10 Things I Learned At Adobe Summit 2017

Marketers aren’t just talking about being customer-centric—they are actually putting dollars on the table and taking real steps toward customer-centricity and providing superb experiences.

10 Things I Learned At Adobe Summit 2017

This time two weeks ago, I landed in Las Vegas for the extraordinary Adobe Summit. Before life here at CMO.com fully takes over again, I wanted to share some of what I learned.

First off, it was especially great to see that marketers aren’t just talking about being customer-centric—they are actually putting dollars on the table and taking real steps toward customer-centricity and providing superb experiences.

Summit attendees heard stories from brands including the NBA, ESPN, USA Today, Prudential, T-Mobile, and National Geographic. We learned all about their digital transformation journeys, their obsession with customers, and how they are building a digital framework for experience.

Here are 10 of the most noteworthy takeaways from the conference:

  1. An experience, according to Brad Rencher, EVP on the Marketing Cloud side of the business at Adobe, is the “sum of all the interactions a person has with a brand.” That got me thinking: Everyone makes mistakes, right? Even brands. But if 90% of the experiences I have with a brand are positive, I’ll be more forgiving for the 10% of not-so-great experiences. Making experience your business, therefore, future-proofs your brand.
  2. I’ve been covering the marketing, media, and commerce landscape since 2006, so I can safely say that digital transformation isn’t a new concept. Marketers have been talking about the need to transform and claim to have been taking steps in that direction for years. However, this was the first time I’ve heard it from so many brands all in one place. And I don’t mean that folks were just saying, “We need to transform.” They gave details about what they did, how they did it, and how they are reaping the benefits. Digital transformation is finally real.
  3. In a time when people are consuming content where and when they want to, companies are putting forth great effort to build a digital foundation that allows for speedy, creative responses. Some, such as ESPN, are already there. But many still are not equipped to adhere to the rules of engagement with today’s always-connected consumer.
  4. To keep up with these leaders and assist in digital transformation, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen introduced Adobe Experience Cloud, a comprehensive set of cloud services designed to help enterprises deliver exceptional customer experiences. “We understand what it takes,” he said during the opening general session of the conference, “and this represents a massive leap for all of us.”
  5. I was blown away learning that National Geographic uses Adobe Social to listen to what people are interested in online. In fact, social listening indicated that people are passionate about climate change, so the company rolled out a series of experiences online around that topic. Here’s the really cool (no pun intended) part: The engagement was so high that it spurred a collaboration between National Geographic and actor Leonardo DiCaprio for the documentary “Before The Flood,” one of the most-watched documentary of all time.
  6. Content is really key for experiential marketing. Every experience starts with a piece of content. That’s why data-driven content creation, optimization, and delivery are so top-of-mind for marketers today. It’s the only way to truly become an experience business.
  7. Which leads me directly to: Experience isn’t possible without design, delivery, and data, a point underscored by an Adobe Think Tank panel. (You can watch the full live stream of that discussion here.)
  8. When I typically thought about innovation, what came to mind were company geniuses trying to accomplish big and complicated ideas. PwC changed my view. “At PwC, we define innovation as incremental and disruptive,” said Mitra Best, chief innovation officer at PwC, during the “Women In Tech” panel discussion. “Incremental is what we all do every day—improving customer experiences, employee experiences, driving revenue, increasing efficiencies, doing things to drive competitive advantage.” If PwC is right, and I think it is, then every employee can become an innovator—even me. Amazing.
  9. The big trends marketers need to watch over the next few years are IoT, 3D printing, augmented/virtual reality, robotics, and blockchain. My bet is on VR/AR having the biggest impact on businesses in the next five years. Media companies, in particular, are the ones to watch. USA Today CMO Andy Yost spoke at Summit about his company’s use of the tech, and RYOT’s Molly Swensen discussed how her company is essentially “hacking” the media industry with the help of virtual reality. Marketers in other industries should pay close attention.
  10. The experience business will have to have a new set of KPIs for measuring success. “Emotion is the currency of experience,” said John Mellor, Adobe’s VP of strategy, alliances, and marketing. It’s all about making people feel good, and when you think of the most successful brands today, they are the ones going out of their way to make each and every experience something really special.”

Missed Adobe Summit? You can watch replays of the keynotes here.