Adobe Summit EMEA 2019: Unveiling the Future of Customer Experience Management

Strategic Partnership with Software AG Unveiled; New Commerce Innovations Announced.

We welcomed more than 6,000 customers and partners to Adobe EMEA Summit to discuss the future of Customer Experience Management (CXM) and how digital transformation is disrupting businesses across the world. The EMEA region, in particular, is faced with an explosion in content, as well as a fragmented and disrupted media landscape. The ability to provide compelling digital content and customer experiences is more critical than ever, but for brands to cut through the noise, they must make digital transformation a priority and put customer experience at the centre of all that they do.

To help our customers on their journey, we gave our guests the opportunity to hear, first-hand, from Adobe customers who are already in the process of transforming – including illycaffè, Unilever, BT, and hundreds more over the course of two days in breakout sessions.

We unveiled the latest in our technology innovations and announced a new strategic partnership with Software AG, a collaboration that will help brands drive enhanced customer engagements and increase sales productivity by bringing together customer data from multiple enterprise systems into one customer profile.

Giving our customers access to a robust customer engagement platform

By stitching together customer data from across multiple enterprise systems, including Software AG’s webMethods Integration, brands now have access to centralised and actionable real-time customer profiles. This is an extension of our growing partner ecosystem in Europe, which already includes over 12,800 agency, solution and tech partners.

Powerful advances for commerce

We’ve also introduced new integrations to Magento Commerce: Amazon Sales Channel and Google Shopping ads Channel. Both integrations will enable brands to offer seamless shoppable experiences across platforms and channels, now including two of the world’s largest shopping platforms. Additionally, with the launch of an Analytics extension via Adobe Experience Platform, we’re helping brands gain a more complete understanding of customer behaviour in a matter of minutes.

Experience Index: The disconnect between expectations and experience

Earlier this year, Adobe’s Digital Trends Report found that CXM was a number one priority for 2019. Research released at Summit EMEA has further underlined the extent of this shift, revealing that brands aren’t currently delivering the customer experiences that consumers expect. The Experience Index showed that UK consumers gave brands a score of just 54% in delivering exceptional customer experiences, which dropped to 50% for Germany and France. This is despite the fact that over two-thirds of consumers expect personalised experiences as a bare minimum. These findings were based on research undertaken in the UK, Germany and France.

From B2B and B2C to ‘Business to Everyone’

Another Adobe report, Creating Epic Customer Experiences, has shown the behaviours of B2B buyers are increasingly merging with those of B2C buyers. B2B buyers are demanding qualities typically prized by B2C buyers, like transparency, brand purpose and personalisation. The report predicts the emergence of a ‘Business to Everyone’ approach, whereby marketers seek to engage with audiences at an individual level rather than through the classic B2B/B2C lens. The report suggests technology will play a key role in helping marketers personalise experiences consistently and at scale.

Inspiring Adobe Experience Makers

It wouldn’t be Summit without a day of inspiration, and at EMEA 2019, guests heard from international human rights barrister Amal Clooney, who is at the pinnacle in driving positive change, and Academy Award winning actor Eddie Redmayne, who has super charged his career with diverse role choices. Our famous Summit Sneaks session was also hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall – and aside from the entertainment, our customers and partners saw the latest innovations coming out of Adobe R&D labs in areas such as AI, mixed reality and voice.

To keep up-to-date with everything happening at Summit EMEA next year, follow #AdobeSummit and the Digital Europe Blog.