, there were three resources that we directly came in contact. The first was an Engineering director, a UX design lead, and a UX implementation lead.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Centrico Digital was able to deliver against their committed milestones and were able to work with changing requirements. Customer feedback on the quality of the new UX was very positive, and we are excited as we prepare for our upcoming launch.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Centrico team was very easy to work with and accommodative of our requests. We were able to rationalize out any changes resulting from design changes, and factor them into our development plan without any issues.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The best part about working with Centrico was the cordial nature of the relationship and the ownership that they felt for the final product. It's great to work with a partner who feels a sense of ownership for your product.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can't think of any issues.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of AVRIO which is a footwear Brand built upon 3 pillars which are represented in our logo: Collaboration, Eco-Innovation, and Transparency, all of which rest upon a solid base of Education.

The name AVRIO was selected because it’s a Greek word meaning “tomorrow” or “the future”. AVRIO designs and manufactures shoes, with plans to expand into garments, and other eco-related products.

All products incorporate bio and recycled materials engineered for clean construction and deconstruction of the product, maximizing our ability to re-use the components, and close the loop for future products.

We believe AVRIO shoes should never end up in our oceans or a landfill when they can be reborn and walk again. To truly make difference, we went beyond the finished eco-product itself and evaluated the environmental impact during sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution.

We believe companies can improve our future by creating better products and processes that promote a cleaner environment and a stronger community.

For what projects/services did your company hire Centrico Digital?

As AVRIO was developing it's shoe models, it was clear our ability to promote the brand in the social media space was in need of professional guidance and support. After consulting with several firms, we knew we had located the best partner during our initial consultation with Laura A. Her overview of the path to success instilled confidence in her team's ability to move AVRIO forward.

What were your goals for this project?

Céntrico Digital was tasked to grow customer engagement in each of AVRIO's social media platforms. The first goal targeted demographics to maximize the sales conversion rate for the Kickstarter launch. The second goal was to increase the number of followers on Facebook and Instagram. Caroline kept our team informed so we knew where we were efficiently and effectively spending our marketing dollars.

How did you select Centrico Digital?

We interviewed several companies of various sizes before we selected Céntrico Digital. Caroline A. took her time to understand our company and our product which enabled her to directly relate to our team as she discussed the benefits of engaging her team.

We were halfway through her presentation when I thought to myself "We need to hire this company and we need to do it right now". Her explanation of her plan combined with her understanding of our brand and our mission had my entire team excited about working with Céntrico.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Céntrico Digital was tasked with building and monitoring social media campaigns through Facebook and Instagram. They had access to our content and varied what was published to track the engagement success for each campaign. Content and target audiences were refined to increase the success of future campaigns. The marketing budget was diligently managed to ensure spending was controlled and tracked each day.

What was the team composition?

Our team worked directly with Caroline A. Caroline joined one of AVRIO's morning huddle to provide the leadership team an opportunity to engage with her directly.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

With the help of Céntrico Digital, we achieved our goals for the Kickstarter campaign.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team at Céntrico Digital delivered reports which provided information we needed to make decisions in real-time. They were responsive and available any time we needed to review changes to the marketing plan.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our team was beyond impressed with the attention to detail Céntrico Digital displayed in all engagements for AVRIO. The technology they mastered allowed our team to track and review metrics which allowed us to test multiple initiatives to determine the best path to grow the AVRIO brand.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Céntrico Digital delivered on task - will use them again and again as our company continues to grow.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of marketing at Presidio Graduate School. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

The central business challenge was to generate leads for prospective students for our graduate programs. We hired Centrico Digital to help manage our digital advertising efforts and infrastructure creation to increase leads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Centrico Digital manages our digital ad campaigns. We use Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and HubSpot for these efforts. They’ve helped establish an analytics dashboard and build out our HubSpot account. These campaigns are ongoing and the team works on all the creative aspects involved. 

What is the team composition?

I work with five people from their team, along with Matt (CEO & Co-Founder, Centrico Digital). 

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

Centrico Digital came as a referral from someone who had worked with them in the past. We were looking for a team with expertise in the education segment, and while they were relatively less experienced in that area, they had worked with similar clients before. I found them to be technically savvy, smart, and responsive, so that contributed to my choice after considering other vendors. 

