We don’t know about you, but this is definitely our first time attending Adobe Summit while wearing three-day-old sweatpants and a T-shirt covered in dog hair.

And while we’ve traded in the Las Vegas Strip for our newly rearranged (and then rearranged again) living room, we’re still getting the full Adobe Summit experience thanks to the beauty of modern technology. Ready to binge watch something not tiger-related? Let’s get started!

Start here

No matter what brings you to Summit, you have to watch Adobe chairman, president, and CEO Shantanu Narayen’s welcome note. Speaking to us from his home office, Shantanu acknowledges COVID-19 and its impact, and provides context for how it is affecting our world and the way we use technology and business…. Which leads into him setting the stage for the rest of the conference.

According to him, digital is growing in purpose. The whole point of digital transformation is to use technology to solve problems, and that is evident more now than ever. During the coronavirus outbreak, this has manifested in a few ways, including:

  • E-commerce business increases as people order essential items delivered to their doorsteps 
  • Governments and businesses are reaching people with critical information across digital platforms
  • Much of the workforce has gone virtual, with people working online from home
  • Business deals are being closed with paperless contracts and e-signatures
  • Students are learning from home through online platforms and video chatting

Within a short timeframe, many companies have pivoted from business-as-usual to being digital-forward businesses that can help improve the everyday lives of people. Which leads us to a pretty cool announcement…

Adobe’s Digital Economy Index (DEI) is here! The DEI shows consumer trends and inflation in the digital world, and Shantanu highlights a few interesting trends taking place in recent weeks. For example, home exercise equipment sales have risen 55 percent lately which he says “may help us overcome all the snacking that comes with working from home.” Are you watching us?!?! Leave my chip binging out of this, Shantanu. He also noted that e-commerce sales are up 25 percent in the US, and US daily online grocery sales have doubled week over week in March. And while we all may have noticed these increases on a personal level), it’s valuable to see the larger trends and the hard numbers attached to them.

As he says, digital transformation isn’t just about technology. It’s as much about people and processes.

Elevating the human experience

Next, let’s head over to some content from yours truly. Deloitte Digital’s presence at Adobe Summit this year is all about elevating the human experience through digital transformation.

Normally, we’d love to welcome you into the illustrious Ballroom A in Hotel B and show you our demo in person. But this year, we’ll do you one better. You get to watch our demo on your own time (snack breaks included!) from the comfort of your home office, comfy couch, or wherever else you and your sweatpants are calling home these days.

In our ExperienceMIX demo, Tom Eshelby, senior manager, Deloitte Consulting UK and Harry Touche, senior consultant, Deloitte Consulting UK, talk through how Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) automatically compiles all sorts of customer data (like complaints to the call center, online browsing activity, and past purchases) to help businesses make smart decisions based on how a customer feels about their products at a given time. Spoiler alert: businesses can use this data to figure out the best times to send the right offers to the right customers at the right time. This leads to customer experiences that are customized not only to the specific customer, but also to their specific emotion at a specific time. Which is great! Because we like our customer experiences like we like our favorite actors’ red-carpet suits: tailored.

Especially in recent days where digital transformation has become just about mandatory, businesses can use the technology of ExperienceMIX to better connect with the humans who buy their products and services.

Ten times the banking, ten times the fun

And now onto the world of digital banking, where your banker sadly isn’t able to hold out a collection of lollipops for you to choose from at the end of your transaction (those were the good old days). Instead, online banking institutions are using other tools to sweeten the customer experience.

In our digital banking demo, we walk you on through how 10x Digital Marketing for Digital Banks can help marketers connect with their customers to create memorable experiences. Even before the events of recent weeks, many banks have transitioned to more digital interactions. So, how can these banks maintain that human touch? With Adobe technology, marketers can track customer journeys across all touchpoints to better understand the real humans who use their services, and provides the real-time data that leads to truly personalized communications.

Learning from the best

Wanna get good at real-time customer experience? Then it’s time to tune into what some of the most successful companies in the world are doing. Don’t have time to pay attention to all of them? We get it; many of you are busy baking your first-ever sourdough loaves and learning TikTok dances. But don’t worry, we’ve done our research and put it all together in this here breakout session featuring John Healy, Hux Managing Director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and David Chan, Hux Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

While you’re listening, keep your ears wide open for some of our favorite tidbits about what customers want:

  • The options a customer has on their journey to purchase are infinite. Your marketing budget is (probably) not. 
  • Customer behavior is predictive, thanks to machine learning. That means it’s time to say goodbye to personas (at least when it comes to customer experience; they’re still good for content).
  • Customers want to have conversations! Hint: conversations go two ways, campaigns do not.

So what are successful companies doing to keep up with these great expectations?

  • Correctly using data that has been gathered securely and non-intrusively, along with AI technology, to create and deliver relevant and personalized content that really resonates with customers—at scale
  • Talking to their customers the same way across digital channels, creating a more consistent experience

But the biggest thing many of these companies have in common is owning three main parts of the customer experience: the data, the decisioning, and the delivery. Adobe technology can help create this real-time marketing experience.

Summing up Summit

The world is changing. Rapidly. With more and more people across the globe sheltering in place and otherwise limiting human contact, it’s more important than ever to find connection. And with technology leading the way, we’re able to connect in new ways, creating rich and memorable experiences that speak to who we are as humans.

Discover more about Deloitte Digital at Adobe Summit Digital Experience.