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.

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.

Ad Age Recession Tips

Advertising Age has more insight into marketing strategies during a recession and has some great tips on what to do when the economy turns sour:

Tips for surviving tough times

• Don't cut that budget: Recessions offer what may be unprecedented opportunities to market in an environment of relatively less noise as others cut back. And, particularly in industries with high ad-to-sales ratios, such as package goods, analysts have become fairly adept at flagging earnings gains that stems from marketing cuts, which can portend slower sales and earnings growth later.
  
• Maintain or increase strong launches: Even in the deepest recessions, things that truly appeal to consumers, be they soap operas, CNN or disposable training pants, still flourished.
  
• Beware that discounting can be addictive: Unless the price reduction is truly strategic -- e.g., a discount retailer or brokerage or a one-time event to drive traffic -- you could live to regret it.
  
• Go with the flow: Some of the most successful recession-era launches were natural offshoots of the conditions created by or causing the crisis, i.e. high gas prices spawning fuel-efficient cars, interestbearing checking accounts that sprang from high interest rates in the 1970s and '80s, or declining gas prices and gas-guzzling SUVs.
  
• You can't go wrong with diversion: Media, entertainment and other forms of cheap frivolity can be the bread-and-circus salve for hard times -- from the soap operas of the 1930s to MTV in the 1980s to the iPod and Axe body spray in 2002.
  

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.

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.