Content Marketing Institute, ON24 Announce Virtual Communication Excellence Award Winners
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—April 2, 2013—The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and ON24 announced today the recipients of the ON24 Virtual Communication Excellence Awards. ON24 is the global leader in webcasting and virtual communication solutions, and the CMI, through events and strategic consulting and research, teaches marketers how to own their media channels.
“This is our fourth year to honor the most noteworthy virtual environments and webcasts with these prestigious awards,” explained ON24 CEO Sharat Sharan. “Our clients have recognized that virtual communication is a key to success in today’s changing global economy. The award winners are 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. Nominee evaluations were based on ROI, branding impact and achievement of business objectives, as well as overall quality. “As we reviewed the submissions, we also looked for nominees that leveraged the content development and delivery capabilities of virtual communications,” McDermott explained.
Ten Virtual Communication Excellence Awards are being given for 2012. The winners are:
• Best Community/Partner Program
SAP—Mobile Insights Webcast Series
This webcast series, powered by the SAP Store, educates the SAP community of customers and partners while increasing awareness and demand for SAP’s mobile solutions and apps. Through strong collaboration with global stakeholders, applying ongoing assessments and attendee feedback, SAP created a winning formula to drive business while also serving community needs.
• Best Marketing Event
Marketo—Online Trade Show and LaunchPoint Debut
This event, “Take Your Marketing from Good to Great,” was one of the most successful marketing virtual events ever produced targeting marketers. With more than 10,000 registrants, the event resulted in an efficient ecosystem launch; generated high-quality leads and measurable ROI for sponsors; and provided world-class education and networking for attendees.
• Best Sales Enablement Program
Merck and Co.—the Concourse Merck Exchange
The Merck Exchange is one of the locations within the Concourse, a virtual engagement platform. Featuring customized booths, each with different types of content, the Merck Exchange allows an “exchange” of information between headquarters departments and the field sales teams—an innovative and cost-effective way to distribute valuable information while maximizing time with customers.
• Innovation
Rosetta Stone—TOTALe Webcast Socials
These events are designed to educate learners on best practices to enhance their Rosetta Stone learning experience. They feature an open-forum Q&A—attendees are able to chat directly with Rosetta Stone, and all questions are answered live. On average, each event receives more than 150 questions and comments. Online event attendees use the product more—in some cases, usage is more than 10 times the rate of control groups.
• Best Attendee Engagement
AARP—Medicare 101 and Health Care Law Webcasts
The AARP webcasts jointly receiving this award provided greatly needed education to members, positioning AARP as a trusted resource. Audience members were very engaged, actively participating in polls, Q&As and surveys. The successes of these web events demonstrate that webcasts are useful vehicles for educating people who are 50+ on the issues impacting their lives.
• Best User Experience
CUNA Mutual Group—Online Discovery Conference
Taking the annual customer conference online improved results in all areas and saves $1.5 million annually. The most recent conference earned an overall attendee satisfaction rate exceeding 90%. This comment from a post-event survey summarizes the user experience: “Excellent use of technology to present high-quality sessions.”
• Best Virtual Training
IMA—“Inside Talk” Webinar Series
The IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) offers educational content to its global membership with a series of thought leadership webinars, providing Continuing Professional Education (CPE) to certified members quickly and efficiently. This popular monthly webinar series delivers timely, relevant information, resulting in highly effective management accounting training.
• Best International Event
Xylem—the Xylem Worldwide Water Show
Xylem organized a virtual show to meet the demands of customers who needed to learn about new technologies and industry regulations without traveling to conferences. The event, running 21 hours, targeted three global regions. Customers from more than 120 countries participated and were highly engaged, with 5,000 chats, 4,500 document downloads and 2,500 webcast views.
• Performance & ROI
athenahealth—Demand Generation Webinar Program
The costs versus results ratio for this program is exceptional. The webinars, integrated with Marketo’s marketing automation solution, provided immediate tasking for both live and archived events, without manual lead import. Also exceptional was the lower funnel success—the webinars drove a high number of meetings with prospects, which translated to significant closed business.
• Best Virtual Communications Program
PricewaterhouseCoopers—Virtual Tax Conference & CARD Webcast
PwC has an integrated, multifaceted virtual communications program, as illustrated by two particularly successful events, a virtual tax conference targeting tax professionals in Canada and the Current Accounting and Reporting Developments (CARD) webcast. Both featured dynamic and relevant content, attracting both internal and external audiences. In addition, the webcast series awarded CPE credits for participation.
Events eligible for the awards program were last year’s webcasts, virtual events and virtual briefing centers based on the ON24 platform. McDermott said, “The entries this year were very creative and used content in interesting ways, but we were most impressed by the level of rigor and discipline demonstrated by the winning environments and webcasts. It’s a clear sign that the space is maturing and that organizations are becoming more sophisticated year-by-year in how they use these tools to support business objectives.”
“The winners illustrate the rich capabilities of virtual communication, setting ever-higher standards for results and impact with their virtual environments and webcasts,” Sharan 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 platform include demand generation, partner enablement, product launches, company town hall meetings and user conferences. More than 800 organizations, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, Unilever, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Amazon and SAP, rely on ON24. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit https://www.ON24.com.