Sales Graphics Announces CustomShow 7

SALES GRAPHICS UNVEILS ADVANCED, WEB-BASED ENTERPRISE PRESENTATION SOFTWARE – CUSTOMSHOW 7

CustomShow 7 Empowers Creation, Collaboration and Presentation

Across the Internet

(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

CTAM CustomShow VIP Preview

Come see the future of media sales presentations. Contact us today to schedule a VIP Preview of the new CustomShow at CTAM. 

Sales Graphics Attending CTAM; Big News About CustomShow

George Chevalier, President of Sales Graphics,  and Jed Chevalier will be attending the 2008 CTAM Summit next week and is looking forward to catching up with clients and meeting new media industry professionals from across the country. He's also excited about letting the cable industry know about the latest developments in our CustomShow Presentation Software.

As many of you know, Sales Graphics has been providing CustomShow as a software solution for media company presentations for over 8 years. Built to support the demanding needs of media sales professionals, it manages and presents video, Flash and images seamlessly, powerfully and securely. Over the years, we've added new features and improved functionality with every new release. This year, however, we've made some significant improvements and can't wait to let the media industry know about them.

Attendees at CTAM will be some of the first people to get a sneak preview of newest version of CustomShow. If you're interested in finding out more or want to set up a meeting at CTAM, just shoot us an email or give us a call.

Smithsonian Media Goes Traveling

Smithsonian Media is reaching out to travel advertisers and they've come to Sales Graphics' DesignStudio to help them do that. We created an ad sales video showcasing the extensive travel content across all of Smithsonian Media's properties, including Smithsonian Magazine, goSmithsonian.com and the Smithsonian Channel. "Just about every story we run is a travel story," explained Carey Winfrey, the Editor of Smithsonian Magazine. Sales Graphics' DesignStudio created a video that helps the Smithsonian's sales team effectively present all of their great media platforms and highlights the fantastic travel content across all of them.

MTVN Entertainment Group Launches Online Ad Sales Calendar

MTVN Entertainment Group launched their new Online Ad Sales Calendar system to help their marketing and sales teams work together across all four networks in the new Entertainment Group. Combining Comedy Central, Spike TV, TV Land and CMT together created a whole new level of complexity and set of issues that needed to be addressed. Working with Sales Graphics' Technology team to develop an online solution, MTVN Entertainment Group created an Online Ad Sales Calendar that allows marketing departments to update their opportunities available and have the sales teams see the new information in real-time. Eliminating the slow, manual process of updating and distributing weekly marketing and sales calendars across all four networks, the new Online Ad Sales Calendar consolidates all that information and makes accessing it faster, easier and more accurate than ever.

In Bad Times, You Need To Do Things Better

According to Interbrand and BusinessWeek Magazine, during a recession brands need to spend harder to "not get distracted from their long-term brand-building efforts" or"to get a leg up on weakened rivals." However, the most important piece of advice from BusinessWeek's annual "Best Global Brands" article came from Martin Puris, the creator of BMW's "The Ultimate Driving Machine" campaign. "In good times, people are less apt to try new things. In bad times, they have to start to do things better."

Sales Graphics has been working with clients to help them do just that: sell better, present better, track better and manage better. With Sales Graphics' DesignStudio and CustomShow Software, our clients have access to better creative, better technology and better tracking and asset management. In good times, those are good things to have. But in bad times, they're necessities.

Newsweek's Women & Leadership Conference

Newsweek Magazine's annual Women & Leadership Conference and issue kicks off in October. And to kick off their ad sales efforts surrounding this great franchise Newsweek came to Sales Graphics and our DesignStudio to create a video promotion for potential advertisers. With editor interviews, footage from last year's event and testimonials from satisfied sponsors and partners, the video helps bring across the unique value that Newsweek and the Women & Leadership Conference bring to advertisers.

Sales Graphics Named One of America's 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies

Inc. Magazine today ranked Sales Graphics Corp. on its annual ranking of the 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the country. The list is the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy - America's independent-minded entrepreneurs. Taken as a whole, these companies represent the backbone of the U.S. economy.

Sales Graphics  is proud to be among this elite list of exciting and future-thinking companies. Unlike most of them, however, Sales Graphics is not a new start-up but a 50-year old company with a long history of providing innovative presentation solutions and industry-leading customer support and service. With a history of successful projects and satisfied customers, Sales Graphics recognizes that successful growth only comes from providing the  best products and services possible to our clients and we look forward to another year of growth, innovation and satisfied clients. 

