March 11, 2015
By Maria Minsker, contributing writer

Adobe Summit Day Two: Adobe Doubles Down on Mobile and Wearable App Technology

Salt Lake City—On day two of the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit, the keynote was headlined by award-winning actor Michael Keaton, along with other celebrity figures, including mountain climbers Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell and Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young. The morning's presenters offered encouraging messages to marketers faced with the challenge of digitalizing their customer experiences. "You have to let go of your own disbelief and commit," Jorgeson urged, while Keaton told attendees that it's "impossible to get what you want without hard work," and calling on them to "go after the opportunities."

But the day wasn't all about inspiration. Adobe executives also dug deeper into some of the new technology introduced yesterday, and shared more information on the company's strategy for the Internet of Things revolution, which is settling in at a "crazy" rate, John Mellor, vice president of business development and strategy at Adobe, said.

Adobe announced updated solutions that would now reach not only mobile, but also wearable and other IoT devices. Thanks to an Adobe Target upgrade, for example, digital content testing, optimization, and real-time personalization capabilities are now available for content beyond the Web and mobile applications. Marketers can serve content based on specific customer behaviors as well as predictive, anonymous, CRM, and third-party data to any connected device, as well as offer IoT support across devices ranging from gas station pump screens to car dashboards, game consoles, and the Apple Watch.

With updates to Adobe Analytics and Mobile Core Services, marketers will now also be able to measure and analyze customer engagements instantly within content and across Internet of Things devices. Adoption of these devices is growing quickly, and marketers must take the leap into the IoT realm regardless of the risk, Adobe executives insisted."We are all change agents," Mellor said. "We all have the opportunity to inspire change, but this requires taking risks."

Adobe is also expanding its mobile ecosystem with mobile app technology providers that will begin integrating their solutions into the vendor's platform. For example, Adobe is partnering with Ionic, a hybrid mobile app development tool that complements Adobe Experience Manager apps, in building high-performance apps that enable navigation, animation, gestures, and other smart user interface elements. Through additional partnerships with Fiksu, a mobile campaign performance provider; Critterism, a mobile app performance tool; Vibes, a mobile wallet platform; and others, Adobe aims to broaden its app development, user acquisition, app analysis, and user engagement solutions.

The extensive additions will enable a more complete experience beyond the desktop and empower users to manage the complete app cycle through integrated tools. The "industry-first, end-to-end mobile solution" will help eliminate market fragmentation created by disjointed point solutions, Brad Rencher, senior vice president at Adobe, said when he announced the improvements.

Michaela Strand, product manager at Adobe, demonstrated the capabilities of Adobe's expanded mobile platform, highlighting the ease of adding features such as in-app messaging to applications, as well as update application content across devices and operating systems in one common user interface. "There's no need to go through multiple processes anymore," she said. "It all happens in one place now, and in mere minutes."

Several Adobe customers shared their experiences using the Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Starwood Hotel vice president of CRM, loyalty, and business intelligence systems Chris Norton discussed the role that Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe mobile platform has played in Starwood mobile marketing efforts. According to Norton, the company now equips many rooms across its network of hotels with tablets that are personalized with customers' information before they check into their rooms. The Starwood app on the tablet is populated with a traveler's loyalty program information, past preferences, and other customizations tailored to individual travel experiences. The content changes dynamically based on the customer that checks in, and Norton says that the company owes the seamlessness with which the updates and personalization happen to the far-reaching capabilities of Adobe solutions. "We [couldn't] pick...point solutions from different providers anymore," Norton said. "We had to invest in a full cloud solution like Adobe's, because for us, it's all about the integration."

Integration of marketing solutions, especially new solutions that facilitate mobile and Internet of Things experiences, was central to many of the discussions on day two. As the presentations wrapped up, Adobe customers and executives reiterated the speed with which digital technology is evolving, and called on marketers to move quickly and embrace technology that can move even faster, said Todd Copeland, general manager of digital at the National Australia Bank, an Adobe customer. "Ninety percent of customer interactions with the National Australia Bank are now digital," he said, "and 65 percent of those are on mobile devices. We have to make those experiences effortless."