Sales Graphics Blog

Thank you to the Fitting Group, who is featuring our CustomShow presentation software in Challenger Brand News this week. We are indeed going up against Goliath in the form of Microsoft PowerPoint. The good news is that no one loves PowerPoint, everyone simply tolerates it.

As mentioned in the article, we’ve been able to convince major brands to switch to CustomShow. Our customers include “DIRECTV, CNN, Bravo, The New Yorker, A&E, ELLE, The Wall Street Journal and Dior. And that’s just the short list.”

Here’s what Challenger Brand News has to say about CustomShow:

Beyond being dazzling, CustomShow sports a number of boons. On the one hand, it allows control over the information being presented in a way that ensures that the company’s brand guidelines are consistent. But on the other, it allows quick and easy customization of presentations to permit flexibility.

More than anything, CustomShow is a presentation program for a world with a short attention span and high visual expectations.

And they don’t even mention our new Web meeting capability, which plays high-definition video smoothly. You can find the entire Challenger Brand article here.

The National Geographic Channel will roll out CustomShow as its enterprise presentation platform for Advertising Sales. This means that the entire sales team will have eye-catching animated slides at their fingertips. These slides will update themselves, saving the sales team hours of work every time they customize a presentation.

The Nat Geo marketing team will rely on CustomShow to effectively manage and update their library of slides and presentations throughout the year for their entire sales team. CustomShow lets them control message and design across the company in real-time.

Nat Geo joins a growing list of Fox Cable Networks that are using CustomShow to manage their presentations, including F/X, Big Ten, SPEED, FUEL, Fox Sports Net, and Fox Affiliates.

MTV Networks Entertainment Group chose Sales Graphics to design their 2010 Digital Upfront presentation. They’re also using CustomShow to deliver and manage the slides across their entire salesforce.

Bravo Media launched their Digital Roadshow presentation today. Designed by Sales Graphics’ DesignStudio and built in CustomShow presentation software, Bravo’s Digital Roadshow presents the full range of their digital capabilities and gives their sales team a powerful tool for presenting, explaining and selling Bravo’s rich set of digital opportunities.

The special effects on Nip/Tuck aren’t the only eye-popping visual effects that FX Networks are using this year to promote the cable network. FX will be using CustomShow presentation software this year to help make their ad sales presentations as compelling and engaging as their programming.

Comcast Sports Group, Comcast’s 10 regional sports networks, has already put points on the board for 2009 by signing up with Sales Graphics to provide CustomShow Presentation software to its national sales team. Using CustomShow’s powerful presentation creation and management system, Comcast Sports Group will be hitting home runs all year long with great presentations that are always up-to-date, accurate and exciting. With a nationwide sales force serving 10 regions, Comcast Sports Group needed a presentation solution that would allow them to manage and control sales materials effectively across the country. With all of the great programming and regional-specific content, they also needed a presentation system that was powerful enough to show all their video and flexible enough to be customized for each pitch in each region. CustomShow fit the bill and made the team for 2009.

(Boston, November 10, 2008) Sales Graphics, the leading creator of high-end enterprise presentation software, once again revolutionizes “closing the sale” with the introduction of CustomShow 7. Well-known in the media industry as the gold standard in sales presentation software, the company unveiled this fully web-enabled version of the product at CTAM 2008.

CustomShow 7 frees sales professionals from their desktops, allowing them to create, manage and deliver dynamic, multi-media-filled presentations anytime, anywhere. Fully web-based and secure, CustomShow 7 delivers functionality that allows for real-time collaboration, cutting-edge effects and animation, and flawless presentation.

“Now, more than ever, companies must make a dramatic impression when they present to prospective clients,” said George Chevalier, president, Sales Graphics. “Presentations need to be memorable, engaging, factual, and even entertaining. Web-based CustomShow 7, with its built-in design, collaboration and organizational tools, is where efficient meets eye-popping.”

The CustomShow 7 Top 7
Attention-grabbing design, ease-of-use, web-access and ultimate control make CustomShow 7 different from all other presentation software.

1. MAKE PRESENTATIONS ONLINE. Imagine being able give a presentation without having to be in the room. Click though animated slides and video from where ever you are. Free yourself from the expense and poor video performance of WebEx.
2. PRESENT FULL-SCREEN HD VIDEO on your desktop or across the Web. No more squinting to watch tiny video clips or stuttering video playback.
3. CREATE EYE-POPPING FLASH PRESENTATIONS with NEW animations. Reduce the expense and time required to build animations in Flash.
4. COLLABORATE IN REAL-TIME with colleagues around the world by working on the Web. Edit, revise and review presentations without the inconvenience of sending huge files back and forth. Keep track of files with different versions and avoid the risk of overwriting.
5. MANAGE AND CONTROL YOUR BRAND and message with sophisticated permission-based controls. Control all the content including graphics, colors, fonts and charts.
6. TRACK THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRESENTATIONS with CustomShow’s built-in Dashboard. See which presentations close deals. At a glance, track the usage of individual presentations and marketing materials while monitoring presentation activity across your entire organization.
7. LOSE NOTHING, EVER. Safely and securely back up and archive your company’s entire presentation library, including individual custom presentations and previous versions, on our server – automatically.

CustomShow 7 is in beta testing with select media clients in through December 2008. The product will be broadly available in the first quarter of 2009.

Because Sales Graphics is committed to providing unsurpassed client service and is dedicated to investing in products and relationships, CustomShow 7 will be available to current CustomShow users with no cost upgrade. For new clients, the company will be offering subscription-based enterprise pricing models.

About Sales Graphics
Sales Graphics, headquartered in New York, is the leading provider of high-end presentation software. The company’s CustomShow product, used by media, publishing and consumer goods companies worldwide, blends quality design with new technology to empower sales organizations to create and share effective presentations.

Press Contact: Bradley Daves
Loving + Company
917.749.5943
bdaves@lovingandcompany.com