Top Takeaways from Adobe Summit 2017

Adobe Summit 2017 once again brought us the multi-media, star-studded, a-ha moments filled show we have come to expect. Blue Acorn iCi’s team of experts was on hand to meet with the industry and be a part of the information sharing that was key to the success of the show. What were their biggest takeaways from Summit this year? Read on…

Customers today are demanding more from the brands they buy from, but are giving them less time to deliver. Engaging and connecting to your user has become the number one priority of content creation. The content needs to be incredibly relevant to the exact person it’s speaking to and delivered only when they want to hear or see it. That means taking environmental and emotional factors into consideration, something that successful brands are doing very well.

Quality content does not have to be complicated. Some of the best examples from Summit include Inspiralizer who used marbled paper as a backdrop to add class and elegance to their product line. Or Airbnb who married mobile and politics to create a series of ads that preached acceptance.

Why does all of this matter? That extra level of personalization positively influences how people feel about your brand. If you make the conversation relevant, they walk away with a favorable impression because they know there is enough customer-specific data for you to tailor their experience. Likewise, personalization makes consumers more likely to buy from you. Providing content that is relevant and specific, leads to more conversions, and more recommendations.

Steve Barberio
Senior Vice President, Digital Solutions

What I observed more than anything else last week at Summit was a desire for transparency.

“How does your organization handle process and governance?” “How do you get stakeholder buy-in from Marketing and IT?”

The case study-type sessions were very popular because they revealed many of the same challenges and solutions that companies across the board are facing. During all of the presentations, smartphones shot up to grab photos of workflows or org charts as soon as they were shared on screen. Folks want to know they’re not alone, and want to see behind the proverbial curtain to learn from the best practices, wins, or mistakes of others.

It was also evident as the conversation extended to a shared love and discussion of NPR’s latest podcast, “How I Built This,” where famous entrepreneurs share stories and insights into how they built major brands from the ground up.

Jenni Bruckman
Director, Client Services

Demonstrations illustrating the potential to apply innovation like virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence at scale to marketing programs impressed digital leaders attending Adobe’s Marketing Summit.

However, attendees quickly gravitated towards discovering and better understanding the digital marketing solutions that practically fit within the constraints of their organization’s digital maturity, capabilities, and budget.

Personalization and marketing automation rose to the top of the marketing conversation at Summit, as marketers who have matured in the collection and dissemination of their user data now want to figure out how to automatically apply that data to create more personalized, more effective experiences for their users from first touch, to conversion, to retention.

Mark Kelley
Vice President, Digital Engagement

We live in a world where technology is constantly evolving and seemingly changing on the fly, sometimes right before our eyes. One of the best ways we can use new developments in tech is to create personalized experiences for our customers. Giving your users that ideal experience is becoming more and more important not only on the web but within the context of their day-to-day life.

Consumers don’t want to see a banner about an event in NYC if they are in LA, in fact it might turn them away from your brand completely. Users only want to see content that is relevant and useful to them. For example, someone walking through a store wants to know what items are on sale that match those they have bought in the past or even searched for on the web. By knowing your customer and their preferences, you are not only creating a good experience for them, you are strengthening their loyalty toward you.

Developing useful experiences and meaningful content is incredibly important in our fast paced society. AEM is an extremely powerful tool, and one that keeps growing in terms of capabilities, that can allow you to create personalized experiences for all types of your users.

Gary Howell
Senior Development Manager

Digital Transformation is all or nothing in today’s fast paced market. Brands need to use a combination of content, data, and emotion to reach their consumers. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen told the attendees at Summit, “preserving the status quo is not a strategy” and companies need to embrace innovation as a core value.

Utilizing all of your assets, and pairing them with new and exciting technology, is the way companies are going to succeed in today’s world. Content has to be relevant and timely, data has to be utilized for key insights, and emotion has to be understood for the part it plays in conversions.

Speaking to your customer in a common language through all of your channels is imperative. It’s easy to get caught up in new and exciting things, but as important is the pressure to not detach from your user base. Companies who can juggle all of the new and constantly changing demands of its users will be the ones left standing.

Jason HarrellDirector, Software Engineering

A topic that made its way into a majority of my conversations at Adobe Summit was “pain.” Pain with implementations, pain with not optimizing purchased tools, pain in the lack of knowledge teams had around leveraging the Adobe Experience Cloud and all its offerings.

However, when Summit came to a close, I realized that the Summit attendee’s “pain” wasn’t really pain, it was a need to become more sophisticated with the tools, a desire to be educated, and an ability to fully optimize their Adobe Experience Cloud teams. It opened my eyes to the gaps in knowledge and skill in the market and how important it is to select an implementation partner who has the creditability and experience within the Adobe Experience Cloud.

These conversations helped identify the need for more frequent knowledge sharing across different companies and industries. Many challenges, while seemingly painful for individuals, are actually felt across the market. As key information around optimization, implementation, and education for the Adobe Experience Cloud becomes more sharable within the industry, marketers will become more empowered, making their businesses that much more successful.

Emilia Scarlett
Digital Engagement Lead

Want to work with us for your next customer experience project? Reach out to our team of experts today.

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