RSSCENTERFOLDMultimedia Advertising Moves the CKS Networkby Maureen ZaprylukIt may take some time to load in your browser! 
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It should take less time to downoad than the gif! Advertising is everywhere today, from Web site pages to movie promos tonewspaper classifieds. Worldwide networking and the Internet enables CKS,a one-stop advertising agency, to produce print, broad cast and electronicmedia advertising for its clients more efficiently. For example, CKS andits affiliated groups do marketing communications and ad campaigns for clientssuch as MCI, with its Internet/MCI rollout, and United Airlines' brandingcampaign as well as contract packaging for Columbia TriStar Home Video.As a full-service firm, CKS not only creates and places print and televisionadvertising, but also it hosts Web sites, creates CD-ROM and multimediapresentations, and offers other services for its clients. CKS Group, headquarteredin Cupertino, Calif., links to its domestic business units using T-1 andan office in London via ISDN. Worldwide, 300 users access the Internet foradvertising and client information through Ne tscape. No paper records exist for purchase orders, inventory or accounting. CKSGroup's 4th Dimension Macintosh-based client/server database stores recordsof all media jobs contracted throughout the corporation, tracking everyhour spent on every client project. "All designers and creative directorscontract a job, so everybody realizes how profitable we are by using thisdatabase," says Larry Narachi, IS manager. Freelance copywriters andartists can remotely access files and collaborate on off-site work withCKS employees. Clients may submit work orders via Microsoft Mail, whilethe whole CKS organization uses Quark XPress, Adobe Photoshop and Illustratorand Macromedia Director to design and create ads. The majority of designerswork on Macintoshes, yet some design on PCs. Adobe Premiere applications help produce videos. A worldwide broadcast televisionstudio and satellite farm produces films and corporate videos. This studiowas formerly used by Apple TV. CKS Pictures uses a SGI Onyx Reality engineto create virtual sets using blue-screen. "We don't have to build anysets because we can design a set on the computer screen, and have the talentsit in regular chairs," explains Narachi. CKS Group prepares some custom presentation and packaging software applicat ionsfor clients. Great Plains' accounting application keeps finances in order,important for CKS Group, which has grown "over 100 percent every yearduring the last five years," notes Narachi. "The greatest challengeis keeping up with the growth." CKS is in the process of building anIntranet inside the company for technical support, user questions and humanresources applications. The Campbell, Calif., branch office, is being relocatedfrom 10 miles away to the Cupertino facility. May 1, 1996 |