SNL Kagan Expects 2008 to be a Strong Year for Cable Industry

In their 2008 edition of "Economics of Basic Cable Networks," SNL Kagan predicts strong growth in licensing fees and steady growth in ad sales, according to MarketingCharts.com. While the reports warns of "extremely volatile ad markets," they see all of the major indicators increasing in the next year. Those indicators include subscriber, ad revenue, total revenue, cash flow and cash flow margins.

While we don't proclaim to be economic forecasters, from where we stand it certainly looks like our cable clients are coming out with great content and strong marketing messages to reach both advertisers and consumers. So we'd have to agree with the experts on this one!

Metropolitan Home at Home with Sales Graphics

METROPOLITAN HOME joined ELLE DECOR as Sales Graphics' clients today. By combining their marketing resources into a single CustomShow Library, the new Luxury Design Group now has an unprecedented ability to share presentation materials across titles, work together to create truly integrated presentations and collaborate between ELLE DECOR and METROPOLITAN HOME.

GENERATE Powered By Sales Graphics and CustomShow

GENERATE, a new kind of agency creating "new content for a new generation", has hired Sales Graphics to develop a new kind of sales presentation. Taking advantage of Sales Graphics' DesignStudio and CustomShow Presentation software, GENERATE will present their broad range of quality content and content creators to the advertising community to develop branded entertainment that will reach consumers across all of today's many media platforms. Combining quality content with innovative technology and marketing, GENERATE hopes to redefine the role of content and content creation in tomorrow's media environment. And combining quality design with innovative technology and marketing, Sales Graphics hopes to do the same for presentations. 

Our Fearless Sales Graphics Designers!

In a testament to the workplace bonhomie at Sales Graphics, Purva, Mike, Roberta and David all jumped out of an airplane together on Sunday. Whether it was a show of esprit de corps or a double-dog dare gone awry, it made for exciting water-cooler conversation the next day. And most importantly, all of them were back at their desks on Monday morning none the worse for the wear. Congratulations!

CustomShow Helps Marketing and Sales: Testimonial

We're always happy to hear back from our clients about their success using CustomShow. We recently heard from Good Housekeeping, who has been using CustomShow for the past year, and it's been a huge success. Speaking with the Associate Publisher, she told that for her "CustomShow is the first improvement to presentation software since the development of PowerPoint, and compared to PowerPoint CustomShow is vastly superior and well worth the investment."

Here's how CustomShow has benefited Good Housekeeping's sales efforts:

• CustomShow helps Good Housekeeping's marketing department save time and maximize productivity. By providing the sales force with a comprehensive library of presentation pages and videos, sales reps can create a variety of individual presentations on their own on a continual basis. This frees the marketers to redirect their efforts to developing new strategies and materials.
• CustomShow enables the sales force to be more independent as their create and present presentations. The bottom line is that sales reps are more enthusiastic and quickly make more targeted pitches.
• They love CustomShow's Online Administrator Dashboard, which tracks usage and gives them an illuminating look at who is using the presentations and what pages they are showing. This valuable insight helps them fine tune the sales message for everyone.
• CustomShow enables Good Housekeeping's team to control the brand message and presentation style so every rep is presenting a branded and well-positioned message.
• Updates to the CustomShow Library are easy and effortless. New pages and videos can be pushed out to the sales force instantly over the Internet.

This kind of feedback is great to hear and makes us proud to be able to help great teams and brands like Good Housekeeping.

Presentation Libraries Solve Marketing Problems

Here at Sales Graphics we've known for a long time that creating a library of presentation materials using CustomShow helps to empower salespeople to give more targeted and more consistently branded presentations than with PowerPoint, but it's nice to see other people agreeing with us every now and again.

As David Paradi writes on Presentations.com ("Solve Your Biggest Marketing Presentation Problem", June 26, 2008), creating a partnership between marketing and sales where marketing provides the tools and sales provides the targeting is critical to real sales success. Creating that partnership includes the following:

1. Create a library of standard slides
2. Train the sales staff on how to use the slide library
3. Educate the sales staff on how to create visual slides
4. Evaluate and update the library every four months

For those of you who use CustomShow, you'll certainly recognize those four steps as the core elements of the CustomShow process. And for those of you who haven't used CustomShow yet, give us a call and we'll tell you all about it.

Sales Graphics Gets Loving + Company to Help Spread the Word

Sales Graphics has engaged Brad Daves at Loving + Company to help spread the word about not just all the great things we've been doing at Sales Graphics for the last 50+ years but also all the exciting new things that are coming up. Between the great creative work our DesignStudio has been doing for our clients and the exciting new developments we're working on for CustomShow, we think there's going to be a lot of work for Brad Daves and Loving + Company in the upcoming months. So stay tuned!