MediaOS

Pros

Ad Sales Genius is by far the very best cloud-based CRM and all-in-one publishing solution in the media business. I could go on and on about each area I will list below, but Ad Sales Genius truly has everything covered. I especially like that ASG is built to drive sales and with the integrations with VOIP providers for click-to-dial features that ultimately increase productivity in daily call volume... to sending insertion orders via Docusign for a quick digital signature, it really helps your team and your clients.

- Reporting... I don't think I've ever work with a better system that has thought of it all. You don't need custom reports with Ad Sales Genius... there are reports for everything and anything you can think of.

- Production... managing artwork proofs and sending via ASG for approvals at the click of a button. Then having the approved ad assigned and visually accessible to that particular insertion is great!

- Flat planning! The ability to go in and build a visual of your publication, dropping in all the editorial content and ads where they should be. Designers can have this as a guideline giving them more time to be creative.

- Workflows... "When this happens, the system needs to do this..." We're just getting into this as it's a new feature but in our early testing, we love it. This will really help assist our media reps to better assist their clients.

There are just far too many pros to list. Invoicing / Commissions / Templates... it just does it all.

Cons

The real con is that I didn't know about Ad Sales Genius when they first came to market!

Pros

The ability for the entire organization to begin communicating under one primary CRM software. Sales/Marketing, Operations and Finance departments are all utilizing the same source for information for the first time in our companies histroy. Our internal communication as a company has benefited in a dramatic way!

Cons

1) Limitations on being able to place reports on dashboards. For sales reps, some of the most useful information is found under "Advertisers & Leads" .. for instance, last insertion date for contracts that are expiring.
2) Limitation on the ability to utilize Marketing Automation, Lead Segmentation and planned communication that is based on the timeline that is relevant to the individual contact. We are still utilizing Infusionsoft for our Marketing Campaigns.
3) On-boarding experience could be improved. I feel that we are still only utilizing 50% of what this software is designed to do. Part of that is because our team may not realize what is possible and they have found routines or even developed daily patterns around thier understanding of the software. I know that we have made decisions on needed processes within the business, based on a limited understanding of the software and how other companies are maximizing the potential. - I would recommend "assessments that are initiated by ASG every 90 days" that allows you to communicate to clients how the software could better optimize thier work. Also, those touchpoints could help generate the feedback you may need, if your looking at ways to expand the softwares capabilities.

Pros

It stores data... not very well.

Cons

Too feature-heavy with most being half-baked and poorly functioning

Pros

Very pleased with the issue based management. Easy to see sales, payments, invoices to be sent, etc. I have just started to participate in the mini-genius university calls and am learning more with every call. It is easy for both the ad sales staff and management to use.

Cons

It would be great to be able to identify if a contract is a renewal or not (we pay differently on these.) We would love to have an app so sales people could use it easier on the road from their phone.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing MediaOS

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to MediaOS

Pros

I love the transparency across functionalities within ASG. It's very helpful when trying to keep multiple departments working on the same project all on the same page.

Cons

Figuring out how to manipulate various reports to gather the data I needed took some time and a certain amount of finesse. Luckily the ASG team was there to provide guidance.

Pros

I liked the customizable sales process funnel. The ability to use on a tablet. The FAQ section was easy to use so I did not have to ask for personal help as much. The ability to automatically send contracts, invoices, statements to clients was helpful. It felt very salesperson friendly as if it was created with the salesperson in mind.

Cons

The price felt a little high, they updated and changed the way contracts were created and it was very difficult to get used to the new way. It would take a decent amount of time to get a real person from support. One of the head management people, [SENSITIVE CONTENT], was very smart but sometimes difficult to work with and came across rude.

Pros

It has a great user interface for our ad team, and for our clients. I can easily gather the information needed to make reports and forecast our performance.

