ITV, the major commercial TV channel in the UK, has adopted PresentiaFX sales presentation software as a replacement for Powerpoint across their sales teams.

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 boring PowerPoint slides. As a consequence, ITV were experiencing problems with inconsistent slide template branding and out of date presentation content. Additionally, the static, text heavy PowerPoint medium didn’t convey the exciting world of television at all!

PresentiaFX’s brief was to identify the challenges and obstacles to delivering successful presentations within ITV, and to provide recommendations for creating a positive presentation software cultural change. ITV expected that implementation of our presentation software PresentiaFX would play an integral part in providing this game changing solution.

Presentation excellence - Strategy

Our first step was to carry out consultative research within ITV, speaking to sales staff from across the commercial teams - both at a senior level and on the ground. These information interviews delivered insight into the presentation software requirements and behavioural presentation patterns of ITV sales teams.

We discovered that there were high levels of frustration associated with Powerpoint presentations within the company, due to difficulties in accessing and sharing the rich media content that was clearly expected from them by their audience in presentations. There was also a noticeable loyalty within departments to division specific slide template branding, which meant that the overarching ITV brand was often overshadowed by its own sub-brands – some of which were also presented inconsistently in Powerpoint.

Another important finding was a real appetite for more engaging, visual presentation slide material – and that the provision of these interactive slide resources would be a motivating factor for ITV sales staff.

The results of this presentation consultancy period enabled us to put together our recommended presentation approach. A key part of our strategy in shifting ITV’s presentation slide culture was to create an environment in which the presenters had access to the rich slide media they required, enabling them to tell their stories with more images, videos and less words.

We also recommended use of our PresentiaFX software presentation solution and Flash animated library content to address a variety of sales presentation 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 and adoption of our presentation software.

Execution

A fresh look and feel

ITV did not have established brand guidelines to cover interactive presentation slides; so we developed a set of visual slide templates that could be used as a basis for all ITV presentations. These templates limited the amount of text that sales presenters could enter onto any slide, and encouraged visually led presentations.

Creation of rich media branded presentation content

Working with the ITV Marketing Manager and Marketing Executive, we created a ‘tool kit’ of slides and standalone animated slide content, supporting sponsorship pitches and strategic ITV presentations. This branded interactive Flash presentation content was included in the PresentiaFX library and underlined the basic premise of limiting text and telling stories with visual content on slides.

Creation and launch of PresentiaFX

Many of ITV’s cultural difficulties with presentation software could be traced back to limitations in PowerPoint. PresentiaFX resolved some key problems for ITV:-

Access to rich media content:

PresentiaFX presentation software has online slide 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 presentation software controls the look and feel of all slides, allowing the central marketing team to decide how new and existing slide material and presentations are presented. Fonts, logos, colours, and positioning are fixed within slide templates, and marketing administrators can decide to lock a whole slide, or just a line of text within a 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 Flash micro-site, and share this link with others. They can also save their presentations onto a USB or CD as a standalone presentation that plays on any PC or Apple Mac without any additional presentation software or players.

Training and launch:

At launch, we supported ITV in running extensive presentation software training workshops to ensure a smooth transition to PresentiaFX from Powerpoint. We have also run refresher sessions and created bespoke support material to make sure that ITV’s PresentiaFX users keep improving working practices.

Results:

Since launch, ITV’s commercial team has been steadily growing in PresentiaFX expertise. ITV has fed back to us that the presentation culture within the business is changing, with presenters using more targeted imagery, slides, video and less heavy text. Their branded presentations have been used to win new business, retain sponsorship accounts, and communicate internally.

ITV have used PresentiaFX for a number of high profile successful pitches including their Drama Premieres and World Cup coverage packages.

The next step for this year is to extend use of PresentiaFX presentation software internationally to the ITV STUDIOS Global Entertainment team.