MTV Networks Entertainment Group Picks CustomShow

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.

Incorporating sophisticated designs that enhance the individual brands as well as the over-arching Entertainment Group, the new Digital Upfront presentation helps tell the compelling stories of Spike, Game Trailers, Comedy Central, and Atom. With interactive examples of all the great content and animated designs that bring home their great numbers, MTV Network Entertainment Group's Digital Upfront presentation is a winner in 2010!

CustomShow Trainings Webinars Now Available!

To ensure that each of our CustomShow users is getting the most out of our software, we're kicking off 2010 with a weekly series of online training webinars. These are completely free, so just sign up and get the latest on how to use CustomShow. If you're a brand new user, have specific questions, want a refresher, or are just curious about all of CustomShow's features, then these webinars are for you!

You can sign up here (we post new sessions every month). This is just one more way that Sales Graphics is working to make CustomShow not only the best presentation software in the industry, but the best presentation software experience.

Training Webinars will be held on Thursdays at 3:00PM EST (12:00PM PST). Call-in information will be emailed to registered participants before each Training Webinar.

Fox Cable Sports Signs Up for CustomShow

Fox Cable Sports Ad Sales, which includes Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports Net, FUEL TV and SPEED, has become the most recent member of the Fox Networks Group to adopt CustomShow as their presentation platform. Working closely with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio, Fox Cable Sports will be taking full advantage of CustomShow's design and management capabilities, including creating animated Flash backgrounds for each of the four networks and combining all of their presentations into a single managed library.

min's Sales Executive of the Year Awards

min announced their Sales Executive of Year Awards today and we were excited, but not surprised, to see many of our clients listed among the honorees. Working closely with our clients' sales teams, we have seen their exceptional work close up. And the great work our clients do influences the work that we do at Sales Graphics. Our CustomShow Presentation Software has been made better over the years through feedback, input and suggestions from sales teams like these. And our DesignStudio projects benefit immensely from the creativity and insight of sales teams across the country.

So congratulations to the Sales Graphics' clients who are among this year's honorees:

• Lisa Hughes, The New Yorker
• Women's Health
• Men's Health
• Harper's Bazaar
• The Parenting Group

The New Yorker Subscribes to CustomShow for Sales Presentations

The New Yorker becomes the newest member of the Condé Nast family of magazines to use CustomShow for their sales presentations. With their broad range of content and their ability to sell to a wide range of advertisers, The New Yorker needed a powerful and versatile presentation system that would let them manage all of the presentation content and customize presentations for new pitches quickly and easily. CustomShow gives them the Library management they need to keep all their presentations organized while also giving them the design and multimedia tools necessary to create compelling and engaging presentations. With CustomShow powering their sales team, The New Yorker's sales presentations will be the Talk of the Town!

Esquire Magazine Presents in Style with Sales Graphics

Esquire Magazine joined its sister Hearst publications Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar in bringing in Sales Graphics for their ad sales presentations. Working with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio and powering their presentations with CustomShow Presentation Software, Esquire is giving their sales team the tools they need to give great presentations.

CBS Connections connects with CustomShow for Multiplatform Sales

CBS Connections, the multi-platform sales division of CBS Corporation, has selected CustomShow as their presentation tool to help deliver their message of creating customized platforms that drive consumer engagement. With their deep stable of engaging content across both broadcast and digital platforms, CBS Connections needed a powerful presentation tool to let them organize, manage and deliver video, interactive content and custom opportunity presentations to their advertising partners. CustomShow, with its enterprise-scale library management system and powerful multimedia engine, allows CBS Connections to connect with their advertisers and deliver the full impact of their multi-platform message.

FX Networks Launches CustomShow for Ad Sales Effect

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.

CustomShow software lets FX Networks (and many other Fox Cable Networks) create the most engaging presentations possible and manage and customize them across their entire sales force. Now the same high-impact video and animations that they use to such great effect on air can now be easily and efficiently included in all their presentations.

"THERE IS NO BOX"

FX Networks strives to makes sure all it's programming is outside the box, and CustomShow ensures that their presentations are outside the box too.