Cons

Occasionally clicking through all of the windows from client to client can be a bit daunting, but once you get a rhythm at finding what you are looking for it's solid.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing MediaOS

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to MediaOS

Pros

Very intuitive.
Plays well with other services.
Mobile experience is on point!
We love the ease of building complex contracts.
Email contracts with DocuSign and payments build in.
Reporting is amazing.
ASG makes this fun again.
Subscription module is also amazing.

Cons

The email composer isn't perfect.
Can't merge first names in mass emails.

Pros

I love that reps can see where we are at all times with the customers; past and present.

Cons

I would like to be able to link our site in emails. I want to make it as effortless as possible to check us out and buy an ad. Plus, it feels very clunky when we are advertising cutting edge advantages of advertising with us. Ability to put images on the email would be nice as well.

look up information on the client while writing an email to them. Currently, if I am typing up an email and need to check a name or an additional email, I need to save what I typed somewhere else or reopen adsales in a new window.

Pros

It's easy to use. Has an intuitive logic to it. It's flexible and easy to make changes. I've been adding contacts and love the avatar feature, how it so easily links to my photo file or directly to a website.
ASG understands the realities and intricacies of the advertising sales process--from prospecting, goal setting, data info, communication and production. The training videos are a good reference source to review a function.

Cons

The questions that are linked to the training videos should be more in sync with the content of videos. Sometimes the questions didn't effectively cover the subject matter.

Pros

I appreciate ASG continued pursuit to excellence. They adapt to the marketplace changes quickly.

Cons

Onboarding ASG to your entire team will be a change. Most people don't like change. I suggestive "dive in head first" and engage every department right away. They will thank you after three months.

Pros

I can find everything I need on the client page: contact info, email correspondence, contracts, invoicing, past due balances, notes and follow ups. I love the docu-sign feature which makes managing my renewals so much easier for both me and the client. Reports are easy to run and system runs smoothly.

Cons

Cannot think of anything I don't like. I wish I knew how to use the email marketing tool or how to set up templates but that is on me for not taking the time to learn how to do this.

Pros

I appreciate the dependability of this ASG software, knowing that our goals and sales can be seen clearly and accurately. The CRM function is excellent too. The one feature I would definitely bring back, and the one that set this software a part and my team loved so much, is the falling color confetti on the screen after a sale is "won." While this may seem frivolous, sales is so dependant motivation and this confetti upon closing was highly motivating for our team.

Cons

Removal of the confetti. Having to scroll from 2018 (date we started on ASG) to current month when booking products. It causes errors when people don't look at the year properly. It's easy to miss. I think there should be a dropdown menu for this to cut down on the amount of scrolling and booking errors.

Pros

Our team loves the collaborative features that helps us coordinate strategy and puts all of our data in one, easy to access space. Sales have improved as we used followup features and put more emphasis on tracking leads. We had a good system before, but ASG has really turned things up a notch for our team.

Cons

The only group on our team that has difficulty with integration is our production team. Integration with adobe seems to be rather clunky at times and does increase their workload a bit. Having a platform to directly upload ads has helped them a lot in putting together artwork for advertisements and they save time there, but if production team isn't very skilled with adobe like ours, it might be a deal breaker for using this product.

Pros

The flow of features. Keeping notes and followups are seamless with reminders. Logging insertions, invoicing, and emailing are seamless. No need to "remember" to go back and do something. All just flows and several tasks are accomplished in minimal time.

Cons

Sometimes editing is hard. There is a particular sequence of buttons to push, so the learning curve for using the software is pretty steep. In other words, it's nonfunctional until you do it right. However, once the operator learns the sequence of steps, it is easy.

Pros

Ad Sales Genius is very user friendly. It's very easy to use and helps me stay on top of my accounts.

Cons

There's really nothing that I don't like about it.

Pros

Easy of use.
Fast and intuitive GUI.
Constantly improving (I thought it was perfect, but somehow these guys find ways to step it up).
It's NOW fun to build contracts.

