MOM WAS RIGHT – THERE IS NO “I” IN TEAM.
The inimitable Steve Jobs wisely stated “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people,” and the older I grow, the more resonant his words. Of course, my mother told me this when I was five and the circumstances had something to do with Red Rover, Red Rover – but that’s a story for another time.
As the leader of the marketing department at MNI Targeted Media Inc., I am THRILLED that my team recently won a Communicator Award for our One Voice LIVE sales enablement app. Sales enablement sounds boring. Yawn. I hear you. “Sales enablement” and “sales support” are often synonymous with writing lots of presentations, tons of decks, and lots of sell sheets. And there’s nothing particularly sexy about being the master of PowerPoint, believe me. However, writing a clear, concise and valuable presentation is still vital in the world we live in, but as a media marketer, writing a sales presentation is nowhere near as fun a prospect as creating a brand strategy, developing a logo, or even writing a creative brief. Writing sales presentations? Not as titillating. Why? Because when you have over 1,200 clients like we do, you’re often writing a slightly different version of a similar story every time.
Which is why, when our Marketing team of media buying experts was challenged to deliver a better sales presentation experience for our 70+ sales people throughout the country, we actually did come up with a better mousetrap. The initial idea to build an app vs. a presentation came from a few select individuals,
and they are pretty cool cats. But I can tell you that the devil really is in the details, because identifying the technology is only the first step of about 5,486 steps in creating a successful app that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but is also intuitive enough for a user to navigate through without issue. Building an app from scratch (nothing off the shelf here!) that allows for a bespoke, custom conversation each time it’s used means you need people to architect the flow, others to source and write the information, others to create the motion graphics for interactivity and still others to give you feedback about what works and doesn’t work.
Oh, and people to QA it (test it for bugs) and yet a few more to relentlessly edit out unnecessary information. This all takes courage, a strong backbone, great project management, command of the print and digital landscape, in-depth product knowledge, design and video chops, as well as old-fashioned grit. The team has to be on the same page. Everyone’s gotta have the ‘roll-up the sleeves, get in there, work hard together’ mentality, and everyone’s gotta really want to create and produce an end product that makes a difference. So we did it. Sincere congratulations to a team that pulled together to create a truly unique and breakthrough sales enablement platform in One Voice LIVE. Props to you. Continue to push the bar!
THE DETAILS:
WHAT ARE THE COMMUNICATOR AWARDS?
The Communicator Awards is the leading international excellence awards program recognizing big ideas in marketing and communications. Founded two decades ago, The Communicator Awards receives over 6,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest recognition awards of its kind in the world. The Communicator Awards honors work that transcends innovation and craft - work that made a lasting impact, providing an equal chance of winning to all entrants regardless of company or agency size and project budget.
The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, an invitation-only group consisting of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media planning and buying companies, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms. AIVA members include executives from organizations such as Airtype Studio, Big Spaceship, Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, Fry Hammond Barr, Lockheed Martin, MTV Networks, Pitney Bowes, rabble+rouser, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Time, Inc, Victoria's Secret, Wired, and Yahoo!
WHAT DID MNI TARGETED MEDIA WIN A COMMUNICATOR AWARD FOR?
One Voice LIVE, a sales enablement app used by MNI Targeted Media Inc. Account Executives for live presentations.
WHAT HAVE BEEN CLIENTS’ REACTIONS TO EXPERIENCING ONE VOICE LIVE?
“Whoa! What is that?”
“That is NOT PowerPoint, is it?”
“How did you guys do that?”
Contact us to find out more about our app or visit our site to learn
more about our targeted digital media and print solutions and capabilities!