Gourmet Magazine Puts CustomShow on its 2009 Marketing Menu

Gourmet Magazine is cooking up a great presentation for 2009! By using CustomShow Presentation software, Gourmet is taking advantage of its great design team, including Flash and PhotoShop experts. With CustomShow's ability to seamlessly handle Flash, video and PhotoShop elements, Gourmet's designers will be able to apply all their skills to making the best presentations possible. And with all the great content in the magazine and the talented design staff, the results should be nothing less than mouthwatering!

BusinessWeek Says "Dare to Innovate" in 2009

In this week's Cover Story, BusinessWeek makes a strong case for the need to innovate during a recession. "Managing Through a Crisis" discusses many of the managerial challenges of getting through hard economic times. What's interesting about the article is how looking at previous recessions shows that, for companies that can take advantage of lower prices and reduced competition, economic hard times can be great growth opportunities.

One key point that I took away from BusinessWeek's podcast of the cover story was this idea of "dare to innovate." Emily Thornton describes this idea as being different from the "big ideas" or new products that people traditionally associate with innovation. Instead, Emily says that daring to innovate in a recession should mean:

"You should be thinking of innovative ways to become more efficient, to improve your processes and think out of the box in those realms so that when the recession is over you are thinking out of the box and you're prepared to innovate in other ways."

We've been helping marketing and sales teams become more efficient for over a decade. CustomShow is the perfect example of the type of technological and process improvement that lets companies become more efficient and effective in their marketing and sales efforts. This helps both during hard times when money is scarce and head count is low, but it also lets companies develop effective workflows and processes that will allow them to be even more effective when the economy swings back up, as it inevitably will.

Comcast Sports Group Scores with CustomShow and Sales Graphics

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.

Harper's Bazaar Subscribes to CustomShow for '09

Harper's Bazaar will use CustomShow for their sales presentations in 2009. By working with Sales Graphics to create and develop their 2009 sales materials in Sales Graphics' CustomShow software, Harper's Bazaar will be giving their sales team the best presentation tool available. Joining Good Housekeeping as Hearst titles using CustomShow, Harper's Bazaar will use CustomShow to manage, update and present their magazine to advertisers across the country. Now their presentations will be as well-dressed as the models in their magazine.

The Parenting Group Launches New GP

The Parenting Group launched their new General Presentation today with a new look, new message and a great new intro video for their CustomShow Presentation. Using CustomShow to manage, present and share presentations for all of the print and digital titles, The Parenting Group gave their sales team a powerful new tool to reach and engage with advertisers across the country. Working with our DesignStudio designers, The Parenting Group was able to fully realize their new brand look and feel with a great new design. Sales Graphics also produced a series of videos of real moms sharing their experiences and insights into being a mom. By incorporating these videos into the presentation, The Parenting Group's salespeople can bring these moms with them on every sales call.

The Parenting Group really does "get moms." And they also get great sales presentations!

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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!

DIRECTV Kicks Off Summer Sales Training

DIRECTV launched their summer sales training event today with a training presentation designed by Sales Graphics' DesignStudio and built in CustomShow. Working closely with their Local Strategic Partners, DIRECTV hit the road with an engaging and educational presentation to empower their sales partners to communicate DIRECTV's value and benefits directly to consumers. And with a whirlwind national schedule, DIRECTV's training staff needed a presentation system that was both reliable and flexible enough to meet the demands of their taxing training schedule.

CustomShow Showcased at NCTA 2008

CustomShow was on display in New Orleans throughout The Cable Show 2008. But instead of having our own booth, we relied on our clients to do the presenting. Over 25 exhibitors at this year's NCTA Cable Show relied on CustomShow to present their content and brand at the biggest cable event of the year.

Preparing all of the presentations for NCTA this year was more than a full-time job for Sales Graphics' DesignStudio, but the results were well worth the effort. We made sure that the new seasons, new shows and new media opportunities were ready to be presented for many of the biggest names in cable television.

Playboy TV Unveils CustomShow Presentation

Playboy TV unveiled their new CustomShow Presentation and Library to their national sales team today to rave reviews. With a sexy design provided by Sales Graphics' DesignStudio, Playboy TV has a complete set of presentations that are as unique and engaging as the channel itself. With examples of marketing collateral, interactive VOD interfaces and success stories of recent deployments, the Playboy TV sales team is ready to go out and wow the marketplace.