Cons

I met the owner many years back and I mistook his confidence for cockiness and this misjudgement delayed my purchase. I wish I knew then what I knew now and I would've been onboard way earlier.

Pros

This software makes it very easy to keep track of leads & advertisers, execute contracts, work on ad production, invoicing and payments.

Cons

There are some glitches from time to time but always seem to be quickly addressed by their support team.

Pros

I find it to be overall very intuitive which is often not the case for this type of software. In sales, it makes most sense for back end work to be quick, easy and efficient and I think Ad Sales Genius is all of those things.

Cons

There are a few things that seem rigid, like the process for deleting a contract. You pretty much have to just cancel the insertion for a contract. It's also not super simple to edit a contract once it's been won—and I understand why this might be more complicated, but advertisers do change their minds. I also am having issues figuring out how to copy a proposal and edit it, which is important for renewal time!

Pros

What I like most is the ease of using this product. From updating contact information to emailing and keeping a record of what you sent and what was said, Ad Sales Genius has helped me better manage my time and who and when I contact them.

Cons

Sometimes the software doesn't record every email I send.

Pros

I love that it's very reliable - we are a fast-moving industry and we need quick organization that won't let us down.

Cons

There are so many features, I sometimes find it hard to navigate just to find the simple sales reports or a simple way to edit contracts. We only use a small percentage of the options, but I do sometimes wish it was scaled down a bit.

Pros

It has already solved the majority of the problems you come across when publishing any kind of magazine or even digital / exhibition space advertising. The process is made very straightforward & takes away the need to have to think about what to do next.

Cons

We are based in the UK which has presented some issues with certain functionality that is not yet available here. We have needed to amend some of our processes around what the system currently does/doesn't do.
Ideally I'd like a little more flexibility around reporting.

Pros

I like the ease of creating proposals which can be converted into contracts. I also like the marketing function of creating email blasts.

Cons

There is no way to download info into Outlook. Our previous system allowed you to download vcards. It also does not give you a report or way of finding out what email addresses are bad. The email marketing function and creating templates is good, but it’s not always intuitive on adding pictures or pdf’s.

Pros

It's super easy to see production and the email trails involved.

Cons

Can't use the back button - it gets very annoying!

Pros

User friendly to enter leads, notes, status, and create a contract. I appreciate how this platform allows every team member access to view the status of any client at any time. It is easy to pick up where someone left off and it is simple to teach others how to user this software.

Cons

I sometimes find it difficult to add a new product or special into the system and add to an insertion order. And a back button feature on the software would be a good addition. Other than that, I am very happy using Ad Sales Genius.

Pros

It is easy to use and effective. The best thing about it is that you can manage your business from anywhere in the world.

Cons

There is no down fall to using ASG. Just like any other system it has glitches but os fixed in a blink of an eye and customer support is always a push of button away.

Pros

For our company...
- great for sales and CRM
- organized
- many options on reports and filtering
- marketing to filtered lists
- dashboard has everything I need to see through out the day
- customer service is super responsive and very pleasant to talk to
- developers take my ideas into consideration
- continually pushing out new updates with new features
- training videos and courses
- attractive/not boring looking

Cons

For our company...
- isn't quite what our production team needs
- having to use QuickBooks Online isn't great but we are working with it
- because of all the new updates some bugs occur periodically but once you send them a support ticket on it they fix it immediately
- you cannot email back and forth with clients on 1 continuous thread like you would on an external email system

Pros

We needed a system that allowed us to sync our Quickbooks invoices with sales orders, as our previous double entry was resulting in errors and time spent double checking. Ad Sales Genius seems to work very well with Quickbooks - a few glitches in the beginning and trouble displaying correct history, but now it is working better. It also allows you to set up payment plans and store credit cards, which is a great time saver. The sales reps love the Docusign integration and the reminders function.

