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How Pinnacle Investment Group drove record retail growth powered by ON24’s digital excellence

Scaled to deliver 90 webinars annually

Increase on-demand attendance by 2.5x

How ON24 helped contribute to Pinnacle’s >50% YoY FUM Growth

Increased Pinnacle Summit event attendance >50%

ABOUT PINNACLE

  • Employees: 80+
  • Industry: Financial Services / Investment Management

Pinnacle Investment Management represents a diverse family of world-class investment management firms (Affiliates). Along with holding equity interests in Affiliates, Pinnacle provides seed funding, global institutional and retail distribution, and industrial grade middle office and infrastructure services. By providing Affiliates with superior non-investment services, Pinnacle enables them to focus on delivering investment performance to their clients.

INTRODUCTION

Pinnacle Investments hosts an array of live events on behalf of their 15 fund managers including boardroom lunches, breakfast meetings, roundtables and roadshows across the country. These events are designed to deepen relationships with clients by keeping them updated and equipped with the latest information on the market, their investment approach, and portfolio updates.

  • Employees: 80+
  • Industry: Financial Services / Investment Management

Pinnacle Investment Management represents a diverse family of world-class investment management firms (Affiliates). Along with holding equity interests in Affiliates, Pinnacle provides seed funding, global institutional and retail distribution, and industrial grade middle office and infrastructure services. By providing Affiliates with superior non-investment services, Pinnacle enables them to focus on delivering investment performance to their clients.

Pinnacle Investments hosts an array of live events on behalf of their 15 fund managers including boardroom lunches, breakfast meetings, roundtables and roadshows across the country. These events are designed to deepen relationships with clients by keeping them updated and equipped with the latest information on the market, their investment approach, and portfolio updates.

PROBLEM

Physical, Digital or Hybrid? 

After a flurry of false stops and restarts, the marketing team at Pinnacle was getting used to flip flopping from a digital to physical event model and back again. But this small (and very mighty) team began to realize it was time for an event strategy that could come through no matter what the future had in store – and that required a strong digital component. 

However, the platform they had been using was not only unreliable, but significantly limited their ability to brand and customize webinar and virtual event consoles. 

It’s getting harder to cut through the digital noise 

“Digital fatigue is a real thing,” said Danielle Sheehan, Marketing Automation and Growth Strategist at Pinnacle. “And with so many companies converting their events to digital, there’s so much competition out there.” 

“We would literally be here all day if I were to explain the many ways ON24 has helped us cut through the digital noise.”

Danielle Sheehan
Marketing Automation and Growth Strategist at Pinnacle

SOLUTION

To overcome these challenges and rise above the competition, the team turned to ON24.

“We would literally be here all day if I were to explain the many ways ON24 has helped us cut through the noise,” said Sheehan.

Fully Branded Webinar and Virtual Event Experiences 

The ability to easily brand and design visually engaging experiences was a huge priority for Sheehan who cited Adobe’s recent finding that companies with strong design outperform companies with weak design by 219%.

Sheehan leveraged ON24’s customisation capabilities to not only deliver fully-branded Pinnacle experiences, but also to create 15 unique webinar and event consoles to support all of their fund managers (think microsites). 

“There’s not much we can’t do with ON24’s limitless capabilities,” said Sheehan.

To overcome these challenges and rise above the competition, the team turned to ON24.

“We would literally be here all day if I were to explain the many ways ON24 has helped us cut through the noise,” said Sheehan.

Fully Branded Webinar and Virtual Event Experiences 

The ability to easily brand and design visually engaging experiences was a huge priority for Sheehan who cited Adobe’s recent finding that companies with strong design outperform companies with weak design by 219%.

Sheehan leveraged ON24’s customisation capabilities to not only deliver fully-branded Pinnacle experiences, but also to create 15 unique webinar and event consoles to support all of their fund managers (think microsites). 

“There’s not much we can’t do with ON24’s limitless capabilities,” said Sheehan.

Bigger Audiences, Better Engagement

Although the team had a strong physical-event strategy in place before the shift to a digital world, they were pleasantly surprised by the turnout of their ON24-powered virtual events. 