Sales Graphics Wins Big at Horizon Interactive Awards!

The Horizon Interactive Awards, a leading international interactive media awards competition, announced the 2008 award winners to highlight this year's "best of the best" in interactive media production.

Sales Graphics was recognized for excellence in Business to Business Marketing with three Gold Awards, two for CustomShow Presentations and one for a Flash Microsite.

• Entertainment Weekly's 2007 General Presentation - Gold Award, Business to Business
  
• Newsweek Magazine's "The Connection Point" Presentation - Gold Award, Business to Business
  
• PC America's Restaurant Pro Express Website - Gold Award, Business to Business
  

The seventh annual, international competition saw just over 1,000 entries from 20 countries around the world. "The 2008 competition was the most competitive to date. The work in this year's competition is at such a high level that the judges really had their work cut out for them," said Mike Sauce, founder of the Horizon Interactive Awards. "All of the winning entries displayed a high level of sophistication, aesthetic creativity, technical excellence and clear purpose."

All three of these projects were close collaborations between our clients, Sales Graphics' DesignStudio and Sales Graphics' Technology Team. We're very proud to receive this honor and look forward to continued excellence in 2008!

ASME Announces 2008 Winners

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) bestowed the industry's most prestigious editorial honors tonight at the 43rd annual National Magazine Awards. Among the winners were several Sales Graphics clients, and we would like to offer our own congratulations to the winners.

While the editorial staff certainly didn't use CustomShow to produce their award-winning editorial, you never know... 

• Vanity Fair for Profile Writing and Photo Portfolio
• Condé Nast Portfolio for Magazine Section

Congratulations again from Sales Graphics.

Portfolio Debuts CustomShow Presentation Library

Portfolio debuted its CustomShow Presentation Library to its international sales team today at 4 Times Square. Packed full of presentations, category information and editor videos, Portfolio is giving its sales force all the tools they need to get advertisers to invest in Portfolio. As one of Condé Nast's newest titles, Portfolio needed to go out into the marketplace and make its presence felt. The sales team needed to convey the new brand, new value proposition and new design and content to a difficult audience. Sales Graphics' DesignStudio created a brand video and a library of editor clips that clearly show and speak to Portfolio's strong new brand. CustomShow allows Portfolio's salespeople to access and present this information beautifully, consistently and efficiently anywhere around the world.

Men's Vogue Launches CustomShow Presentation in Style

Men's Vogue today launched their new CustomShow Presentation library at their annual sales meeting. Fresh off their win as Startup of the Year, Men's Vogue is arming their national sales force with a library of presentations as full of interesting things and as beautifully designed as the magazine itself. With video clips of editor interviews, a new brand video and a deep library of research and category presentations, the Men's Vogue are ready to sell in style.

CondéNet Wins min's Best of the Web for Sales Producer

Christine deMaio, Publisher of Epicurious.com and Concierge.com, was awarded today with min's Best of the Web Award for Sales Producer/online. With a great collection of websites and the great design and content of Condé Nast, along with a great CustomShow library of presentations that show all of that great content and design off, Christine deMaio has grow the brands and grown online sales significantly. Congratulations!

Domino Debuts 2008 General Presentation

Domino Magazine debuted their 2008 General Presentation at their national sales meeting this week. This is Domino's second year of working with Sales Graphics DesignStudio and managing their presentation using CustomShow presentation software. Once again Domino's presentation represents the look and feel of the magazine and embodies the brand through beautiful photography and engaging animations.

Are You Ready? In Style Launches New Presentation

At their national sales meeting this week, In Style Magazine unveiled their new ad sales presentation in CustomShow presentation software. Working with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio, In Style put together an exciting presentation that is both fun to watch and right on brand for the magazine. With music, video and animation throughout the presentation, salespeople and clients alike will be energized and excited about In Style in 2008.