Cons

We had a hard time onboarding, both with our previous data from Magazine Manager and AdSystem, as well as with training our reps. We had a lot of frustration with technical support. Now that we are over those hurdles, the sales reps are really liking it - but it took a good 6 months. Don't make this switch during a busy sales cycle!

Pros

I like the ability to use ASG across all of our departments, from sales organization, sales, forecasting, production, accounting and even editorial from time to time. We have different kinds of products, some are inventory and time based, others are monthly, others are quarterly and all fit into this one CRM.

Cons

If ASG had an email sequencing tool than we would be able to save even more money on our sequencing software.

Pros

We switched from our old platform 2 years ago and could not be happier. The system is so user friendly and the customer service far exceeds any other CRM I have used.

Cons

Nothing. I love that they have an option to suggest improvements and I think that is so great to have a company that cares what its clients think.

I do wish that when invoices are paid the receipt showed what actually paid for that invoice. MM had that and it was so helpful.

Pros

The usability of this software is leaps and bounds above other systems i've used. It's helped our company organise all communication and information into one organised format.

Cons

The third party extension for the email integration is rather patchy.

Pros

We are a multimedia business with a print magazine, network of websites, trade show, newsletters and radio show, before finding ASG, we were on the largest (and most expensive) CRM in the world. We struggled with the multiple add-ons you had to purchase and customize for an advertisng based business. ASG takes care of every aspect of the CRM process for an ad based organization. Just because there's the biggest CRM available out there, one size does not fit all.

Cons

With any CRM - commit to a minimum of one year! It really takes that time to get adjusted and your team feeling comfortable using ASG.

Pros

Once you learn this software, it's easy to work your way around. Customizable templates. Prompt customer service. Consistent updates and saves, and information can be entered easily. Adaptable to multiple environments

Cons

Customer service is moving towards a self service model for an expensive product. Updates sometimes can mess up the general formats

Pros

It's an all in one product. We like being able to do everything needed for an issue start to finish. Our clients love the customer portal and the ability to upload their artwork, view their account balance, etc.

Cons

When going back and forth from reports to a client screen you have to enter into search each time, wish the previous window would stay open.

Pros

I just started at this company about 6 months ago and this was my first experience with Ad Sales genius. There was some necessary training required, but over the interface and interaction has been great. The staff is available and able to video chat which is very helpful, when we need them.

Cons

I do think the email conversation could be improved. Sometimes the responses are as helpful as we would like. Perhaps we are not explaining in detail what the issue is, but the feedback can be less than stellar to try to troubleshoot how to fix the problem.

Pros

Sales management and client pipelines are easy to track through this software. It has made my job as a sales/general manager so much more seamless in our daily activities.

Cons

I've had some issues with billing in the past, but the top-level Support Desk has helped me through those issues generally within a few minutes.

Pros

It's ease of use and the many features it provides that help ensure the process of selling from start to finish is without headaches.

Cons

I feel like in the invoicing it could be more customizable. For example, we have a few advertisers that are not always on time in paying their bills. It would be nice to have a "PAST DUE" option other than assigning a payment plan. Also, in the proposals - we cater to small companies and often times the total number (i.e. amount after 12 months) scares them off from signing an agreement. If we could take the "subtotal" & "total" feature of the contracts it may make getting clients to sign for more than 1 month at a time a bit easier.

Pros

What I find most valuable in ASG is in its ability to quickly pull up a contact and call them directly from the program (I use ASG via smartphone), and once call is completed, automatically log that call with whatever notes I want to add. It’s definitely increased my ability to reach and create more clients.

Cons

Unfortunately, the email end of things are quite as efficient. I don’t think there’s a way to click an email address in ASG and have it generate an email in an outside email app/program. You can only send emails within the app, and the email function built into the app is just doesn’t work as well as a program like gmail or outlook.

Pros

I enjoy the ease of use everyday. I enjoy the reports it is able to create.

Cons

Tutorial videos to learn how to use. Search function.

