The Asymetrix virtual launch.

"Live events have been dying a gradual death for a long time," says marketing consultant Dottie Hall, who organized one of the first--and most successful--Internet "virtual launches" this summer for Asymetrix Corp. Although hosting technology is still primitive, Hall concedes, the Asymetrix launch suggests that online events can generate at least as much visibility as "putting a hundred people into a ballroom." In fact, she says the four-hour event attracted more than 10,000 participants, including 2,500 simultaneous log-ins for a Web audio broadcast.

One reason for this hefty turnout, Hall says, is that the event itself "stretched the medium." Instead of simulcasting a few live speeches, Asymetrix created an elaborate multi-track program on a special Web site. One keynote track included real-time audio presentations by company executives and outside luminaries; at the same time, separate product tracks offered interactive chat sessions with specialists for each of four new titles that Asymetrix wanted to showcase. The site also included a trivia contest with "a lot of prizes," as well as links to product demos and information on other Asymetrix Web pages.

Why so much activity? To prevent boredom, says Hall. "The pace of live broadcasting on the Web is excruciating--so painful you can hardly stand it." Hall says she's often surprised by how hard it is to achieve a genuine sense of interaction with existing Internet tools. Asymetrix ended up writing its own software to run moderated chat sessions, she notes, and instead of presenting streaming video of speakers, the site developers had to settle for still images that were updated every 15 seconds. Even live audio turned out to be a tricky issue: Since many corporate firewalls lock out audio streams, Asymetrix hired courtroom stenographers to create real-time transcriptions of keynote speeches.

To attract a critical mass of attendees, Hall says Asymetrix invested heavily in traditional print-based advertising, including full page ads in major daily newspapers and smaller campaigns in the trade press. (The ads were also designed to reposition Asymetrix as an aggressive, Internet-focused tools company, she notes.) Hall reports that the print campaign generated 55% of attendance at the event--but the rest of the turnout came from much lower-cost promotion on the company's own Web page, banner ads on other sites, and "very conservative" mentions in various Internet news groups.

"The virtual launch is a tool," Hall now says. "It's not going to become the only way people introduce products. But it's especially appropriate for software companies that want to be aligned with the Internet. You're literally using the medium as the message."

Dottie Hall, president, The Constellation Group, 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale, Ariz. 85260-2555; 602/443-3967. E-mail: [e-mail].