A&E Integrates Sales Efforts with New Unit

To better integrate sales efforts across all of the company's platforms and brands, A&E has announced the creation of a new cross-media sales unit that will focus on offering advertisers a complete package of marketing insights, research, strategy and solutions. Heading the new team will be long-time Sales Graphics' favorite, Melinda McLaughlin, who was promoted to Senior Vice President, Insights and Marketing Solutions. Debby Tarnok, another of our favorite partners, was also promoted to Senior Director, Ad Sales Marketing, to help run the new team and provide the tools, insights and solutions needed to keep A&E on the cutting edge. 

Sales Graphics has been providing A&E with design and technology solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their sales efforts for more than four years. For the last six years A&E has worked closely with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio on their annual presentation designs and implemented CustomShow for both Ad Sales and Affiliate Sales. CustomShow Presentation Software is specially built to enable sales teams to effectively and efficiently incorporate a wide range of elements into their presentations, allowing integrated sales teams to present multi-platform content in a single, engaging presentation. From programming clips to micro-sites, CustomShow software lets A&E's sales team present the entire range of platforms and offerings that their networks have to offer.

A&E has been a marketing innovator for years and this is just another example of their forward-thinking. Congratulations to Melinda and Debby, and the entire AETN marketing and sales teams, and we're excited to continue working with them in 2008.

Condé Nast Portfolio Invests in CustomShow for 2008

Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine signed up Sales Graphics to design and produce their 2008 Ad Sales Presentation. Working with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio to create a rich media presentation that includes video interviews of their editors, Portfolio.com online content and featuring their beautiful photography, Portfolio will also use CustomShow to manage, present and deliver their presentation to their entire sales force and marketing department. We certainly think it's a great investment and we're confident they'll see quite a return on it!

The Wall Street Journal Hosts the Your Honor Awards

The Legal Marketing Association New England Chapter last night announced the Sixth Annual Your Honor Awards, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. These awards are given out to marketing firms and departments for exceptional work in the area of legal marketing. But the most exceptional work every year is the work that John Jardin does as the Master of Ceremonies. Working with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio for the last three years, he has turned what might otherwise be a dull and predictable awards presentation into a fun and engaging "Oscars" for the legal marketing community. With a compelling presentation created from the funniest film clips of lawyers we could find and presented with CustomShow presentation software, John deserves an award of his own.

Recession as Opportunity to Innovate

Recesssions are scary to think about and can have disastrous effects on consumers and businesses that aren't prepared. But for marketers, recessions and eceonomic slowdowns can often be periods of great opportunity. Advertising Age has been a frequent proponent of the opportunities that recessions can provide to marketers looking to gain market share, enter new markets or reach new customers, and they're saying it again. ("Innovate in a Recession? Yes") Gains made during recessions are cheaper that those during boom years, and when the market swings back (and it always does), those small gains can turn in to big advantages. The key point of the article is "companies that spent more on innovation during the downturn saw return on capital employed rise 23.8% during the recovery, compared with 0.6% for those that slashed spending."

Sales Graphics has always been at the forefront of ad sales presentations, providing "future-thinking" solutions for sales presentations and sales teams for over 50 years. CustomShow presentation software has revolutionized sales in media, entertainment, technology and many other industries. Sales Graphics' DesignStudio uses the latest design tools and technologies to create engaging and compelling content that brings the sales message home. 2008 is looking to be great opportunity for marketers to innovate and grow, and Sales Graphics is there to help.

More Adobe AIR News

Adobe announced today the public release of their new application development platform, AIR. AIR lets developers bridge the gap between online applications and offline applications, letting users work seamlessly with data and content whether they're connected to the Internet or not. The New York Times also reported on Adobe's announcement today ("Adobe Blurs the Line Between PC and Web"). Here at Sales Graphics, we're excited about the opportunities this creates for CustomShow and its users and part of our development plan for 2008 is to incorporate this type of technology into future releases of CustomShow. Several big companies have already dabbled in providing applications using the AIR application, and with the official public release of the software more companies will likely be joining in as well. And as an example of how committed Adobe is to the AIR platform, Adobe recently named Kevin Lynch, the initial instigator behind the AIR platform, as Adobe's Chief Technology Office. So Adobe is clearly committed to making AIR, FLEX and Flash its primary development objective going forward. And we're excited to be a part of that development effort.

