Adobe Symposium Amsterdam: Experience Business is the New Loyalty

Mar­keters are increas­ing­ly aware of the fact that they need to cre­ate unique expe­ri­ences for their cus­tomers, and lead­ing brands are restruc­tur­ing their busi­ness­es to put cus­tomer expe­ri­ence at the cen­ter of every­thing they do. Adobe Sym­po­sium Ams­ter­dam, which took place Novem­ber 6th at the Ams­ter­dam Are­na, focused on Expe­ri­ence Busi­ness and pro­vid­ed atten­dees with inspi­ra­tion and best prac­tices to take their mar­ket­ing approach to the next level.

Great expe­ri­ences can be a key dif­fer­en­tia­tor and increase cus­tomer loy­al­ty. A recent study by Gold­smiths Uni­ver­si­ty shows that near­ly two thirds (61 per­cent) of cus­tomers feel loy­al to brands that tai­lor their expe­ri­ences to cus­tomers’ pref­er­ences and needs. The strong rela­tion­ship between cus­tomer expe­ri­ence and brand loy­al­ty was also sup­port­ed by the dis­cus­sion at the #AdobeChat dur­ing the event.

The building blocks of experience business

When build­ing an expe­ri­ence busi­ness, today or in the future, there are four guid­ing prin­ci­ples to focus on.

Context is the starting line

Con­tent and data are the engines of the busi­ness. Com­bin­ing the art of cre­at­ing great con­tent with the sci­ence of ana­lyt­ics offers brands the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gen­er­ate valu­able insights on the needs of their cus­tomers. Cus­tomer expe­ri­ences are part of a spe­cif­ic con­text and the bet­ter you are able to under­stand the con­text, the more rel­e­vant the inter­ac­tions with cus­tomers will be.

Design for speed and scale

In order to be able to deliv­er the right mes­sage at the right time, brands must evolve their data strat­e­gy into a con­text strat­e­gy. This does not only involve data analy­sis at scale to iden­ti­fy the right cues, but also requires brands to rethink their glob­al con­tent strat­e­gy from cre­ation to delivery.

Milliseconds make the journey

In the cur­rent com­plex mar­ket­ing land­scape, all mar­keters know that the rela­tion­ship with cus­tomers is not based on a sin­gle inter­ac­tion, but on a series of inter­ac­tions across mul­ti­ple chan­nels and devices. This includes mul­ti­ple depart­ments with­in an orga­ni­za­tion. Brands must antic­i­pate, in real-time, every oppor­tu­ni­ty with­in the cus­tomer journey.

Integrate to innovate

Break­ing down the siloes with­in an orga­ni­za­tion is nec­es­sary for inno­va­tion. Tech­nol­o­gy can be used to uni­fy data, con­tent and process­es, and enables orga­ni­za­tions to use all resources avail­able to cre­ate an inte­grat­ed strategy.

Accord­ing to Toc­cara Bak­er, Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Con­sul­tant for EMEA Adobe Adver­tis­ing Cloud: “Expe­ri­ence busi­ness is all about pro­vid­ing the best cus­tomer jour­ney and mov­ing away from a tac­ti­cal approach to a more holis­tic approach.”

Bart Van de Wiele, Senior Solu­tion Con­sul­tant at Adobe, not­ed: “Busi­ness­es are often too imper­son­al and trans­ac­tion­al. This is why com­pa­nies need to invest in expe­ri­ence busi­ness. In the next three years the biggest change we can expect is in arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and machine learning.

Dur­ing the event, cus­tomers like UBS AG, Delta, Daim­ler AG, Philips Light­ing, DSM and VRT shared their insights on becom­ing an expe­ri­ence busi­ness, and the lessons they have learned so far.

Four digital-fueled trends for 2018 and beyond

To be suc­cess­ful, com­pa­nies should not only address the cur­rent demands and needs of their cus­tomers, but must also antic­i­pate new trends. Dur­ing the clos­ing keynote, David Mat­tin, Glob­al Head of Trends and Insights at Trend­Watch­ing, pro­vid­ed a sneak pre­view of four emerg­ing trends for 2018 and beyond, and shared tac­tics on how to spot and lever­age new trends. Accord­ing to Mat­tin, “a con­sumer trend is a new man­i­fes­ta­tion among peo­ple – in behav­ior, atti­tude, or expec­ta­tion – of a fun­da­men­tal human need, want or desire.”

On one hand, we are sur­round­ed by con­tin­u­ous change, whether that is new tech­nol­o­gy or changes in soci­ety. On the oth­er hand, human nature does not fun­da­men­tal­ly change much over time. Human beings are dri­ven by a set of basic needs and wants — safe­ty, fun, val­ue, and con­nec­tion. These basic needs don’t change from month to month, or sea­son to sea­son. Trends emerge when new inno­va­tions address these basic needs in nov­el ways. Here’s what we can expect:

1. A‑Commerce (Auto­mat­ed Com­merce) — In 2018, shop­pers will look to han­dover every ele­ment of the sourc­ing, bar­gain­ing, pur­chas­ing, tai­lor­ing and col­lec­tion of prod­ucts and services.
2. Insid­er Trad­ing — One pow­er­ful way to show cus­tomers that your val­ues align with theirs is to make mean­ing­ful, pos­i­tive changes to your inter­nal culture.
3. Vir­tu­al Com­pan­ions — In 2018, vir­tu­al per­son­al­i­ties will prove they have the pow­er to enter­tain, edu­cate and heal. They will make the leap from assis­tants to companions.
4. Vir­tu­al Expe­ri­ence Econ­o­my — Dig­i­tal expe­ri­ences (includ­ing AR/VR) are final­ly becom­ing real sta­tus cur­ren­cy for mil­lions of consumers.

2018 promis­es to be an excit­ing year for mar­keters and brands in the race to become an expe­ri­ence busi­ness. What are your key learn­ings and insights?