Guten Tag, dear Reader.
It has been a couple of weeks since you’ve read from us. That is because we have been busy preparing and producing the first edition of our digital health fair and innovation forum, MED.NOVATION.
We’re happy to inform you that it was a resounding success, and we had a blast doing every part of it. Some of our team was physically in the production studios in Nuremberg, along with our inspiring speakers, all in a CoVid-19-safe environment that included extensive testing, mask-wearing off-stage, good ventilation, and maintaining the appropriate distance whenever possible. Other team members, like myself here in New York, worked behind the scenes to deliver an engaging experience on our virtual communication platform.
“…while consulting our clients on digital experiences, we realized that none of the existing virtual platforms on the market were appropriate for us to host our impactful ideas. It left us no choice, but to build our own!”
Speaking of the platform: today we will take a closer look at what leads to engagement on a platform, why we decided to build one, and why ours leads the market for B2B communication needs; but let’s start at the beginning.
Early in our PrtX journey, we had defined (from years of event and live-comms experience) that the question we must answer to be successful is how to capture people’s attention, particularly in a digital format. We know that senses like smell and touch, but also immersive environments, are nearly impossible to replicate in a digital setting, so finding the right recipe to engage people is key. There are two pillars that we believe are the difference-makers to achieve just that: Content that is tailored for digital formats and Participation that transforms passive viewers on their smart and desktop devices into active participants.
We knew that simply carbon-copying real-life formats into the virtual sphere will lack the impact we & our clients desire. Instead, we approach every project by identifying the key real-life emotion we look to achieve and use our two pillars to create a compelling virtual world to evoke it.
You may ask “but how do you know this?”.
Well, early on, while consulting our clients on digital experiences, we realized that none of the existing virtual platforms on the market were appropriate for us to host our impactful ideas. It left us no choice, but to build our own!
And the decision to do that is already paying off.
Happy clients, an engaged audience, and lauding reviews are welcome validations of our work, but KPIs tend to tell the real story. On our recent MED.NOVATION event, we identified that:
- 88% of all registered users logged on and attended the event,
- the average session time exceeded 12 minutes,
- 85% of all attendees had multiple sessions during the event day and
- each user averaged 0.6 interaction points of participation per session (which includes live voting & live questions for our speakers and in-chat messaging) and 13.8 clicks per session
Impressive numbers for any virtual event (let alone for an inaugural fair) and yet we are capable of improving these numbers even further, as we continue to implement new features and exciting content in the coming months.
An area that most platforms tend to overlook is that they don’t offer real customization and a strong branding presence that large-scale companies are accustomed to from real-life events. Therefore, many platforms tend to offer a UX, similar to various two-dimensional B2C apps you currently have on your smartphone, that are streamlined and simple to use; and while that is an important benefit, we believe customization and real brand presence can coexist with the promise of a simple UX.
There are platforms that seem to offer a more experiential UX, trying to target B2B clients, but where they fall short is that they try to identically copy real-world events, fairs, etc. which leads to an unsatisfactory UX (so you’re telling me, I need to take a virtual elevator to get to the second floor to access the live stream? Is this a corporate event or an early edition of the SIMS?).
This often manifests itself through too many unnecessary clicks and inconsistent visual language which often appears as a mashup of real-life photography with virtual avatars.
We are convinced that to cater to the B2B needs of clients, virtual comms. platform must be three-dimensional to provide an escape from the daily two-dimensional video conferences, offer ample and smart brand presence opportunities, provide a visual language that is inviting and doesn’t strain users’ eyesight, impresses with intuitive navigation, and allows users the opportunity of discovery.
If you want to give your company or your client’s company a platform that performs, then choose PrtX – the virtual communication platform that engages your audience.
Get in touch or simply share your thoughts on what you think makes a platform great and drop me a line at: mark.paetz@prtx.co.
Auf Wiedersehen and until then, take care.
