Adobe Summit 2019 insights
Adobe Summit 2019, held in Las Vegas, NV on March 26–28, brought together thousands of experience makers, technologists, marketers, and digital transformation experts. This three-day event provided valuable insights into Adobe’s latest capabilities and emerging trends. Companies from various industries rely on Adobe Experience Cloud to manage their digital businesses across every stage of the customer journey.
Here are my 3 top takeaways from attending the event:
1. “People buy experiences. Not products.”
- Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen
Across all sessions, Adobe Summit 2019 emphasized the need for brands to deliver relevant and consistent experiences to customers across any channel. The event’s theme of Customer Experience Management (CXM) highlighted how successful marketers focus on human connection and personalization to create positive customer interactions.
In the realm of modern marketing, omnichannel has emerged as a strategic imperative. Unlike the fragmented, siloed experiences of the past, omnichannel marketing aims for a cohesive, seamless journey for customers across both digital and offline touchpoints.
Here’s what it means:
Connected Experiences
Omnichannel marketing treats all channels — be it websites, email communication, digital ads, mobile apps, social media, physical stores, or call centers — as interconnected parts of a whole. The goal is to provide a consistent brand experience regardless of where the customer interacts with your business.
Mutually Rewarding
By integrating data and insights from various channels, businesses can tailor their messaging and offerings to individual preferences. Customers benefit from personalized recommendations, relevant promotions, and a sense of recognition. In return, businesses gain loyalty, repeat engagement or purchases, and positive word-of-mouth.
Breaking Down Silos
Traditional marketing often operates in silos — each channel with its own metrics, teams, and strategies. Omnichannel breaks down these barriers, fostering collaboration and alignment. It’s not about choosing one channel over another; it’s about orchestrating them harmoniously.
Seamless Transitions
Imagine a customer browsing your website, adding items to their cart, and then visiting your physical store. Omnichannel ensures that the transition is smooth — their cart remains intact, and the in-store experience seamlessly continues the online journey.
Seamless Transitions in B2B
Consider a scenario in the B2B context: An IT manager from a large manufacturing company is researching an enterprise application solution. They explore product specifications, compare vendors, and may even access product trials. Now, imagine this same manager decides to visit a physical trade show where these suppliers have booths. Omnichannel marketing ensures that the transition is seamless:
- Unified Experience: As the IT manager steps into the trade show, their online research remains intact. A supplier‘s booth messages and offerings align seamlessly with what they explored on the website. The booth representatives, after scanning a badge, recognize the IT manager as a potential customer, armed with insights from their digital interactions.
- Personalization Continues: The IT manager receives personalized recommendations based on their online behavior. If they were interested in specific product or use case, those are highlighted. The IT manager feels recognized and valued.
- Effortless Follow-Up: After the trade show, the IT manager receives a follow-up email. It references the products they viewed online and suggests scheduling a demo or requesting a quote.
- Data Synchronization: Omnichannel ensures that data — whether from the website, trade show interactions, or subsequent emails — is synchronized. The sales team has a holistic view of the manager’s journey.
- Consistent Brand Voice: Whether online or face-to-face, the messaging remains consistent. The supplier’s brand promise echoes throughout the entire experience.
In B2B, as in B2C, omnichannel experience management has the potential to bridge the gap between digital and physical touchpoints. It transforms fragmented interactions into a cohesive journey, leaving a lasting impression on customers.
Omnichannel thrives on data. By analyzing customer behavior across channels, businesses can refine their strategies, optimize campaigns, and deliver relevant content. It’s about understanding the complete customer lifecycle. In essence, omnichannel marketing is about recognizing that customers don’t see channels; they see your brand.
2. Marketers want to deliver great experiences across the full customer journey — but are constrained by how much content they can produce
Increasing content velocity and improving cross-channel content orchestration can’t be solved through hiring more resources.
Marketers need a platform that:
- Centralizes the design, authoring, delivery and management of experiences across diverse channels and devices
- Helps maintain a singular voice throughout each context of a customer’s personalized journey
- Unlocks artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to scale our efforts, automates authoring, and accelerate our speed to market
Adobe Experience Cloud brings together all of your marketing tech in a single place, so you can do everything from managing your content and delivering email campaigns to automating your ad buying and measuring your success.
Adobe Summit introduced the next generation of Adobe Sensei, their cutting-edge AI and machine learning technology integrated into Adobe Experience Cloud solutions, revolutionizing how businesses operate:
- Deeper Insights and Real-Time Decisioning: Whether it’s understanding customer behavior or optimizing marketing campaigns, Sensei empowers marketers with real-time intelligence.
- Smarter Workflows: By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining processes, Sensei frees up teams to focus on creativity and strategy.
- Precision in Contextual Messaging: Brands can leverage Sensei to serve the right message, at the right time, and in the right context — improving message relevance and fostering deeper connections with customers.
3. To scale, marketers need to simplify the process of creating and delivering personalized, omnichannel customer experiences
Adobe Experience Platform Revealed
As a Design Director, I’m keenly aware of the critical role seamless experiences play in shaping customer perceptions. That’s why the unveiling of the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) at Adobe Summit 2019 resonated with me. Here’s why AEP matters from a user-centric perspective:
AEP stitches together data fragments into dynamic customer profiles — offering a holistic view of each user. As digital experience designers, we can now craft relationship-based experiences that extend beyond individual touchpoints.
AEP isn’t just about data aggregation; it’s about activating content in real time. Imagine a customer browsing a website and seeing content related to an email campaign they’ve recently interacted with.
These capabilities can serve as a powerful catalyst for data-driven, automated experiences. By integrating insights, personalization, and real-time content activation, AEP will empower digital experience teams to create cohesive, context-aware interactions that resonate with users across channels.
Press release: Adobe Announces Global Availability of Adobe Experience Platform
