Interamark Newsletter Winter 2009

Have you heard? We’re in “tough economic times.”

Unless you’ve been living in an over-water hut in Fiji with no access to television or newspapers (enviable), you must have heard—the sky is falling. Retailers, news outlets, and general doomsdayers seem incapable of not reminding us of “these tough economic times.” The nightly news, the daily news, the online news, the not-even-news news, and every single advertisement all seem to begin with that same depressing reminder. In fact, the doom and gloom makes it easy to understand why movies were so popular during the Great Depression. Which brings us to Oscar season.

Maybe the looming greater depression is why we seem to be bursting with so many wonderful film choices (albeit some with reality-heavy overtones). Many of you know Interamark is a “virtual” company - we all work from our home offices (saving quite a bit on operational expenses), but we talk to each other daily, and this January, our internal movie buzz is all about Danny Boyle’s movie, Slumdog Millionaire.

Don’t be fooled by the preview. This movie isn’t one soaring moment after another (the reality of poverty in India is quite harsh), but the protagonist, Jamal Malik, is a triumphant character who inspires hope and optimism in the darkest hour. If you haven’t seen it yet, do – and be sure to stay past the credits for the extra scenes. They are worth the wait.

After you come back to your office (from the movie, or Fiji…), reality will eventually set in. And since it always does, we’ve included some tips to help manage the economic pinch and still find success.

More for Less?

One of the best ways to make the most out of your marketing budget (ahem), in these tough economic times, is to not heed conventional wisdom—spend it all in one place. Though that may sound a little self-promoting, if not counterintuitive, we’ve actually found that when Interamark manages full marketing programs, it saves client money. Before questioning the logic too much, read on.

When managing full marketing programs (from strategy to launch and everything in between), we become well-versed in the subject matter, relying less upon our clients for content, and more on our own resources.Additionally, running full marketing programs through a single vendor translates into a cohesive and more successful program. These projects run with at least 50% more efficiency than “one-off” projects. Learn more about a successful Interamark marketing program here.

Even better news, we are currently offering 20% off our full marketing solution (the Interactive Program-in-a-Box), stretching that dollar even further.

What’s that? You hardly have two nickels to rub together? No worries, friend, we are still here for you. We’re happy to help with any marketing collateral you have, and to ensure all our clients do get the most out of their marketing budgets this quarter, we are extending the Good Tidings Await promotion into February.

Time and Space-Saving PowerPoint Tips

There are the full marketing programs, the presentations, the flyers, success stories, white papers, etc, and then there are the teeny-tiny edits you need to make to presentations. For some, these are a breeze. For others, copying and pasting in PowerPoint can be a confounding and wholly unsatisfactory experience. For those of you that fall into the second category, here are some tips to get you through those moments of desperation.

Copying and Pasting in PowerPoint

How many of you have taken a slide from one presentation and wanted to add it to another, only to find that when you paste the new slide in, the background is different, or the fonts are messed up, or the colors are off? (holding up hand) You just want the slide to look the same? (yes!) Follow these simple steps to relief:

1)  Copy (Ctrl+C) the slide you want to add into the new presentation.
2)  Paste (Ctrl+V) that slide into the new presentation – and don’t do anything else yet!
3)  After you have pasted the slide, PowerPoint will show a little, irritating clipboard pop-up box (the location of this box depends on how you are viewing the presentation – just look around the screen until you find it).
4)  When you mouse-over the clipboard box, an arrow will appear on the right side of it – click that arrow.
5)  Select the “Keep Source Formatting” bullet and viola! It appears in its original glory. Oh, and if the slide’s “original glory” causes you to cringe, call us and we’ll help glorify your designs.

Replacing a Font in PowerPoint

Often we receive slides from different sources with different, sometimes exotic fonts. Most of the clients we work with have a branded PowerPoint template that only allows for one or two fonts. The easiest way to tame any fonts-gone-wild in your presentation is to use the “Replace Fonts” command, following these steps:

1)  Go to the Format Menu, select “Replace Fonts…”
2)  In the “Replace Fonts” dialog box, you can select which offending fonts you would like to replace, and which font you would like (a safe bet – Arial).
3)  Click “Replace” and you’re all cleaned up. 

PowerPoint File Size

Overtime, PowerPoint has become an amazingly robust application, allowing users to embed sound and video, create amazing transitions, and even use the program to create realistic anime storyboards. And yes, all these cool new capabilities come with a price—increased file-size. We all have to deal with presentations that are bloated, but some for no good reason.

Often when presentations are put together (particularly from various sources), there are images in the presentation that are set to “Print” resolution. Images for print have to be much larger than images for the screen. So if you find your file size ever expanding, check the image quality in your presentation, and be sure that all are set to “Web” – an easy task if you follow these steps:

1)  Select an image in the presentation (any image, it doesn’t matter), by clicking directly on it.
2)  Right-click on the image and select “Format Picture” from the menu.
3)  In the dialog box, click, “Compress.”
4)  In the “Compress Pictures” dialog box, in the “Apply to” section, click “All pictures in document” and in the “Change resolution” section, click “Web/Screen.”
5)  Leave the Options checkboxes checked (this further reduces the file size).
6)  Click “OK.”
7)  Then click “OK” again

At the Interamark Drawing Board

The past quarter has been busy for Interamark. We have worked on various projects for Cisco, wrapping up the Make Your Mark program, while kicking off several new projects within the Education and Government groups. We worked with SanDisk to help announce their SanDisk Enterprise solution and we continue to work with Ruckus Wireless on various design projects. Branching out from technology, we’re helping Wroxer create and expand its unique brand of products for the Mixed Martial Arts crowd

What We Can Do for You

If you see something you like, let us know. As mentioned before, the Good Tidings Await holiday promotion has been extended – offering you great discounts on all of our marketing services, from email copy to Flash video development and production.

And if you haven’t heard about it, be sure to check out our industry-first PowerPitch solution that has been helping clients communicate effectively with their sales team and customers for the past year and a half.