SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Adobe Inc. is set to announce better platform integration of its digital marketing solutions, new mobile marketing tools, and results from a global survey of marketers this week during its annual conference focused on its Marketing Cloud.
While most know Adobe for its famous Photoshop software, and other products in the Creative Suite such as Illustrator and the PDF-editing Acrobat, its digital marketing cloud is a billion-dollar business that encompasses several software solutions including Media Optimizer, Adobe Social, Experience Manager, Adobe Target, Adobe Campaign, and Adobe Analytics. Adobe says that 64 per cent of the Fortune 50 companies use its software, as do nine of the world’s top 10 banks and all five of the top five airlines.
Platform becomes more integrated
Adobe’s Marketing Cloud will see tighter integration through a new “Core Services” concept that allows access to a set of services from across the entire software line. Users of the solutions included in the core services roll-out will be able to manage profiles, share assets, deploy tags, activate and optimize experiences, collaborate, manage users and security, and deploy to mobile. It means easier access to data, content, and APIs created using the Adobe platform.
“It makes it a much more streamlined process to get data into and out of these solutions,” says Kevin Lindsay, a director of product marketing for Adobe Target. “Think of it more of a common platform, regardless of which solution you’re working in.”
An example of how these services will make a marketer’s life easier comes in shared assets. Adobe now offers one common place to store assets that have completed an internal approval process and are ready to face the public. When a marketer is looking to fill a banner, display ad, or other content types they can check this repository for something pre-baked and ready to serve.
Also adding to the integrated platform will be a new Master Marketing Profile available to users. Adobe says this will give marketers a single view of their customer, allowing them to deliver personalized and custom experiences in real-time. From the consumer point of view, it means a consistent experience with a brand regardless of what digital channel you’re making contact.
More mobile marketing tools
Adobe is announcing the availability of PhoneGap Enterprise, a tool for developers to build customer-facing apps while receiving enterprise-level support from Adobe. PhoneGap is the developer platform to build an app’s backend, while Adobe Experience Manager is to be used by marketers creating the content, adding personalization, and monitoring analytics.
“It’s really a move to look at mobile as a core part of your digital strategy,” Lindsay says.
Mobile Services 2.0 will be available to Adobe customers that subscribe to analytics or testing and optimization services. It’s designed to measure campaigns that drive app downloads, and then measure and optimize app user behaviour to increase the lifetime of that app. Marketers will be able to see in-app analytics and do targeting on a granular level.
Also coming to Adobe’s mobile marketing wheelhouse is support for Apple iBeacon, the Bluetooth low-energy devices meant to trigger interactions with mobile users in specific geographic areas. Adobe will allow marketers to measure and respond to user engagement in apps connected to iBeacon devices. Marketers could choose to deliver notifications or offers based on iBeacon proximity and analyze consumer behaviour in certain areas, such as how long they stuck around.
Roadblocks for digital marketing
Adobe is also using its Salt Lake City Summit to showcase the results of a 1,000 marketer survey it conducted globally. The survey sought out the roadblocks getting in the way of marketers doing their jobs.
Among the findings:
- 40 per cent of marketers say they want to reinvent themselves, but only 14 per cent say they know how to do it.
- 50 per cent of marketers think an ideal marketer is one who takes more risks.
- 76 per cent of marketers say they need to be more data-focused to succeed.
- This week we’ll also see updates to Adobe software products and the release of new data collected from all the users of Adobe’s Marketing Cloud, which should reveal some wider industry trends for what digital channels people are using to connect with brands, and how they’re using them.
Watch ITBusiness.ca for more updates and coverage from the Summit.