Leading Middle East creative strategy practice, Tonic International, is giving companies and enterprises in the UAE the opportunity to deliver the scale, theatre, richness and excitement of physical events online as it launches Podium, an immersive and virtual events initiative as part of the Affinita Global Independent Agency Network. Leading the initiative in the Middle East, Tonic will work closely with agencies around the world including New York based agency, Agenda and London based agency, The Crocodile to launch the platform.
Built to enable B2B and B2C businesses with a digital event solution, the Podium offering combines best-in-class online event design, influencer marketing, and media rich interactive content formats to create an immersive, online event experience powered by the ON24 Platform.
Created in response to the current global crisis and social distancing rules by a collective of industry professionals that include international agencies; The Crocodile, Onalytica, Turtl, and in partnership with leading technology company ON24, the need for companies to offer an alternative option to physical events, especially in the Middle Eastern market, has never been bigger.
Arnaud Verchere, Founder and Head of Strategy at Tonic International, said: “Dubai is the Middle East’s epicenter for events so to be able to offer an alternative to physical events so quickly after we’ve been hit with a global pandemic, is invaluable to businesses in the region who rely on revenue from events. Podium will offer a truly immersive event experience and we couldn’t be more excited to offer this service to our clients.”
He added: “Almost overnight the way the world operates has changed, and we’ve had to re-think the services that we offer our clients to respond to this. Bringing Podium to the Middle Eastern market will be invaluable to our clients as it will give them the tools they need to change the way in which they operate, instead of having to halt operations altogether.”
With the first Podium event set to take place in July, Tonic International is the only agency to offer the Podium service in the Middle East, giving its clients the tools needed to elevate online experiences to match the engagement and impact of traditional events.
The service also gives businesses the opportunity to create the next generation of immersive digital event experiences whilst replicating the theatre and excitement of physical events, as well as giving clients the opportunity to design data driven digital experiences that feel human, and allowing clients the opportunity to engage with a much wider online audience.
Tessa Barron, ON24 VP of Marketing, commented: “Our mission at ON24 is to help businesses transform their marketing into an experience their audience demands. And, we know that realising that vision takes more than technology. Through innovative service offerings like Podium, we hope to help companies successfully bridge the physical-to-digital event divide, now and in the future.”
Tim Williams, CEO Onalytica said: “Physical events create spikes of social media engagement, but brands have historically struggled to build and sustain dialogue and engagement pre- and post-event. Integrating internal and external influencers in the promotion of events drives an 8-week audience engagement cycle, improves the quality of events and creates inspiring content assets that can be used in the sales cycle throughout the year.”
Nick Mason, CEO Turtl said: “I’m very excited for Turtl to be part of Podium. In the present climate, the ability to deliver amazing digital events is an absolute must and Podium will be leading the way with best-of-breed technologies for every step of the digital event experience.”
Don’t wait for an extraordinary event, create one today. Register your interest on https://tonicinternational.com/news/podium/