Rodale Healthy in 2007

Rodale, owner of Sales Graphics clients Men's Health and Women's Health, had a strong 2007 according to TNS Media Intelligence ("Paper Tiger: Rodale Soars in 2007"). In today's competitive media marketplace, we recognize how difficult it is to consistently created compelling content that continues to engage readers in the face of the many varied media alternatives available to consumers. The growth in Men's Health and Women's Health sales are a testament to not only the quality content and editorial but also the hard work and creativity of their sales teams. Success in publishing is a combination of many things - editorial, marketing, sales - and Sales Graphics' CustomShow and DesignStudio are proud to be a part of that process at Rodale. Congratulations on a great 2007 and good luck in 2008!

Adobe's AIR Makes Top 10 Emerging Technology List

Adobe's AIR Technology, one of the exciting new technologies that we've been incorporating into our CustomShow development plans, was chosen by Technology Review as one of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies for 2008 ("TR10:10 Emerging Technologies 2008"). Although CustomShow has been running on Adobe technology for years and we've been excited about AIR since it was announced, it's good to see that other people are starting to recognize the amazing potential of offline/online multimedia applications. As we continue to develop and expand CustomShow to incorporate new technologies like AIR, the more excited we get about the new features and functionality that we'll be able to offer our clients.

Newsweek.com Gets Video Kudos

Adage.com gave some nice kudos today to Sales Graphics client Newsweek.com for their use of video on their website ("Magazine Sites Add Video, but Not Much Expertise"). The article talks about the challenge that magazines have in translating their print image and brand into compelling video content that online viewers will watch. I'm sure Newsweek's expert handling of their video content has nothing to do with the fact that they've been using video content in their CustomShow presentations for several years now and Sales Graphics' DesignStudio has successfully created many video pieces for them to convey and explain their brand. But it probably didn't hurt, either.

PlanetOut Goes Out With CustomShow

PlanetOut launched their CustomShow presentation to their Ad Sales Team this week. Incorporating both print and digital into their presentations and being able to effectively present the entire breadth of their media portfolio, PlanetOut saw that CustomShow was the only tool available that allowed them to manage all of their presentation needs.

The Parenting Group Launches 2008 Presentation

The Parenting Group, newly acquired by the Bonnier Corporation, launched their 2008 CustomShow to their sales team today. In their third year of using CustomShow as their presentation platform, The Parenting Group leveraged all of CustomShow's features to create an interactive, rich media presentation that told the new Parenting Group's story in an engaging and compelling way. Combining the Parenting and Babytalk presentations into one General Presentation, it was critical that sales people had the flexibility to tell the same story in many different ways. With CustomShow's simple and powerful navigation features and the DesignStudio's engaging designs, The Parenting Group is ready to take on 2008!

The CW Launches 2008 CustomShow Presentation

The CW started off 2008 with a bang today when they launched their 2008 CustomShow presentation to their ad sales team. With a new design and great story to tell, The CW began their third year as a CustomShow user in style.

SES Americom Launches IP PRIME CustomShow

SES Americom launched their new IP PRIME presentation to their sales force today. CustomShow was the only platform that allowed SES Americom to present the full breadth of technology and media offerings and to manage the constantly changing elements of their message.

Greg Gordon Joins Sales Graphics Development Team

Building on our addition of Henry as Director of Engineering, Greg Gordon today joined Sales Graphics as Senior Software Engineer. Focusing on the new technologies that will help expand CustomShow's features and functionality and extend its reach across the Internet, Greg is already hard at work learning what our users are doing today and what they'll need to do tomorrow. With broad experience in software development, most recently in mobile application, Greg brings a strong focus on the users' experience to the development team. 

AETN Launches their 2008 CustomShow Presentation

AETN launched their 2008 CustomShow presentation to their National Ad Sales team today. A CustomShow user for over five years, AETN worked closely with Sales Graphics' DesignStudio to make sure that this year's presentations really popped. With a great story to tell, great new designs and the best presentation software anywhere, AETN is ready for 2008.

Sales Graphics Hires New Director of Engineering

2008 is going to be a big year for Sales Graphics and CustomShow, and that will be in no small part because of the work that Henry Nissenbaum will be doing for us. Today is his first day as Sales Graphics' new Director of Engineering.