How much have you invested with them?

Monthly, we spend $1,000 on their services. We spend an additional $4,200 monthly for the digital campaign and account management. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve had an ongoing relationship since August 2019. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’ve seen a huge amount of progress in terms of establishing our digital marketing campaign’s infrastructure. Because of their work with the dashboard and HubSpot account, we’re able to gain data and insight. We haven’t seen the number of leads I anticipated, but that’s in part because of my expectations. Since turning our efforts on in September, we’ve seen steadily increasing results, including more impressions, conversions, leads, and a decrease in cost-per-click (CPC). 

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Centrico Digital uses Trello and a suite of Google applications to manage the work. One of their strengths is that they are deadline-conscious. They’re very much on top of their work, which can be large and varied. Our weekly meetings are well organized and their monthly reporting is thorough. All of their billing and costings are clear and well explained. Overall, I’m very pleased with their project management and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strategy development work has been very insightful and fully captures key elements of our brand. Because of this, our ads stand out in the digital space and reflect our mission. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s important to be mindful that there could be a language barrier when working with an overseas team. This isn’t a weakness, but something people should consider when communicating with their team. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of international recruitment of at a small liberal arts university in Ontario, Canada.

What challenge were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

We were looking to enter the Latin America markets for our recruitment efforts. As a small and selective university, we have particular criteria when looking at potential students. Because of this, we needed Centrico Digital’s help in producing targeted outreach in that specific region.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Centrico Digital provides a variety of digital marketing strategies. They also work across several social media platforms, targeting both students and parents. Their team employs a variety of content, images, videos, blogs, and landing pages to better reach our niche audience. 

What is the team composition?

There are three members from their team that work with us, including one primary point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

I wasn’t in this position when the engagement with Centrico Digital began.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with their team since October 2018 and the engagement is ongoing. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’re still far away from being able to analyze any metrics because of how the recruiting cycle is set up, but we’re extremely pleased with their work so. They’re noticeably talented and carefully select the right creative to target our audience. Everything they’ve done for us has been of high quality and makes us stand out above others in the industry. 

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re definitely skilled in managing the project. I really appreciate how their team communicates with us; they’re extremely prompt. We use Trello, but their human-to-human contact is constant. They’re selective with the projects they take on, so they’re always able to manage the workload they have. By giving us one main point of contact, their teammates are never overloaded with other tasks and give us a good amount of attention. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They assign teammates who are relevant to the task. For our project, this means they’ve given us people who understand recent graduates from Latin America who studied abroad. They make strategic decisions and thoughtfully craft their approach from start to finish. They persistently produce high-quality work, which I very much appreciate. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing significant stands out. They are more costly than some agencies, but as long as they continue giving a breakdown of their prices and outlining it from the start, I don’t have a problem. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Microverse is an online tool for global, remote software developers. What we do is train people all around the world using peer-to-peer dynamics to learn all kinds of programming languages, and we don’t charge anyone until they successfully get a job in the field. I’m the head of growth and marketing at Microverse.

What challenge were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

Since we are still growing, we didn’t want to hire a full-time marketing person yet but needed an expert in paid advertising as well as someone that had experience in Latin America because that was the region we were expanding into.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started by taking over all of our Facebook advertising, which was one of the top lead sources for us. After that, they designed a landing page for us and started doing some drip email campaigns, which have proved to be really helpful. Currently, their team is working with a contractor to turn some storyboard work into an explainer video for us as well.

They have also started to expand into some other advertising channels as our returns through Facebook have diminished—including Reddit and Quora, more recently—and more generally reorganized our strategy around Latin America.

What is the team composition?

We initially worked with two members of their team, which were switched out somewhat recently. My main points of contact are Esteban (Head of Paid Advertising, Centrico Digital) and Sergio (Strategist, Centrico Digital). They get really deep into the ad analytics and do a great job with all of that stuff.

