Content Marketing Institute, ON24 Announce Virtual Communication Excellence Award Winners
AB SCIEX, Eli Lilly, Fiserv, IBM, Oracle and Penton Media Honored
SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – Feb 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.”