“Instead of only being able to have 20 people in the physical room, we reached over 100 advisors with our virtual roadshow which is amazing.” said Emma Hudson, Manager of Events at Pinnacle

But bigger audiences don’t necessarily make for a successful event. It’s the engagement that drives conversion, generates data and deepens customer relationships.

Sheehan and Hudson utilized ON24’s 20+ engagement tools, including polls and live Q&A sessions with investment specialists answering inquiries in the backend. “Attendees appreciate being responded to right away which often leads to important first meetings for us,” said Hudson.

Less Data, More Insights 

The more audiences engaged with the various interactive elements built into each event experience, the more data the team was able to capture. And not the kind of data that ends up collecting CRM cobwebs or getting lost in the shuffle between various business intelligence tools … 

Real, actionable insights. 

ON24 captures every action an attendee takes, from questions asked to content downloaded, and creates engagement profiles with lead scores, intent signals and insights into the unique interest and needs of each buyer. 

Less Data, More Insights 

The more audiences engaged with the various interactive elements built into each event experience, the more data the team was able to capture. And not the kind of data that ends up collecting CRM cobwebs or getting lost in the shuffle between various business intelligence tools … 

Real, actionable insights. 

ON24 captures every action an attendee takes, from questions asked to content downloaded, and creates engagement profiles with lead scores, intent signals and insights into the unique interest and needs of each buyer. 

Sales Enablement Became Easier (Or More Effective)

To make sure every insight was being properly utilized, the team used ON24 Connect to integrate ON24 with their MAP and CRM systems. When lead status changed, sales immediately received automated notifications to trigger them to take action. 

“Our sales reps have a hands-on relationship with every single client,” said Sheehan. “ The actionable insights we are able to generate using ON24 Analytics helped sales use our data more strategically.” 

Being able to monitor the digital body language of their prospects made it easier for sales reps to start warmer conversations and accelerate sales cycles. It also enabled the marketing team to create highly-targeted content experiences for sales teams to create real, meaningful connections with investors. 

“The people side is just as important as the data side,” said Sheehan.

ON24-powered Virtual Events helped contribute to Pinnacle’s >50% YoY FUM Growth

With ON24 Engagement Hub, the team transformed their 2 annual large-scale events into targeted, highly engaging digital experiences. 

“For our Investment Summit (a day-long event) we brought together fund managers and grouped them up into sessions based on demographics, firm size and asset-types,” said Sheehan. 

They did this to pair prospects with partners whose specialities best aligned with the needs of each audience segment. 

To accommodate audiences who were unable to make the live event date, and drive up attendee counts, the team broke hour-long presentations into 15-minute bite-sized sessions (still with all the same live interactive elements), doubling attendance and engagement rates. “So much work goes into these events, we need to make sure we’re getting the most out of each one,” said Sheehan.

“Instead of only being able to have 20 people in the physical room, we reached over 100 advisers with our virtual roadshow which is amazing.”

Emma Hudson
Manager of Events at Pinnacle

RESULTS

With this new platform and strategy in place, the team at Pinnacle delivered over 90 webinars and increased reach by more than 50% in 2020 alone. 

“We jumped onboard that digital train with ON24, and we’ve been webinerds ever since,” said Emma Hudson, Manager of Events at Pinnacle.

The Future is Hybrid 

“We’ve seen the best of both worlds (physical and digital),” said Hudson. 

With ON24 hybrid events we can continue to deliver digital elements even within our in-person events. This makes it possible for advisors to connect face-to-face, browse content on their own timeline and engage with our digital content, while we continue to collect all the great data our digital events yield.” 

“ON24 has helped us reach our growth goals and demonstrate our success as a marketing team.”

“ON24 has helped us reach our growth goals and demonstrate our success as a marketing team.”

EMMA HUDSON
Manager of Events at Pinnacle

How Pinnacle Investment Group drove record retail growth powered by ON24’s digital excellence | ON24

Worried you made a webinar blunder? 🚫 Discover the fixes to 10 common mistakes on April 16. Register Now