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Tag: Adobe Marketing Cloud

  • Adobe CEO: Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital

    Adobe CEO: Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital

    “What the pandemic and the current health situation has done is that it has created yet another inflection point for everything being digital,” says Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. “The importance of digital in the marketplace is going to be sustainable for decades. You’re not going to put the genie back in the bottle as it relates to engaging digitally and creating content digitally.”

    Shantanu Narayen, Chairman and CEO of Adobe, discusses how the pandemic has created another “inflection point” in the move toward digital transformation:

    Digital Transformation Is A $120 Billion Opportunity

    It was a good quarter all around. All of our businesses performed exceedingly well. On the Creative Cloud and the Document Cloud, not only did we have a great acquisition. in other words, new customers adopting the platform, but we really focused on engagement and demonstrating the value of our products to our customers. Even our retention levels came back to pre-COVID levels which we believe is a really good sign.

    What’s happening in the world is the businesses that we’re in, namely creativity and enabling people to tell their story, what’s happening with documents and accelerating document productivity, and what’s happening associated with every single enterprise needing to engage with their customers digitally, when you add all of this up we think it’s over a $120 billion of an addressable market opportunity for Adobe.

    Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital

    What the pandemic and the current health situation has done is that it has created yet another inflection point for everything being digital. What we will have to continue to monitor is what happens in the spending environment. But as it relates to the overall need for the kinds of solutions that Adobe provides as well as the importance of digital in the marketplace I think that’s going to be sustainable for decades. You’re not going to put the genie back in the bottle as it relates to engaging digitally and creating content digitally.

    We believe that we’re in this third phase of what is happening in the enterprise. Traditionally, businesses first focused on automating the back office, and then they focused on automating the front office for knowledge workers. It’s absolutely clear that the biggest imperative that exists in the enterprise today is how do you engage with customers? This is a category that we call Customer Experience Management.

    Customer Insight Is Key To Your Digital Transformation

    If you’re an enterprise today and you’re thinking about digital transformation, what’s top of that stack in terms of where you have to invest is to make sure that you have insight into what your customers are doing. How are they engaging with you? What’s the profile? How do you deliver the personalized experience?

    We really believe that what you’re seeing in the enterprise spend environment is that the companies that are focused on this next generation of delivering customer engagement, the customer experiences, and the insight associated with how to take the most advantage of that data, they’re going to be the secular winners moving forward.

    Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen: Pandemic Was Inflection Point For Everything Being Digital
  • Adobe Launches New Programmatic Ad Platform

    Adobe Launches New Programmatic Ad Platform

    Adobe announced that it is rolling out what it is calling “the industry’s most advanced” global programmatic advertising platform, specifically for advertisers and publishers using Adobe Marketing Cloud products.

    “It offers a new level of personalized, transparent, data-driven and efficient ad buying and delivery to boost ad performance and revenue across channels,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

    The new self-serve platform is powered by Adobe Media Optimizer and lets advertisers control automated ad buying for search, display, and social media across exchanges and media networks from Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Rubicon Project, Index Exchange, and others.

    “Advertisers continue to struggle with the fragmentation of the programmatic ad buying process and the lack of transparency,” says Adobe’s Justin Merickel in a blog post. “This new platform provides full transparency into media costs, ad performance and revenue with a customer commitment to never arbitrage or hide fees. Tight integration with Adobe Analytics and Adobe Audience Manager ensures that advertisers can tap into data to refine and target granular audience segments. Dynamic creative capabilities enable advertisers to use images, video and other assets from Adobe Creative Cloud to deliver the right content to the right user at the right time.”

    Adobe also announced its programmatic offering for media publishers via Adobe Primetime (in beta).

    Image via Adobe

  • Adobe Aims To Improve ‘Internet of Things’ Marketing

    Adobe Aims To Improve ‘Internet of Things’ Marketing

    Adobe held its digital marketing conference Adobe Summit, and made a slew of marketing-related announcements

    “The product and partner announcements cover where marketing is going next: bringing digital experiences to the physical world, IoT and wearable devices, mobile marketing innovations for the entire app lifecycle, and the convergence of marketing and ad technologies,” a spokesperson for Adobe tells WebProNews.

    Connecting Businesses and Consumers via the Internet of Things

    First off, Adobe Marketing Cloud is getting an upgrade related to the Internet of things (IoT). The company says it’s enabling brands to bring “highly personalized experiences” to physical spaces like retail stores, hotel rooms, vending machines and other IoT devices. It’s doing so by offering a new IoT SDK to let brands measure and analyze consumer engagement across any of these devices.

    “What’s driving this is the digital transformation of the enterprise, catalyzed by the marketing department. Previously siloed, marketing data is now being used in concert with data collected by other departments like sales and customer service, creating a richer view of the customer,” Adobe says.

    “Marketing is moving beyond existing digital channels to include new physical experiences in the real world,” said Adobe SVP of DIgital Marketing Brad Rencher. “Adobe Marketing Cloud helps brands use their online marketing data to create unparalleled personalization in retail, entertainment, and travel and leisure experiences.”