Pros

As an Ad Account Executive having all pertinent information at your fingertips well organized in a very user-friendly system is invaluable to increasing revenue for your business.

Cons

There isn't anything I don't like about Ad Sale Genius

Pros

Its great to see a CRM focused on media sales. There is a lot that this software gets right.

Cons

The support is non existent. It is as if this company doesn't want your business. The pricing compared with industry leaders such as salesforce, Pipedrive, etc is stuck in the 1990's.
Whilst many take on board feedback these guys don't . Its almost as if they built it for one publisher and are unwilling to make it flexible for other publishers.

Pros

This software is incredibly easy to use with no extra bloat that comes with other services. This software is specific to publishing so it works extremely well for us.

Cons

I have no complaints about this software. The only (slight) downside is that I have a wish list of features that are still being developed. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, as the team is constantly working to make the software better at the direction of the users.

Pros

There is very little I liked about this software.

Cons

When we signed up for this software, we were sold on features that, unknown to us, were not fully functional, nor anywhere close to being fully functional. Specifically, we were told this software had a trade show sales function that allowed vendors to select booths from an interactive map which was exactly what we needed. We prepaid for a year of service anticipating that this software offered this among many other features. When we tried to use this function, we found out it not ready to use and would instead be "coming soon." We were also told by the sales rep that she never actually said that it did have this feature and unfortunately we were stuck for a full year. We were not off to a great start. Our sales rep also failed to mention that MOST everything else we purchased this software for would require us to purchase several other apps in order to work. Strike 2 - at least be honest about what will be needed to make this software work! I purchased this to REPLACE other apps, not be forced to add new and more expensive ones. Otherwise, set up of literally everything involved with this software is terribly complicated and this software is not at all intuitive to use. I get that there is a learning curve to anything, but when a "solution" makes processes two and three times more difficult and complicated, it's not a solution at all.

Pros

ASG has allowed us to get rid of multiple other systems that different departments were using and store all our csm and ad information in one place.

Cons

There are improvements that can be made to the graphics side of how ASG integrates with our existing printing processes.

Pros

I love that everything I neeed from leads to layout it all conveniently in one place!

Cons

It takes time to get used to navigating the software. I find it difficult to teach a new rep the most effective way to use the system.

Pros

The updates to the software make the program easier to use in regard to client management but still have a lot to learn.

Cons

It seems challenging to make any even slight changes to a contract once it's been 'won' which makes it appear a mess to clients. That might just be something to figure out with the new software updates but it's a critically important day to day resource that doesn't seem intuitive at the moment.

Pros

I love that the software is constantly being updated and many things that we asked for were implemented very quickly.

Cons

I was hoping that commissions would be calculated automatically, but we couldn't do it based on our commission structure.

Pros

The most impact features are the contract creations and unity it brings as a team. This software not only helps create contracts with ease from the back end but the contracts also look clean and professional when sent to be reviewed and signed. I also feel that our team is more united or at least in the loop with one another since we have 'real time' updates on everyone's progress throughout the month!

Cons

The software overall was a bit confusing when we first transitioned and there is still a lot that I personally need and want to explore. I really only use the software to find or update advertisers and contacts and to make contracts and I feel that after some time those have become easier to navigate.

Pros

ASG has the ability to generate contracts and invoices, and not really anything more. As a web browser tool, it has been easy for multiple team members to access. They've improved the search function, but that has become the only way to find anything.

Cons

Very limited capability. We are still having to use other software to make up for where ASG lacks. Support is entirely unwilling to assist which is outrageous given the cost.

Pros

It's great to have ASG in my tool box for everyday use. Each email I send is stored in my client's activity records. This is extremely valuable in sales. The contact daily reminders help to stay organized and on track to meet sales goals.

Cons

I wish I could upload magazine media kits to have ready when emailing. Also, mass emailing using tags does not seem as easy as it appears.