Forrester Consulting surveyed key decision makers of marketing event strategies.

66% of US firms are struggling to achieve the same success from virtual events as from in person events. 94% have issues with their current virtual or hybrid events software.

Looking at addressing these challenges, Verizon Business announced new BlueJeans Events features and partner integrations designed to help bolster the virtual event experience.

As virtual and hybrid events are expected to increase by 36% after the pandemic, organisations will require the right tools to help them meet their marketing and growth goals.

New capabilities enhance the attendee’s experience and improve moderators’ custom events.

BlueJeans Events addresses marketing and communication needs to increase audience engagement in webinars, brand activations, tradeshows, conferences and other live events.

BlueJeans events platform enhancements

HTML embed enhancements

Event hosts now have the ability to deploy individual BlueJeans Events widgets for chat, Q&A, and polling on any HTML webpage to complement an embedded livestream player.

This flexibility provides hosts with the ability to fully customise their landing page environment to ensure consistency with brand elements or other Event requirements.

Closed captioning is now supported in embedded BlueJeans Events for no additional charge.

Event customisations

Event hosts now have the ability to upload any mp3 file up to 10MB to provide attendees with a customised audio playlist before the event begins and once the event wraps.

For event invitations, admins can now include their company name within the ‘from’ field to ensure communications reflect the appropriate branding.

Presenter support

Hosting security is critical for companies offering sensitive content for internal audiences.

While Restricted Events allow admins to keep unwanted participants from joining via domain-specific invitations, admins now have the ability to allow exceptions and invite specified external presenters to join, while ensuring the integrity of the Event.

Speakers, emcees, and event managers are facilitated to hash out last-minute logistics.

With an exclusive group chat box, BlueJeans Events allows backstage chat for presenters and moderators to eliminate confusion and streamline communication among participants.

MootUp integration

Now in the BlueJeans App Network, MootUp brings a compelling new dimension to audience engagement by pulling BlueJeans Events into MootUp immersive 3D spaces.

Organisers can create, customise and brand their own 3D virtual world where avatars can explore, mingle and engage in their Events.

Zapier integration

Zapier allows admins to connect a variety of applications to BlueJeans Events to streamline event logistics and ensure interconnectivity with a host of marketing automation platforms.

These integrations will make it easier for Marketers to gain visibility into attendee engagement across the entire Event lifecycle.

Unlocking value from virtual events

The Forrester survey found that over 80% of firms agree that with improvements to their virtual or hybrid events strategy, they can achieve the same or greater success as in-person events.

Those who look beyond the obvious stopgap approaches to converting face-to-face events to virtual events will be more likely to execute on the precise combination of technology and creative that underpins delivering a superior, personalised digital experience.

To better support marketing teams and organisations as they work to create a more polished and professional look and feel for their virtual and hybrid events, customers can now tap into Premium Production Services, powered by The Palmer Group.

Working in partnership with award-winning broadcast and event producers, these premium services provide end-to-end production capabilities to help customers deliver exceptional on-brand experiences that are streamed at scale with BlueJeans Events.

As marketers look for new ways to gain market leadership and growth, virtual and hybrid events will become more purposefully integrated into the overall marketing strategy.

Adobe and NASCAR are already using BlueJeans Events to reimagine their marketing strategy to successfully meet customer and partner expectations, achieve engagement, marketing, and sales goals to drive greater value inside and outside of their organisations.

BlueJeans by Verizon stakeholders’ commentary

Thomas Finet, Marketing Technology Architect at Adobe said, “BlueJeans played an important role in the delivery of Birds of a Feather, a peer-to-peer networking experience, and Meet the Teams, a Q&A session with the product teams of Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Illustrator.”

“These 2 elements of our virtual event toolkit helped make Adobe MAX 2020 a fully immersive experience featuring keynotes, learning sessions, and social events for 56 hours nonstop.”

“By embedding BlueJeans Events widgets directly onto MAX pages, we were able to customise content surrounding our live sessions and brand viewing experiences from beginning to end.”

“Everything from the background and event logo, to colours and banners reflected the look and feel of the Adobe brand to provide a seamless virtual experience for attendees.”

Michelle Byron, Vice President, Partnership Marketing at NASCAR said, “For NASCAR, it was critical that we continue to deliver high-quality service to our brand partners as we look to drive value for their businesses in the wake of the world going virtual.”

“Courtesy of BlueJeans Events, we were well-positioned to do just that – as their suite of tools helped us re-create the in-person partnership experience in an entirely virtual landscape.”

Eric Spadafora, Vice President and General Manager of BlueJeans by Verizon said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has forever redefined the marketing event strategy.”

“While COVID-19 forced marketers around the world to quickly pivot to virtual events, leaders are now taking a step back to reevaluate their virtual and hybrid events strategies and technologies to determine the best path forward.”

“As we look ahead, BlueJeans is poised to help organisations find success with their virtual events so that they can exceed customer expectations.”