Tasked with continuing to develop CustomShow and bring it into the Web 2.0 world of applications, Henry brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the job. After staring out at Bell Labs, he worked for a wide variety of software companies, both small and large. He brings a real passion for building things and working closely with users to make sure that their experience is the best it can possibly be.

Sales Graphics 2008

2008 is going to be a big year for Sales Graphics. Our client list is growing, the DesignStudio is doing great work for both presentations and the Web, and CustomShow is growing up and taking advantage of new technology. The first 50 years have been great, but we think 2008 will be the best year yet!

Recession? Time for Marketers to Invest!

Every time the economy turns towards recession, the same questions come up. As marketers, do we cut back and save money until the economy turns around? Or do we look at this as an opportunity to invest and get ahead? Advertising Age certainly thinks the latter. ("Your Job for '08? Forget the Recession and Innovate") We whole-heartedly agree with this. When the economy softens, that's often the best time to invest in marketing tools and outlets that will let you gain market share and mind share at a lower cost that during a boom. And when the economy picks up again, even a small increase in market share can transform into a significant advantage. Sales Graphics' DesignStudio and CustomShow software are exactly the kinds of investments that can make a difference for an ad sales team looking to get a competitive advantage and gain share at the expense of the competition.

Selecciones Introduces New CustomShow Presentation

Selecciones unveiled their new CustomShow General Presentation today. Under new ownership and working closely with Reader's Digest, Selecciones rolled out CustomShow software and the newly designed General Presentation to their National Sales Team. As 2007 comes to a close, they're already ready for 2008!

Sales Graphics Wins 2007 MarCom Awards

Sales Graphics won a Platinum MarCom Award for Newsweek's 2008 General Presentation "The Connection Point" and a Gold Award for Smithsonian Magazine's "Young Innovators" Event Video. These awards are in recognition of the great collaborative effort of our DesignStudio and our clients. Their vision combined with out designers' skills resulted in these memorable works. 

ADOBEMAX 2007

Having just spent the day in Chicago going to AdobeMax 2007, the excitement here over the new possibilities and opportunities that Adobe's new technologies provide is overwhelming. Sales Graphics has been one of Adobe's biggest supporters for over a decade, having built CustomShow on Adobe's (formerly Macromedia's) Director Platform. Now, after almost a decade and a thousand pages of code, we're looking towards making fundamental changes in CustomShow's core technologies and Adobe's Flash, Flex and AIR are being released at just the right time. As we continue to develop CustomShow and begin to incorporate all of these new technologies, we expect 2008 to be a year of big and exciting changes for CustomShow and Sales Graphics!

MOCHILA Launches CustomShow Presentation

Mochila today launched a new Business Development presentation using CustomShow presentation software and a new design by Sales Graphics' DesignStudio. Faced with the challenge of presenting a completely new product, an online content marketplace, Mochila turned to Sales Graphics for the design and software needed to successfully execute their Biz Dev presentation. Working with out DesignStudio, Mochila was able to create a clear and compelling visual presentation to explain their product and CustomShow software let them manage and present all of their online and offline presentation materials.

Congratulations to the min Award Winners

min Magazine today recognized the 2007 Sales Executives of the Year with their annual min Awards. Among the winners, many of them are long-time users of CustomShow and the Sales Graphics DesignStudio. Now while we don't want to take all of the credit, if you're looking to be Sales Executive of the Year in 2008 you might want to give CustomShow a look!

In all seriousness, though, we would like to congratulate the hard work and talent of our clients who were recognized in this year's awards:

Hall of Fame:  Tom Beusse, Former President, Time4 Media

Salesperson of the Year WINNER: Mark Magnani, Director, Integrated Sales & Marketing - Reader's Digest

Sales Team Leader of the Year (SINGLE TITLE) HONORABLE MENTION: Beth Fuchs Brenner, Vice President & Publisher - Domino

Sales Team Leader of the Year (LAUNCH) WINNER: William Li, Publisher - Men's Vogue

Sales Team of the Year WINNER: Men's Vogue (LAUNCH)