Laugh, Vote and Win
ON24 selects five comedians to address business trip woes
New ON24 research illustrates issues with business travel
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – August 21, 2012 – ON24, Inc., the leader in webcasting and virtual events, today announced its “Your Time, Your Life, Go Virtual” comedy contest, which showcases five of America’s funniest comedians talking about ON24’s newest research on the problems with business travel. The new online survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of ON24 revealed that nearly all Americans (94%) believe “bad behaviors” – from drinking to cheating – occur among people travelling away from home to attend conventions and trade shows.
“You can watch and vote for your favorite comedy sketch – each shot in an ON24 virtual environment – and register for an iPad drawing online,” explained ON24 Chief Marketing Officer Denise Persson. The program website is: https://comedycontest.on24.com. “With challenges ranging from rude airline employees to uncomfortable flights, business trips can be really unpleasant. Even worse, business trips are time-consuming—often interfering with our personal lives,” Persson said.
“I just hate business travel,” complains Samson Koletkar, one of the competing comedians. Koletkar’s sketch is one of five one- to three-minute sketches dramatizing the problems people face when they travel for business. Other comedians featured include Ben Kolina, Joe Nguyen, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan and Gary Anderson. Each of them is competing for a grand prize of $10,000. When voters go to https://comedycontest.on24.com to select their favorite sketch, they are encouraged to also share their own travel horror stories and register for an iPad drawing.
What underlies this effort is ON24 market research that indicates a growing dislike for business travel. “We decided to dig deeper to discover why people hate to travel for work,” Persson said. “We uncovered growing frustration with work demands and the impact on one’s personal life.”
ON24’s new online survey of over 2,000 American adults found nearly all Americans (94%) believe “bad behaviors” occur among people travelling away from home to attend conventions and trade shows, including:
- Drinking too much alcohol (71%)
- Cheating on a spouse (66%)
- Spending too much money (54%)
- Eating fatty foods (53%)
“We have found that business travel can bring out the worst in us,” said Persson. “But it’s these travel nightmares that make some of the best comedy. Our research demonstrates that our jobs and associated business travel put too much pressure on ourselves and our families. Our campaign – “Your Time, Your Life, Go Virtual” – captures the desire to seize control of one’s own schedule and, as result, own life, by adopting virtual alternatives to business travel.”
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 communication platform include demand generation, partner enablement, training, product launches, company town hall meetings and user conferences. More than 700 organizations, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, Unilever, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Amazon and New York Life, rely on ON24. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit https://www.ON24.com.