    In addition to the SDK, Adobe has new “Experience Manager Screens,” which it says enable marketers to extend interactive content to these physical spaces with one author user experience to ensure consistency across devices. It supports multi-touch so content can easily move among screen sizes. It’s all tied into Creative Cloud.

    “Adobe Experience Manager Screens allows us to redefine the way clothing lines are designed and displayed,” comments Jody Giles, SVP of Product Integration at Under Armour. “Instead of physical samples, we are able to create rich digital designs and experiences in record time and extend them to our Catalog app. We can also see customers using the technology in our stores and engaging with our brand on life-size touch screens.”

    Marketing Cloud also has new “intelligent location” capabilities, which let businesses tap into GPS and iBeacon data to optimize their physical brand presences.

    “With the visualization of iBeacon data, brands are able to view traffic patterns and customer engagements within retail stores, sports stadiums, airports, hotels, museums and other points of interests,” the company explains. “Marketers can view and measure dwell times throughout the day, consumer interactions with push notifications and in-app messages triggered by iBeacons and more. The visualization of data enables them to reconfigure store layouts and optimize the display of merchandise to fully maximize ROI.”

    As Marketing Cloud users can now reach IoT devices, Adobe Target now supports digital content testing, optimization, and personalization across them. Content can be served on ATMs, gas pumps, game consoles, car dashboards, appliances, etc. based on users’ personal interests. Adobe says it uses “predictive, yet anonymous” data including CRM and third-party sources to personalize content in real time. Businesses will be able to analyze engagement using Mobile Core Services and Adobe Analytics.

    According to a consumer survey, the top IoT devices consumers want to interact with digitally are home electronics (61%), home appliances like thermostats, fridges, or ovens (54%), and cars (51%). 27% of those who don’t currently own a smartwatch say they are very likely to buy one in next 6 months, while 67% of those said they were very likely to buy Apple Watch (I wonder what percentage plan on buying a $17,000 model).

    77% said it would be useful to receive promotions while inside a store (j84% for 18-34 year-olds), and 74% of marketers see great potential in impact of IoT and wearables.

    Mobile Marketing and App Development

    Also at the summit, Adobe introduced some new stuff for Adobe Mobile Services, including a new mobile app framework that brings together Adobe Experience Manager Apps, Adobe PhoneGap Enterprise, Adobe Analytics – Mobile Apps, and Adobe Target.

    “Adobe Digital Index data shows a new record in the use of mobile devices and yet, building a successful mobile app experience today remains a mystery for many marketers,” said Matt Asay, vice president, Mobile Strategy at Adobe. “They struggle to synthesize a myriad of different mobile tools that address very specific needs. With Adobe Mobile Services, we will dramatically simplify this process, making it easy for marketers to build and optimize their apps.”

    The framework includes tools to aid in development, user acquisition, app analytics, and user engagement. The spokesperson says it “delivers the complete, integrated solution in the industry for developing and managing apps, and is the first to eliminate marketers’ dependence on an array of disjointed point solutions.”

    Adobe has added six new app tech providers to its partner ecosystem, including: Fiksu, Vibes, Kochava, Ionic, Crittercism, and appFigures. Each is integrating its tools into the framework.

    “Adobe Analytics clients will be provided with mobile app store data including: app downloads, app and in-app revenue, returns, ranks and ratings,” a spokesperson for appFigures tells WebProNews. “Data provided by appFigures will be updated in near real-time. With app store data directly available in their dashboards, marketers and developers will have more insightful data to base their mobile decisions on.”

    That particular integration is expected to be available in Q2.

    Data-Driven Marketing and Ad Tech

    Adobe also introduced a new algorithmic engine and updates to its Marketing Cloud Audience Core Services to “bring together the worlds of data-driven marketing and ad tech.”

    This involves integrating programmatic buying natively to put the marketplace right in front of the marketer as they put it.

    “New Audience Core Services enable brands to connect massive audience and behavioral data from a broad range of sources, including CRM systems, websites and apps while a new set of algorithms lets them reach those audiences with paid media through Adobe Media Optimizer,” the company says.

    “We believe programmatic efforts to date are broken and focus simply on display ad bidding,” adds John Mellor, VP of Digital Marketing at Adobe. “Having a one-stop shop for all your targeting and data as well as transparency into technology pricing and media costs is a big step towards true programmatic. The ability to share audience segments across other Adobe Marketing Cloud Solutions brings that data to life across channels and ensures that audiences are seeing the same message no matter where marketers connect with them.”

    Partnership with IBM

    Adobe has also partnered with IBM Interactive Experience, which is building specialized enterprise consulting capabilities for Marketing Cloud.

    “A recent IBM Institute for Business Value study indicates that there is a disconnect between what consumers say they want from digital experiences and how they actually behave,” said Paul Papas, Global Leader, IBM Interactive Experience. “Today’s announcement will help marketers close the gap between expectations and experience using a combinations of Adobe Marketing Cloud and the services of IBM Interactive Experience, a unique digital agency that brings together experience design, systems integration and strategy consulting.”

