With The American Business Awards entry deadline coming up on March 31, we look at Creative Channel Services in Los Angeles, California, which won Stevie Awards for Marketing Team of the Year, in the marketing awards categories, and Best Training Web Site, in the web awards categories, in The 2010 American Business Awards
Since 1995, Creative Channel Services (CCS) has provided retail-marketing support to some of the biggest names in consumer electronics (CE). CCS created and manages the CyberScholar Retail Network, which provides online training to CE and home-appliance retailers across the United States and develops high-impact field marketing teams.
“Retail is a people-driven business, and it’s great to be acknowledged for an incredibly talented, best-in-class group of brand ambassadors,” said Andy Restivo, CEO and president of CCS. “The entire CCS team works hard to help each of our clients win at the critical ‘moment of purchase,’ and we are extremely proud that the team has received recognition for the innovation, creativity, and tremendous results they have produced.”
The agency’s focus on field activities is evident in that fewer than 100 of its 500-plus employees work from the company’s Los Angeles headquarters. The majority of employees work exclusively in the field.
In-store Eyes and Ears
CCS’s Samsung brand ambassador teams represent the manufacturer’s consumer electronics, home appliances, mobile electronics, and information technology products in the U.S. retail market. Performance is measured by how the category-specific field teams increase market share, brand awareness, and product sales for Samsung, the No. 1 CE brand in the world. Team members visit national and regional retailers, engaging shoppers directly, delivering assisted-selling support, providing product-knowledge training, collecting market intelligence, and serving as the in-store eyes and ears for manufacturers.
According to Vida Roozen, vice president and general manager of CCS’s Field Business Unit and leader of the Samsung field team for 11 years: “CCS is successful on behalf of our field clients by building close working relationships with retail salespeople, ensuring that frontline people understand our clients’ products, and reporting store-level trends that help to drive marketing plans and product development."
CCS-Samsung team members leverage relationships and individual creativity to secure millions of dollars of shelf space and to optimize in-store displays. The team also promotes Samsung at industry events such as the International Consumer Electronics Show.
The CCS-Samsung team has provided Samsung for several years with the timely intelligence it needed to move its business forward. It continues to capture thousands of points of market-research data every day at the store level to keep Samsung informed of what is happening at the point of sale.
Award-Winning Achievements
The eye-popping 2009 achievements of the CCS-Samsung Team included:
- Record home-appliance sales at national and regional retailers
- Digital-imaging sales up by more than double at specific retailers
- 30-percent-higher sales at stores covered by the CCS-Samsung Team versus uncovered stores
- No. 1 market share for LCD and PDP displays, 50-inches or larger
- No. 1 market share for Blu-ray and Home Theater products
- TV sales increased by 16 percent
- Digital A/V products grew by 78 percent
- Online training participation increased by 189 percent
Samsung was ranked No. 1 in a J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey for:
- Refrigeration (five years consecutively)
- Dryers (two years)
- Washers
- Overall laundry pairs (two years)
Training by the Numbers
CCS won the Stevie Award for Best Training Site for the second consecutive year for its retail-training site, CyberScholar.com, which is the flagship site of CCS’s CyberScholar Retail Network. CyberScholar consolidates complex product knowledge into easy-to-understand, always-accessible content that empowers retail employees to assist consumers competently and confidently. The numbers continue to be impressive: More than 10.6 million trainings were completed on the network in 2010.
The CyberScholar Retail Network now reaches approximately 250,000 retail salespeople, is a key training element at 13,300 stores, and delivers product information from 50-plus manufacturers.
Want to win Stevie Awards for marketing as Creative Channel Services did? Check out our free tipsheet, 10 Tips for Winning Marketing Awards in the 2011 Stevies.
About Andy Restivo
Andy Restivo is one of the original founders and architects of CCS. Through his leadership and entrepreneurial vision he has fueled CCS’s transformation from small start-up to a leading marketing-services agency with a talented and passionate group of professionals functioning in a culture dedicated to success, a powerful list of world-class Fortune 500 clients, and a member of the world’s largest and most successful marketing communications services conglomerate.
About Creative Channel Services, LLC
Creative Channel Services (CCS) is a leading retail-marketing agency that improves sales and profitability for its manufacturer and retailer clients. Through the company’s proprietary CyberScholar Retail Network® and exclusive retail partnerships, CCS’s unique approach to in-store marketing solutions accelerates client sales performance by connecting brands with 13,300 stores and 250,000 retail professionals who recommend and sell products to up to 3,000,000 customers each day. Established in 1995 and headquartered in Los Angeles, CCS is a part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), a leading global advertising, marketing, and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries. Contact CCS at sales@creativechannel.com or 310-665-9900 to learn more about its field marketing and online training support.
Richard Ramlall, multiple Stevie winner, most recently in the marketing awards categories of The 2010 