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

We became part of Y Combinator in May and met a small group of founders from Latin America there. One of them recommended Centrico Digital based on their work with them. The founder is ex-Twitter, ex-Google, and has a great reputation down there, so we trusted their recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

Our total spend on Centrico Digital’s services has been just under $10,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started on the project in June 2019 and are continuing to work together.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We worked with a freelancer before contracting Centrico Digital, and during that stage, our website’s visitor-to-application conversion was about 3%. As soon as Centrico Digital took over, that was more like 10%, which is obviously a pretty substantial impact. They’ve also been able to decrease our ad spend on Facebook overall, and optimize the impact there.

We don’t have a lot of data on some of our recent efforts like the video or the email campaigns, but as soon as they implemented the landing page our cost per conversion went down 15% as well. They’re currently helping us build a dashboard to standardize our ad reporting across all the platforms so that we can better manage our spending in the future.

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team has been very good at project management. The founder of the company is very communicative on WhatsApp when I have larger questions, and their account managers are always in touch to make sure things are running smoothly. We have a delay at the moment with the video because of the contractor they are working with, but I would say on the whole they are almost perfect in that regard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think what is particularly impressive about Centrico Digital is that you will not find a marketing agency of this caliber, with their expertise, at a lower cost. We’re dealing with very smart, very well-educated partners at a price we can afford.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The switch in personnel has been a little bit of a hiccup but was obviously a bit unusual for them as well. I think in general improving their communication around contractor delays and deadlines, or on issues in general could help improve the process a little bit.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a video production company that makes sign language instructional videos for children.

What challenge were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

We needed resources who specialized in digital marketing. Since our previous provider wasn’t meeting expectations, we switched over to Centrico Digital, instead.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Centrico Digital handles all of our digital strategy. They handle most of the execution—managing our Google and Facebook paid advertising, using proprietary tools to research keywords, and making landing pages using Instapage.

What is the team composition? 

We work with four people.

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

I was dissatisfied with our previous digital firm, so I interviewed a number of companies I found online to replace them. After a series of trial projects with several candidates, Centrico Digital impressed me the most. They were, by far, the most organized, professional, and knowledgeable. Not to mention, they seemed the most capable of delivering.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $10,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working with us in May 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I'm very happy with them. Through our paid advertising, we're hitting our cost per acquisition goals and scaling our spend. It’s a great value. Their output is also pretty fantastic. They produce high-quality work by the first round, which needs very few revisions.

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They manage the project, keeping me in the loop with a master spreadsheet. This plan shows me who’s doing what, when something is due, and where we are currently. In terms of deadlines, they’re great at sticking to our schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their research is really well done, and they got up to speed on our industry and issues quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have anything to add at this point.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the General Manager of Lenguatec, a professional language services company based out of Quito, Ecuador. I oversee a team of 15 people, largely providing services to multinational organizations working in the country.

For what projects/services did your company hire Centrico Digital?

We were looking to further develop our brand identity and consistently rank well in organic online searches. Previous efforts to boost our brand online returned middling results at best, so we decided to work with a specialized company providing exactly what we needed.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to gain more quality commercial leads through our website, increase traffic to our website by ranking higher on organic searches, and have a more active online presence.

How did you select this vendor?

We researched specialized local companies that could provide the services we required. Based on Centrico Digital's portfolio of clients and projects, in addition to their evident expertise in the areas that we wanted to work on and the level of service customization that they were able to offer, they quickly became a clear-cut choice.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After selecting Centrico Digital, we held a series of discovery meetings to determine current status of online marketing, SEO analysis, and set a roadmap for the project, jointly defining objectives and on boarding recommendations from their creative team. Once the project began, we held a series of meetings and conference calls to review progress and make adjustments as the project evolved.

What was the team composition?

