Lutze is the author of two books about search engine marketing: The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing and the recently published Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media & Mobile Marketing.

The webcast will begin on February 28, 2012, at noon EST. For more information or to register, click here.

* Powered by ON24 *

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—February 7, 2012—Recognizing the increasing importance of the virtual distribution of content in organizations today, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and ON24 are recognizing excellence in virtual communications with the 2011 ON24 Virtual Communication Excellence Awards. ON24 is the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, and the CMI, through events and strategic consulting and research, teaches marketers how to own their media channels.

“This is our third year to recognize excellence in our industry,” explained ON24 CMO Denise Persson. “However, this year we are honoring a variety of virtual communication solutions, including webcasts, virtual events and virtual environments. Our clients have recognized that virtual communication is a key to success in today’s changing global economy. These awards honor those organizations that push the boundaries of virtual communication and define best practices for the industry.”

The judging, conducted virtually, was led by Clare McDermott, editor of Chief Content Officer Magazine. “All the finalists featured great content, but what I found remarkable were the inventive and varied methods each company used to distribute that content to dispersed audiences. The winners offer great examples of the rich capabilities of virtual communications.” She added that the winning nominees also set new standards for quality, performance and ROI.

Six Virtual Communication Excellence Awards are being given for 2011, honoring virtual communication innovation and the best user experience, virtual career fair, international event, hybrid solution and performance/ROI.

The 2011 winners are:

• Best User Experience
  Eli Lilly—Sales Town Hall Meetings
  Recognizing the need to communicate regularly with geographically dispersed and on-the-road sales team members, Eli Lilly held a series of all-hands webcasts optimized for mobile access. Most of the attendees, in fact, viewed the live video webcasts on iPads.
• Innovation
  Fiserv—Investment Services Solutions Center
  Fiserv Investment Services developed a customer virtual briefing center that provides clients with access to a host of information and events, including webcasts, demos and videos, in an interactive virtual environment that facilitates two-way communication and efficient access to vital business information.
• Best Hybrid Event
  AB SCIEX—Global e-Conference Briefing Center
  This life sciences innovator captured content from its long-running physical user conference and made it available, along with live content, in a virtual briefing center customized for four markets: Europe, Japan, Asia and the Americas. The four-day virtual “Pushing the Limits in Mass Spectrometry” efficiently reached global customers who could not attend the in-person event.
• Best International Event
  Oracle/MOI—Oracle “Power Days” Webcast Series
  Oracle is marketing more than 5,000 individual products to organizations of all sizes across the globe. To address this challenge in the Asia-Pacific region, Marketing Options International and Oracle hosted a series of webcasts introducing Oracle products to a diverse audience of IT and business executives in more than 40 countries. In 2011, 37 “Power Days” attracted 14,404 live attendees, resulting in over 3,900 qualified leads.
• Best Virtual Career Fair
  IBM—Destination Africa Job Fair
  IBM held an internal virtual job fair to recruit employees for opportunities in a rapidly growing market, Africa. Targeting the 19,000 IBM employees with connections to Africa, IBM Recruiting sponsored a job fair featuring information about career opportunities and access to relocation experts. Close to 1,000 candidates were identified.
• Performance & ROI
  Penton Media—State and Local Government Summit
  Sponsored by Microsoft, this was the fourth annual virtual conference and expo for American City & County. Originally a local government summit attracting 600 registrants, Penton in 2011 expanded the scope to include state government officials and continued to improve promotions and webinar content, attracting close to 2,000 registrants. After working together for years, the individual participants, including Microsoft and ON24, have become a seasoned group, maximizing performance and ROI.

Eligible events were last year’s webcasts, virtual events and virtual briefing centers based on the ON24 platform. Nominations were submitted by clients and their partners and customers. McDermott said, “We at the Content Marketing Institute were very impressed with the creativity and quality of the award nominees. Every nominated webcast, event and briefing center, in fact, demonstrated superior content, execution and results.”

“In our industry, we often say that ‘content is king.’ The successes of our customers illustrate that,” Persson added. “We appreciate the interest that has been shown in the awards program, and we are grateful to all who sent in a nomination.”

About the Content Marketing Institute

CMI teaches marketers how to own their media channels instead of having to rent them through advertising. We do this through events like Content Marketing World, media properties like Chief Content Officer magazine, and strategic consulting and research for some of the best known brands in the world.

