Adobe Summit Day 3: Baby it ain't over till it's over

People are just sleeping out in the open in beanbag chairs. We’re on a steady diet of popcorn, miniature tapioca puddings and Diet Coke. We saw a large black robot force Ann Lewnes into a photo and nearly take her out because it couldn’t control its arms. A fully besuited astronaut just casually walked down the show floor. Not sure if this is real or hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation, but there is still work to do so we are putting on our game faces and getting down to business.

Today’s general session is a focus on Marketo – the marketing automation software for account-based marketing, including email, mobile, social, digital ads, web management, and analytics. It’s SVP Digital Experience, Steve Lucas again! Man, this guy has energy—it’s Day Three, how is this even possible?

Steve was joined on stage by Shantanu, who looked both amused and terrified by Animated Steve. They discussed when they first met, and Shantanu knew after speaking with him, that their two companies shared a similar vision and similar passion for the customer experience and that these were two companies that deserved to be together, so he gave Steve the final rose. We think these two go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Steve spoke further on the future of Marketo and the importance of experience. He said, “Experience is the line between epic and epic failure. It’s the difference between Coachella and Fyre Festival.” This is relatable. We’ll take a holographic Tupac in the desert over a sad cheese sandwich any day, thank you very much.

The next big focus for Adobe and Marketo is going to be account-based marketing (ABM). They are committed to being able to deliver end-to-end account-based experiences for their customers, and announced an industry-first partnership around conversational ABM, which enables marketers to personalize every web site visit. CEO of Drift, David Cancel, joined Steve on stage to talk about how Drift helps accelerate the path from consideration to awareness using conversational marketing, and they can bring a personalized VIP experience to customers at scale by using info in the Marketo database. Sounds like another match made in heaven to us!

It looks like we have some competition for title of #1 Ann Lewnes Superfan in Sarah Kennedy, CMO of Marketo, and while we understand her obsession, we would like her to know that she can’t just show up all new in town and think she’s taking our Ann. We sat quietly in our seats as she and Ann discussed how Marketo is enhancing the marketing at Adobe, and how their teams can work together to create better marketing experiences. Said Ann, “Early on I gained an appreciation for how marketing can create a whole new perception and reputation for a company.” Sarah spoke about how it’s time for CMOs to really step up and lead - "You don’t have to be in sales to talk to prospects. You don't have to be in customer success to advocate for the customer. You don’t need to be a CIO to advocate for better technology." Amen! We don’t want to admit it but we’re developing a teeny obsession with Sarah now also, but don’t worry Ann, you’re still our number one.

Rounding out our favorite talks of the morning was Matt Zilli, Chief Customer Officer at Marketo and another energetic human. (These Marketo folks are universally and collectively the most excited people we have EVER seen and we want to know how they do it.) What really resonated with us is his statement on how creativity matters. Nielsen reports a FORTY-NINE PERCENT sales lift due to effective creative, and we have been pushing the importance of this for a while now, so it’s nice to hear it validated on the big stage.

There’s a lot happening on the stage this morning, and we have to say that we are really excited about all the possibilities with Marketo and Adobe together. Maybe this Marketo Enthusiasm™ is catching.

Back over at the FQ Lounge, we hurried to get good seats for the last panel of Summit, entitled “Make Your Messaging Equality Fit” featuring Tom McAleer, Enterprise Digital Engagement Practice Lead, Deloitte Digital, and Coco Brown, Founder and CEO, The Athena Alliance, moderated by Adobe’s Head of Brand Social and Communications, Lauren Friedman.
Did you know? Nearly 40% of women don’t identify at all with the women they see in advertising — yet ads that accurately portray women and girls perform 26% better than ads that don’t, according to a study by the ANA’s #SeeHer movement. Lauren, Tom and Coco discussed how, in recent years, advertisers and their agencies have received criticism from a wide variety of sources concerning the manner in which women are portrayed in advertisements, and what steps can be taken to help rectify this. One way that companies can do this is by showcasing diversity and strong women to tell better stories. We couldn’t agree more.

Our last speaking session of Summit (sniffle) and we’re sharing the stage with our amazing client, Novo Nordisk, an innovative global healthcare company. Deloitte Principal Pradeep Kamat and Ericka Higgins-Tothe, Senior Director, Omnichannel Marketing at Novo Nordisk, walked us through how Novo Nordisk leveraged Deloitte's industry leading Customer Data solution integrated with Adobe’s Campaign Management platform to create a single view of Patients and health care providers to drive digital omnichannel campaigns. This has been a pivotal experience for them, as they are better positioned to leverage the Adobe Experience Cloud. We’re excited to see where this takes them, and thrilled to be part of their journey.

And with that, that’s it for us at Summit this year. It’s always sad to leave our Adobe family, and our colleagues, and the new friends we met. But it’s always such an inspiring and exciting conference, and we absolutely love being a part of it year after year. We come away with new ideas, potential clients, sore feet, and an astonishing sleep deficit, but it’s so worth it. Thanks for following our 2019 Summit experience, and we’ll see you next year!

But before we go…

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG PUPPIES THE PUPPIES ARE BACK PUPPIEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS.