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Brief
ITV sells sponsorship and advertising opportunities for some of the hottest television properties on the commercial market – but until this year, their business winning presentations have been delivered with PowerPoint. As a consequence, ITV were experiencing problems with inconsistent branding and out of date content. Additionally, the static, text heavy PowerPoint medium didn’t convey the exciting world of television.
Plus Two’s brief was to identify the challenges and obstacles to delivering successful presentations within ITV, and to provide recommendations for creating a positive cultural change. ITV expected that implementation of our presentation software PresentiaFX would play an integral part in providing this solution.
Strategy
Our first step was to carry out consultative research within ITV, speaking to staff from across the commercial teams - both at a senior level and on the ground. These information interviews delivered insight into the requirements and behavioural patterns of ITV sales teams.
We discovered that there were high levels of frustration associated with presentations within the company, due to difficulties in accessing and sharing the rich media content that was clearly expected from them by their audience. There was also a noticeable loyalty within departments to division specific branding, which meant that the ITV brand was often overshadowed by its own sub-brands – some of which were also presented inconsistently.
Another important finding was a real appetite for more engaging, visual presentation material – and that the provision of these resources would be a motivating factor for ITV staff.
The results of this consultancy period enabled us to put together our approach. A key part of our strategy in shifting ITV’s presentation culture was to create an environment in which the presenters had access to the rich media they required, enabling them to tell their stories with more images and less words.
We also recommended use of our PresentiaFX software and flash library content to address a variety of requirements that the consultation process had revealed. We recognised the need for smooth migration in order to create buy in from the sales teams, and specified suggested processes to ensure simple implementation of internal support processes.
Execution
A fresh look and feel
ITV did not have established brand guidelines to cover interactive presentations; so we worked with their retained digital agency, Dare, to develop a set of visual templates that could be used as a basis for all ITV presentations. These templates limited the amount of text that presenters could enter onto any slide, and encouraged visually led presentations.
Creation of rich media branded content
Working with Marketing Manager Feryal Hemamda, and Marketing Executive Nazli Erten, Plus Two created a ‘tool kit’ of slides and standalones, supporting sponsorship pitches and strategic ITV presentations. These included content to position ‘Event’ TV, FA Cup, World Cup 2010, Emmerdale and Brittania High sponsorship opportunities. This branded interactive flash content was included in the PresentiaFX library and underlined the basic premise of limiting text and telling stories with visual content.
Creation and launch of PresentiaFX
Many of ITV’s cultural difficulties with presentations could be traced back to limitations in PowerPoint. PresentiaFX resolved some key problems for ITV:-
Access to rich media content:
PresentiaFX has online distribution functionality, allowing ITV’s central marketing team to send updates. This means that slides, videos and images can be updated or added to the library as often as required. These updates can be pushed automatically (making sure that presenters are always up to date), or delivered on demand.
Control of brand:
PresentiaFX controls the look and feel of all slides, allowing the central marketing team to decide how new and existing slide material is presented. Fonts, logos, colours, and positioning are fixed within templates, and marketing administrators can decide to lock a whole slide, or just a line of text within a slide.
We developed a bespoke branding function for ITV, to make sure that sub brands were correctly displayed. All slides were branded as ITV, but presenters could then choose to sub brand slides with up to four additional channel logos (including a client logo) using the pre-populated sub brand logo chooser. The sub logos were then automatically ordered into the correct brand hierarchy, as well as being sized and positioned correctly on the slide.
Sharing of rich media:
ITV’s commercial team often needs to send presentations to partner agencies or prospects after a meeting. Presenters can upload their presentations as a micro-site, and share this link with others. They can also save their presentations onto a USB or CD as a standalone, and know that this will play on any PC, without any additional software or players.
Training and launch:
At launch, Plus Two supported ITV in running extensive training workshops to ensure a smooth transition to PresentiaFX. We have also run refresher sessions and created bespoke support material to make sure that ITV’s PFX users keep improving working practices.
Results:
Since launch, ITV’s commercial team has been steadily growing in PresentiaFX expertise. ITV has feed back to us that the presentation culture within the business is changing, with presenters using more targeted imagery and less heavy text. Their branded presentations have been used to win new business, retain sponsorship accounts, and communicate internally.
Despite the difficult economic climate, this year ITV have used PresentiaFX for a number of high profile successful pitches including their Drama Premieres and World Cup 2010 packages.
The next step for this year is to extend use of PresentiaFX internationally to the ITV STUDIOS Global Entertainment team. In 2010, ITV will be migrating to our new release of the PresentiaFX software, which includes Salesforce.com connectivity and presentation tracking capabilities among its many new features.
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