About ON24, Inc.

ON24, the virtual communications platform for the global enterprise, provides interactive, impactful cloud-based solutions that drive outstanding results. ON24 offers a broad and innovative product portfolio, including webcasting, virtual events and virtual environments, accessible from any device and supported by robust reporting and analytics. Applications for the ON24 communications platform include demand generation, partner enablement, training, product launches, company town hall meetings and user conferences. More than 700 organizations, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, Unilever, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Amazon and New York Life, rely on ON24. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

Focusing on best practices and market research, from the virtual events and webcasting market leader and solution of choice for many of the world’s leading enterprises.

The Virtual Event Advantage newsletter is the go-to resource for valuable information and how-to examples. Published twice per quarter, the newsletter features information that you will find useful as you evaluate virtual event strategies and use of virtual environments in marketing and communications programs. The newsletter also features customer best practices and case studies, news you can use and upcoming events.

To get expert advice for maximizing virtual communication success, subscribe to the Virtual Event Advantage newsletter.

December Newsletter 2011

October Newsletter 2011

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – November 16, 2011 – ON24, Inc., the global leader in webcasting and virtual events, today announced a new webcasting solution, ON24 Webcast Elite, that combines the rich functionality of ON24 Webcasting Platform 10 with unprecedented ease of use – making it possible for business users to produce their own fully branded, professional-quality webcasts and webinars.

Delivering an engaging user experience – anywhere, from any device

“Webcast Elite is our simplest product to date, but it is also a powerful content development tool that allows us to fulfill our commitment to both buyers and users with simple setup and an immersive, engaging audience experience that is available from any device,” explained ON24 CEO Sharat Sharan. “The most powerful webcasting platform is now the easiest to use.”

He added, “As the leader in webcasting for more than 10 years, ON24 has brought to the market both basic webcasts and, most recently, next-generation Platform 10 webcasting. The game-changing Webcast Elite edition makes ON24 webcasting a viable, affordable solution across all enterprise departments and for all businesses, both large and small.”

Webcast Elite reflects a growing trend: the adoption by business users of “do-it-yourself” technology tools. Because of this emerging trend, reports Forrester Research, Inc. in the October 2011 report, Market Overview: 2011 Social Media Platforms For B2B Tech Marketing, B2B marketers require platforms that are simple to use and deploy. They “seek self-service platforms that provide rich functionality through a simple, intuitive user interface.”

Webcast Elite benefits and features

ON24 Webcast Elite puts Platform 10 webcasting tools directly into the hands of business users, empowering them to create, publish and analyze state-of the-art audio and video webcasts at their convenience. “In just a few simple steps, you can build high-quality webcasts with your branding, right from your computer, with no experience or training required,” said Sharan.

“Webcast Elite is especially appealing to customers who feel they need something more than web conferencing and meeting tools can provide,” he continued. “Why would they run webinars, for example, with inflexible meeting or conferencing tools when they can turn them into powerful webcasts with the Elite edition of Webcasting Platform 10?”

Early adopters of Webcast Elite include SAP and Yammer. John Morris with SAP Global Marketing praised both the robustness and reliability of the ON24 platform.

“Because we can trust our webcasts to work, we can focus on making them better and more engaging, with greater use of rich media.” Enhanced engagement is an advantage cited by Yammer as well. “ON24’s new approach to webcasting allows us to quickly and easily connect with Yammer users in a new and engaging way,” said David Stewart, Yammer’s Vice President of Platform, Partnerships and Marketing.

Webcast Elite features:

• Branding options – Customizable user console to promote the producer’s identity throughout the webcast and not just in the PowerPoint slides
• Interactivity – With tools such as integrated social media and group collaboration apps
• Analytics – ROI-based analytics for detailed, real-time reporting
• Scalability – Enterprise-level scalability and reliability
• Accessibility – An easy-to-use Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, requiring no downloads, deployment resources or plug-ins, with full mobile support

Webcasting in six simple steps

“With Webcasting Platform 10 we changed the way webcasts are viewed. Now we are changing the way they are created,” Sharan said. “You can set up a webcast yourself in a few minutes without sacrificing the power of webcasting.” Webcast Elite offers step-by-step tools to guide producers as they:

