Marketers Need to Reinvent Themselves, Adobe Execs Urge at Day Two of Adobe Digital Marketing Summit

SALT LAKE CITY—Sixty-four percent of marketers expect their roles to change within the next year, and while 40 percent say they're ready to reinvent themselves, only 14 percent know how to go about it, John Mellor, vice president of business development and strategy at Adobe, revealed today as he kicked off the day two keynote at Adobe's Digital Marketing Summit. The findings stem from a study of 1,000 marketing professionals conducted by Adobe and shared today at this year's event.

One of the key factors holding marketers back from self-reinvention, Mellor said, is risk aversion. According to the study, 54 percent of marketers said they should take more risks, while 45 percent said they hope to take more risks themselves. New technology is an area that's considered the riskiest, with more than 65 percent of marketers claiming that they are more comfortable adopting new technologies once they become mainstream. Still, Mellor maintained, "there is no reinvention without risk."

According to the study, there is also a significant gap between marketers in companies that spend more than 25 percent of their marketing budget on digital campaigns and those that spend less than 10 percent. Based on the findings, the study links high digital spend with stronger tendencies toward reinvention, with 23 percent of marketers at high digital spend companies claiming they know how to reinvent themselves compared to only 8 percent at low digital spending companies. To bridge the gap, Mellor urged companies to focus on reaching digital maturity and embracing new technology. "To reach digital maturity, you need to have the 3 P's. The best in class people, process, and product," he asserted.

Data and personalization were among the key themes at day two of the Digital Marketing Summit. Results from Adobe's study suggest that most marketers (74 percent) believe that capturing and applying data to inform and drive marketing activities is the new reality, and 69 percent agree on the need to embrace "hyper personalization."

To that end, Adobe announced the launch of Adobe Target Premium, a new personalization solution that uses predictive technology to deliver key insight. Adobe Target Premium, which will become part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud, automates content targeting as well as cross-sell recommendations for marketers. This gives marketers the capability to launch automated campaigns quickly and drive engagement, conversion, and revenue almost immediately. Adobe Target also leverages Adobe Analytics behavioral data and reporting capabilities, enabling marketers to gauge actionable data.

"The solution drives automated decisions and personalization by determining the right content for site visitors and app users. It also promises deeper audience targets by leveraging Target, Analytics, and Audience Manager to enrich the Master Marketing Profile and paint a clearer picture of the online customer," Loni Stark, director of product and industry marketing at Adobe, explained. The solution also offers mobile optimization capabilities such as A/B testing of in-app content and establishes a two-way feed between optimization activities and analytics to examine results, Stark said. "It's a very intuitive workflow and framework that allows marketers to easily create and target different audience experiences."

As day two of the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit came to a close, analysts agreed that Adobe did not disappoint this year. "Adobe has made some compelling if not earth-shattering announcements at Summit; the product innovation and partnerships all reflect a coherent strategy to help their clients better serve their customers, make data-driven decisions, and move the enterprise toward delivering holistic experiences," Cory Munchbach, a Forrester analyst, said in an email.

"Adobe has shown itself to be a best-in-class provider of many capabilities, from a DMP to a cross-channel campaign manager [the former Neolane]. Their challenge is to prove the value of the entire suite of products working together and, from what I have seen, they have done reasonably well backing their story," she added.

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