I primarily worked with the project leads (graphic design, OX, SEO, etc.) to provide insights and feedback, and also kept in contact with management. I don't know how many people worked on the project over time, but I was in direct contact with 6 team members.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have received a lot of positive feedback from our target market on the graphic redesign work done by Centrico Digital and overall webpage content and design. Targeted online marketing eventually led to reasonable results, although not in the measure that was expected. Minor improvements have been seen in organic search results, but efforts are still ongoing to improve SEO.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everyone working on our project was easy to communicate with. We used Trello as a digital project management tool, which aided communication on project advances. Response to feedback was reasonable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Centrico Digital had very good and skilled personnel, and were good at managing the customization that our project required. Their experience-based recommendations were very helpful, and they were always willing to sit down and discuss ways forward and new ideas. The project was also well organized, and the company was willing to go beyond the original scope as the project requirements evolved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While many of the project aspects were handled well, there were certain issues that were never overcome, which lead to the project falling short of meeting its main objectives. More comprehensive follow-up should have been done on both sides to ensure leading objectives were met.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of marketing at a tracking systems company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

We hired them as an advertising agency.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us develop our communication strategies and redesign our website, among other things. We decided on a WordPress platform. I was not in the company when they worked on the different development projects, so I’m limited in what I can report.

What is the team composition? 

I communicated with 5–6 people.

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

Our head of human resources liked the presentation their manager gave in a public speaking engagement. Later, when we were looking for a digital partner, their name came up in many references.

How much have you invested in them?

We paid an agency fee of $3,000, but that could increase depending on the projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016, and we finished in March 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Centrico Digital’s team is very resourceful and creates high-quality graphics. They’ve always been willing to go the extra mile.

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Trello to manage the project. Centrico Digital experienced some delays, but they always took care of urgent tasks promptly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very creative and have a great attitude toward customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I believe they could use more web developers to improve their SEO strategy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the regional marketing manager for a cloud solutions company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

We started working with Centrico Digital to help with our digital strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of our collaboration has grown significantly recently. They’re currently helping us with our positioning on digital channels in terms of strategy and execution. They also developed and assisted with the integration of a marketing automation tool. Their team has helped with our overall digital investment through paid search, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Some of their team has created content for our blog.

What is the team composition?

In total, we work continuously with five people.

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

When I joined the company, Centrico Digital was already working with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spend around $5,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe our collaboration with Centrico Digital began last year.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve managed to turn our digital channels into 35% of business opportunities, making our digital channels relevant to the company. The conversions on our landing site have also been constantly increasing.

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly meetings with fluid communication between our teams. Trello is our main project management tool. Their team is readily available. For example, just last week, they created a campaign in one day because of urgency. We feel comfortable and trust their commitment. I also appreciate that they even comply with last-minute projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Centrico Digital is capable of understanding their client’s business and challenges. Their human quality is amazing. They know how to listen. I had the chance to change agencies but decided to stick with them. Their focus on working as a boutique agency is interesting. It gives us a higher level of attention to us as clients, making them work more as a partner. Centrico Digital has become a fundamental part of our marketing team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing to mention. They’ve been great so far.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at an insurance company that specializes in specialized loans. We have 33 years in the market and a presence in three cities in Ecuador. I am the marketing department manager. 

What challenges were you trying to address with Centrico Digital?

We originally hired them for digital strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started by creating the buyer persona of our clients and our products. Later on, they developed our digital strategies, not only using SEO and SEM optimization and campaigns but also with projects they developed with their proximity and knowhow. Those projects included website audits, digital platform consulting, specialized product content, and more.

They are always up to date with the technologies we use. For example, we used a hotspot and they proposed to also use SafeLink. They also added our chatbot, among other things.

What is the team composition?

We work with a head manager and account manager, a designer, someone in charge of audits, and writers. We don't work with all of them all the time—it depends on the project. 

How did you come to work with Centrico Digital?

We evaluated different companies and chose to work with them. They seemed like the best fit for our projects considering their clients and the fact that they are a boutique agency, which was what we were looking for. They also have a very wide B2B client portfolio on a national and international level. Seeing that, we felt like we could trust them because of their reputation.

How much have you invested in them?

We started with a monthly fee of $30,000 plus the separate investments of each campaign. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in 2016 and continue our collaboration.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They bring us a lot of added value because they’re so proactive. Every week they bring new ideas, new tasks developed, examples of best practices, etc. That support is really useful.

How did Centrico Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Trello for project management. It worked great for us for project follow-up. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beyond their expertise, they have great personnel and a great work environment. They have very good practices in their human resources department, and that is something you can see in the results they provide.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have seen great improvement throughout the years we have worked together. They were already a good company, but they have evolved and improved even more. So right now, I couldn’t mention anything.