• Plan and schedule the webcast
• Design a custom registration page
• Choose how presenters will appear in the webcast
• Create a unique and engaging audience experience
• Present the webcast and publish it for on-demand access
• Analyze the results

About ON24 Webcast Elite

Webcast Elite will be unveiled tomorrow, November 17, in a presentation by ON24 Senior Director of Webcasting Product Management Mark Szelenyi during the VUE2011 Virtual Events User Experience; sign up here. Szelenyi can also be seen discussing Webcast Elite in a video interview on Interactive Media Strategies’ “Business Video Today” on TMCNet; view the video here. To discuss Webcast Elite with an ON24 solutions expert, call 1–877-202 9599.

About ON24, Inc.

The recognized global market share leader, ON24 provides webcasting and virtual environments for corporate communications and demand generation. The ON24 platform is a complete Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud offering; no deployment resources or audience downloads are required. ON24 offers fully integrated, enterprise-wide solutions for applications ranging from partner expos, user conferences and trade shows to training and company town hall meetings. More than 750 organizations, including IBM, Cisco, CA Technologies, Merck, AstraZeneca, Fiserv, Credit Suisse, GE and Oracle, rely on ON24. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

Extend the Life of Your Physical Conferences

User conferences and sales kickoff events play an important role in training, networking and information sharing. Such face-to-face conferences, however, are significant investments for many companies. And while a large amount of information can be conveyed, the value of the session content typically ends with the conference. The ON24 Event Portal was developed to address this challenge. By creating a searchable online directory, the Event Portal allows captured session content to be used for revenue-generating and cost-saving applications – such as lead generation, sales enablement and partner training. With Event Portal, the value and return-on-investment of your physical event can be dramatically increased.
 

Overview

Extending Physical Event ROI

The ON24 Event Portal can include hundreds of recorded session webcasts that can be watched on computers, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. Content managers can add, organize and manage webcasts at any time to keep the Event Portal content up-to-date.
Viewers can use keyword search to identify a webcast – or section of a webcast – that interests them. The search process looks for keywords in the webcast title, summary, slide content, slide notes and transcript. Clicking on the search results in the slides or transcripts takes the user to the associated section of the webcast.

Common applications for the Event Portal are:

• Sales Enablement
• Partner Training
• Lead Generation
• Company Training

With ON24 Event Portal, event organizers get detailed reporting on user activity and interests. The online reporting system includes summary statistics and details about attendee viewing behavior. These reports also provide metrics on the specific individuals who viewed the portal webcasts.

Features

Online Webcast Directory

ON24’s Event Portal allows captured session content to be used for revenue-generating or cost-saving programs. The Event Portal can include hundreds of recorded online sessions that can be viewed via keyword search, sorted using categories, or simply browsed.

Keyword-Based Content Search

Viewers can use keyword search to identify a webcast – or section of a webcast – that interests them. The search process looks for keywords in the webcast title, summary, slide content, slide notes and transcript. Clicking on the search results in the slides or transcripts takes the user to the associated section of the webcast.

Social Media

The use of social media and SEO to promote the ON24 Event Portal is a key feature. Each page of the Event Portal includes “share” links to a variety of social media websites, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Content Management System

Using the ON24 Event Portal’s self-service content management system, portal content managers can setup, describe, feature and categorize webcasts in the online directory. They can also add, update, edit and delete webcasts and other content on an on-going basis.

Online Portal & Webcast Reporting

The online reporting system includes both Portal and Webcast Reports. The Portal Report provides summary statistics and detailed viewing behavior of attendees that view the Event Portal webcasts. The Webcast Reports provide viewing metrics on the specific individuals who viewed a particular webcast.

Mobile Access

The ON24 Event Portal and its webcast content can be viewed on mobile devices, including Apple and Android phones and tablets. The Event Portal dynamically determines whether or not the user is using a mobile device, and then delivers the appropriate portal content.