    Adobe is also expanding its alliance with Accenture with a new cloud-based managed service based on Marketing Cloud. More on that here.

    According to Adobe, 76% of the Fortune 50 utilize Marketing Cloud, as do 9 of the top 10 internet retailers and all of the top 5 media companies and top 10 software companies.

  • Cyber Monday Sales Up 16% According To Adobe

    Cyber Monday Sales Up 16% According To Adobe

    Last week, we asked if Cyber Monday was losing its luster, as various reports and studies were finding that interest in the online shopping holiday seemed go be on the decline, as the holiday shopping period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday becomes just more of constant buying stretch. Some indicated that the deals on Cyber Monday weren’t as good as those on Thanksgiving and Black Friday as well.

    Either way, it was still a pretty good Cyber Monday for retailers – particularly the big ones – according to data from Adobe.

    “Cyber Monday sales were up 16 percent this year, with the biggest retailers seeing the biggest gains,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst for Adobe Digital Index. “The early birds caught the worms on Cyber Monday, with shoppers getting the steepest discounts in the early morning hours.”

    Total online sales reached $2.65 billion, according to the report. The top 25 retailers each generated $30 million or more on Cyber Monday, and they saw online sales increase by 25% at nearly $1.8 billion. Smaller retailers (those that generated $2 million or less), grew by 5%.

    As for the timing, consumers saw the highest discounts of 23% in the early morning hours and 54% of online sales came in outside of normal working hours. Adobe highlights the following trends:

    Total Online Spend: Consumers spent $2.65 billion online on Cyber Monday, a 16 percent growth year-over-year (YoY). Shopping reached its peak between 9 and 10 p.m. ET. The top 25 U.S. retailers (brick-and-mortar and online-only) saw 25 percent YoY growth. Smaller retailers increased online sales by only five percent. Between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, total online sales came in at $9.6 billion, a 20 percent growth YoY. The season’s total, between November 1 and December 1, rose 14 percent YoY to reach $37.9 billion.

    Shopping Trends: Consumers were able to get the best deals with discounts reaching 23 percent on average during early morning hours. By the end of the day the average discount climbed by two percentage points to 21 percent. Online shopping occurred mostly outside of work hours (54 percent), with 41 percent coming in after 6 p.m. ET even at elevated price levels.

    Mobile Trends: Smartphones and tablets continued to drive sales. Nineteen percent of total online sales ($328 million) were driven by mobile devices, flat compared to last year. Smartphones and tablets drove equal shares with iOS devices generating 79 percent of total mobile sales.

    Adobe’s analysis is based on aggregated and anonymous data of more than 400 million visits to 4,500 retail websites. The company claims more than $7 out of $10 spent online with the top 500 U.S. retailers are measured by Adobe Marketing Cloud.

    Other reports had Cyber Monday sales growth lower than what Adobe found.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Adobe Announces A Bunch Of New Marketing Features

    Adobe Announces A Bunch Of New Marketing Features

    Adobe made a handful of announcements related to predictive marketing and real-time customer engagement to grow its digital marketing business, which it says surpassed $1 billion in revenue in 2013.

    First, Adobe announced Marketing Cloud Exchange, a new core service in Adobe Marketing Cloud. This is a new marketplace for pre-built integrations and apps between Adobe solutions and third-party technologies such as Google DDM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Tableau. It integrates additional data sources, and enhances the master marketing profile, Adobe says, adding that Exchange is moving from beta to general availability this week, and hosts more than 150 apps.

    More on Marketing Cloud Exchange here.

    Next, Adobe announced new capabilities for Adobe Analytics. These include a live stream of event data, including real-time data from Adobe Target, Adobe Social and Adobe Media Optimizer, as well as predictive analytics, a unified segment builder, mobile app analytics, and support for Apple iBeacon.

    “The Adobe Marketing Cloud is the most integrated set of marketing solutions, and it all centers on industry-leading analytics that is second to none,” said Bill Ingram, vice president of Adobe Social and Adobe Analytics, Adobe. “Today’s news takes the power of Adobe Analytics to a new level, with predictive capabilities and mobile functionality that ensure marketers can maximize both impact and revenue.”

    Then, Adobe announced a new release of Adobe Media Optimizer, which includes next-gen predictive modeling algorithms, unified campaign analysis, extended audience reach, real-time campaign management, and retail advertising optimization.

    Finally, the company announced Communities for Learning as part of Adobe Experience Manager. This is described as a new SaaS offering for creating social communities designed around social learning and field/channel enablement, “providing a simple way for marketers and subject matter experts to publish educational content to a community, facilitate knowledge exchange, and measure results.”

    More on this here.

    Adobe shared these stats about its digital marketing business: 460 billion dynamic campaign assets delivered annually; 18 trillion transaction annually; 2 trillion mobile analytics transactions annually; 27 Petabytes of data managed annually; 2/3 of Fortune 50 companies use the Adobe Marketing Cloud including: 17 of top 20 internet retailers; 5 of top 5 global auto manufacturers; 5 of top 5 media companies; 9 of top 10 commercial banks; 5 of top 5 North American airlines.

    Images via Adobe