Key Benefits

ON24 Event Portal provides a number of benefits, including:

• Sales Enablement: Since sales kickoff meetings can be captured and made available throughout the year, product knowledge is more accessible to the sales organization. As a result, the productivity of the sales organization can be dramatically improved.
• Partner Training: Partner’s employees obtain the same product knowledge and on-going support as your direct employees.
• Lead Generation: Conference sessions can be leveraged for demand generation and other marketing programs.
• Corporate Training: Event presentations become a reusable corporate asset. Expert-based knowledge can be archived and reused for many months after the event.

resources

ON24 Event Portal Datasheet ON24 Event Portal Demo

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MarketingProfs Research Practicalities of Virtual Events
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Virtual Events for Dummies Find out about our Virtual Events

Webcast & Video

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January 25, 2012
reVUE: How to Build a Successful Virtual Event
ON DEMAND – Learn how to build a successful virtual event by watching the reVUE.

December 14, 2011
Annual Webinar Benchmarks
ON DEMAND – Learn how to improve the performance of your webinars using best practices from thousands of webinar programs

December 9, 2011
The Zero Moment of Truth
ON DEMAND – Jim Lecinski, Vice President, US Sales & Service at Google, discussed the importance and impact of that instant, that point in time, when your potential buyer is moved to take a hard look at what you have to offer.

September 21, 2011
Where Do Virtual Events Fit in Your Marketing Mix?
ON DEMAND — Research presented by MarketingProfs.

September 7, 2011
The Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting: Strategies that Produce Results
ON DEMAND — How can a virtual sales kickoff benefit your company? Find out in this informative Webinar. You will quickly learn how to turn expensive, time-consuming kickoffs into highly engaging, ROI-generating efforts.

August 24, 2011
Ten Reasons Webcasting and Social Widgets Should Be Part of Your Internal Communications
ON DEMAND — Learn how Yammer and ON24 are revolutionizing internal corporate communications capabilities

August 17, 2011
10 Solutions in 50 Minutes, A B2B Demand Generation Webcast
ON DEMAND

The session will also include key industry trends and ways to justify the business case for energy and sustainability program investment.

The webcast will be held October 18, 2011, at 11:00 a.m. PDT. After the live event, all webinar registrants will receive a complimentary copy of the first paper in the independently-researched Verdantix Energy & Sustainability Leadership series, entitled “New Metrics To Improve Sustainability Performance (KPIs),” commissioned by CA Technologies. Register for “The Business Processes of Sustainability” here: http://bit.ly/pyelTq

* Powered by ON24 *

Associations and other member organizations are faced with the challenge of providing messaging, content and training to an ever growing membership that is often hard to reach and geographically dispersed. As live member events become less effective, more associations are turning to ON24 to provide virtual communications as an important tool to deliver high-quality content to their members.
 
 
 

Why ON24?

Enhanced Communication, New Revenue Opportunities

As the global leader in webcasting and virtual events, ON24 provides associations the tools they need to cost effectively provide their members the resources and training they need regardless of location. Further, associations can create non-dues revenue opportunities by leveraging ON24 virtual communications to build exclusive member and non-member events.

Drive Recruitment with Virtual Communications

ON24 webcasting and virtual events can be leveraged to create recruiting presentations and events that can drive awareness and membership. Virtual recruitment events expand the reach of your messaging, and the life of your events.

Increase the Reach of your Industry Trade Shows

The ON24 virtual show extends the reach and value of physical trade shows, and industry conferences, by increasing the number of participants that attend a show and the amount of content that is consumed.

Virtual trade shows can be completely customized to replicate fully branded physical shows, with theaters for live or on-demand webcasting, exhibition areas for sponsor virtual booths, and networking lounges for attendee interaction. Virtual trade shows support applications for live chat, social networking and group collaboration to deliver a feature-rich fully interactive trade show experience.

Virtual Member Resource Center

It’s critical for associations to keep their members up-to-date with the latest information, presentations and training. By utilizing the ON24 virtual briefing center solution, associations can create a fully branded, 3-dimensional user portal, where members are guided to the presentations and content they need, when they need it.

Virtual resource centers can be quickly updated and support interactive tools such as live chat and user forums, for members that need to interface directly with association managers.

Increase “Non-dues Revenue” Opportunities
ON24 virtual communications also provides the platform to enable associations to create customized, revenue generating events, where value-added content and speakers can be presented as part of a branded event, including:

• Educational or value-add webcasts
• Branded virtual events
• Priority Access for virtual resource centers

Case Studies

Case Study: SAE International’s Virtual Career Fair

Learn how SAE International’s Virtual Career Fair provided an efficient online venue for job seekers in
the automotive, aerospace and commercial vehicle industries to connect with hiring companies.
 
Click here to learn more.

Resources

ON24 webcasting and virtual communications provide a variety of solutions to increase your business productivity. Find out which products are right for your business needs:
 

Webcasting Platform 10 Datasheet Demand Gen Solution Datasheet Live Webcasting Datasheet Virtual Show Datasheet Virtual Training Center

[sidebar1]

White Papers
MarketingProfs Research Practicalities of Virtual Events
………………………………………….
Virtual Events for Dummies Find out about our Virtual Events

Webcast & Video

MarketingProfs Where Do Virtual Events Fit in Your Marketing Mix?

………………………………………….

Watch 4 Minute Demo

………………………………………….

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In the legal profession, effective communications can be critical to long-term business success. Legal firms need to provide regular training and certification for their lawyers and associates and to broadcast thought leadership and guidance to potential clients. Since the legal and justice systems never rest, it’s critical to provide employees and clients with content that can be consumed anytime, from anywhere.

Law firms can increase their productivity with virtual communications from ON24.
 
 

Why ON24?

Enhanced Productivity, Communications

ON24 provides the virtual communications platform for legal firms to securely extend training and internal communications to employees and partners and increase their public profile by expanding the reach of their marketing and messaging content.

More Efficient Internal Communications

Deliver fully interactive webcasts and virtual events that provide the entire legal team the ability to fully participate in company-wide, or practice group, meetings without having to disrupt firm business.

ON24 webcasts can be archived for on-demand viewing to accommodate the busy schedules of lawyers who need to adhere to court schedules and attend client meetings.

CLE Training and Certification

Every major law firm needs to ensure that its lawyers and associates are receiving the constant training they need to satisfy their continuing legal education (CLE) requirements.

ON24 webcasting makes it easy to deliver self-paced training sessions, complete with automated testing and certificate generation that can be taken as lawyers schedules permit.

Virtual Training Centers

Create an easy-to-navigate portal for training webcasts and content that can be accessed by associates at their convenience. The virtual training center functions as a central repository for training content that can be easily managed and refreshed to provide your teams with the support they need, when they need it.

Virtual Recruiting Centers

For most legal firms, recruiting top talent is a big priority and a time-consuming process. Recruiting activities typically focus on attending recruitment days at law schools and associations. ON24 enables law firms to create virtual recruiting centers for candidates to learn more about their history, practice and opportunities.

Virtual recruitment centers are high-quality, 3-dimensional virtual environments where candidates are met by a virtual greeter that guides them to recruitment webcasts and other promotional content. Real-time Q&A or chat discussions can be held for direct candidate interaction, and back-end analytics can provide detailed information on all of the content that each candidate viewed.

Applications:

• Firm Town Hall Meetings
• Internal Training Webcasts
• CLE Training and Certification
• Virtual Training Centers
• Thought Leadership Webcasts
• Virtual Recruitment Centers

Case Studies

Company:

A multi-service law firm with more than 300 attorneys in five offices in the U.S.

Challenge:

• Firm wanted a reliable webcasting solution that would personify their level of expertise and professionalism to their clients.
• Reduce internal fulfillment hours and costs associated with current webcasting solution’s manual processes.
• Simplify the complexities of enabling webcast attendees to qualify for continuing legal education (CLE) credits.

Solution:

Company implemented the ON24 Webcasting Platform 10 full-service webcasting platform. ON24 customized the continuing education (CE) module for participants to earn CLE credits, meeting multiple state’s varied requirements for CLE accreditation.

Results:

• Client now has a robust webcasting platform that offers their clients from around the country the opportunity to earn CLE credits in every webcast.
• With ON24, the firm is saving hundreds of hours in fulfillment work – resulting in significant time and cost savings.
• Firm incorporated video into a webcast for the first time and brought multiple geographically dispersed thought leaders together in a simplified, economical fashion.

Resources

ON24 webcasting and virtual communications provide a variety of solutions to increase your business productivity. Find out which products are right for your business needs:
 

Webcasting Platform 10 Datasheet ON24 Demand Gen Solution Datasheet ON24 Live Webcasting Datasheet ON24 Virtual Show Datasheet

[sidebar1]

White Papers
MarketingProfs Research Practicalities of Virtual Events
………………………………………….
Virtual Events for Dummies Find out about our Virtual Events

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