Samsung proves real-time data is a catalyst for better customer experiences

Few companies can genuinely say their products power the world around them. But at Samsung Electronics Europe, our TVs, smartphones, wearables, digital home appliances, and IoT (internet of things) technologies are everywhere. From our UK headquarters, we oversee the sales and distribution of consumer electronic devices to over 250 million customers across 39 European countries.

Best of all, I get to work for a business that creates new technologies and experiences that enrich people’s lives, a mission that saw Samsung named as one of Interbrand’s top five global brands. That commitment to customers starts with our ability to understand and meet their needs, a mission that we take very seriously.

In today’s world, that means establishing a robust data strategy that allows the team and our services partner, Samsung SDS, to personalize every connection across every channel in real time to drive engagement, loyalty, and sales. With Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform (CDP), that’s exactly what we have achieved, while simultaneously strengthening our governance to respect the latest consumer privacy regulations.

That is why it was an honor to be named a 2024 Adobe Experience Maker Awards winner for using Adobe Real-Time CDP as a catalyst to bridge gaps between our systems and teams. Adobe Real-Time CDP has been transformative for our business and customer experience alike. And we are just getting started. To fully appreciate where Samsung is headed with Adobe, we first need to roll back the clock a few years.

A new data foundation

Samsung has always stressed the importance of making every customer feel like an individual, especially in Europe, where cultures, languages, and priorities vary dramatically between countries, cities, and even neighborhoods. The need to connect on this personal level has never been more important for the team at a time when people are more mindful of their spending and new technologies like AI are setting off a wave of innovation and competition in the consumer electronics market.

But achieving that level of personalization had become complicated. The expansive martech environment we had built up over the years had left us with siloed data sources, disjointed teams, and a logistical nightmare when trying to localize content for regional markets and subsidiaries. For Samsung to remain an industry leader in our customers’ eyes, I needed to transform our data management approach behind the scenes to deliver experiences that are tailored to every person and channel in real time and that put people’s privacy first.

That’s where Adobe Real-Time CDP came in. The platform provided the team with a consistent data foundation to centralize our customer profiles and activate audiences across Europe while staying one step ahead of data protection and consumer privacy laws like GDPR. Our transformation with Adobe Experience Cloud has also positioned Samsung to maintain our reach and attract new prospects as the world transitions from third-party-cookie data strategies to true personalization powered by high-quality data collected directly from our audiences.

I’ve also appreciated the incredible collaboration we’ve had from Adobe’s team throughout our transformation. On top of being instrumental in ensuring a seamless implementation, their guidance continues to add value to the team each day, turning our CDP into a major accelerator in the way we manage and use data to better serve our customers.

Real-time personalization and peace of mind

What sets Adobe Real-Time CDP apart from other customer data platforms is all in the name. The platform’s real-time capabilities are a game changer, allowing us to unify all our online and offline data sources into a single profile that can be activated across a rich set of destinations and channels. Meanwhile, embedded governance allows us to track, protect, and ensure consent for all our customers’ valuable information.

Real-Time CDP now sits at the center of Samsung’s real-time marketing operation in Europe. The work we do allows stakeholders across the business to rapidly activate customer data for personalization across dozens of markets. The team has created hundreds of millions of profiles from over 50 online and offline sources and counting. Meanwhile, the Data Distiller capability in Real-Time CDP has given us more flexibility to access, clean, and transform data from all these sources, including unstructured data, which means we can segment and manage customer profiles at a more granular level.

Combining Real-Time CDP with Adobe Campaign and Adobe Target also ensures the right content goes to the right customer at the right time. Rounding out the team’s martech stack is Adobe Analytics, which we use to accurately measure and optimize the performance of our marketing activities. Together, these pieces allow us to build, tailor, deliver, and instantly adapt our end-to-end experiences to each customer’s evolving needs.

Take Samsung’s flagship product launches as an example. Thanks to unified customer profiles, teams can deliver consistent targeted messaging across email, push, social, and digital advertising channels in the lead-up to launch dates. This tailored and precise promotional approach has in turn driven increased conversions and revenue. As a bonus, a more efficient approach to customer data management and decision-making has driven down our acquisition costs.

A virtuous cycle of improvement

Another beauty of Real-Time CDP is that the customer profiles the team builds with the platform get better and more detailed over time. The more people engage with Samsung, the more insight our marketers and sales teams gain into who customers are and how we can best serve them in the moment.

That creates a virtuous loop whereby every time we activate a profile, we also make our omnichannel marketing activities more impactful. In turn, more effective campaigns and content lead to better customer experiences, and the data from those interactions gives us deeper insight into what our will audiences want in the future.

Speaking of the future, Samsung has also established a customer data management center of excellence to unlock new opportunities and value from our Adobe investment. Bringing together a cross-functional team of stakeholders spanning regions, lines of business, and subsidiaries will help me to align on data management best practices and mature our strategy to keep delivering the best experiences possible for our customers.

Being part of this transformation at Samsung has been one of the most inspiring and rewarding experiences of my career. We may have been named The Catalyst winner at this year’s Adobe Experience Maker Awards, but the feeling is mutual. The team wouldn’t be where we are today without Adobe’s solutions and support, and I cannot wait to see where the relationship takes us next.

I can honestly say Adobe Real-Time CDP is the best platform to connect a company’s online and offline experiences in real time. My only piece of advice for other businesses considering the technology is to get their data in order first. Otherwise, they’ll have purchased an incredibly powerful car without the fuel to make it drive at full speed.

To learn more about creating robust, unified customer profiles with Adobe Real-Time CDP, click here.

To learn more about Samsung Electronics’ Adobe Experience Platform implementation and digital marketing services partner, Samsung SDS, please visit the webpage.

Based in London, Fons de Waard is head of data and platforms, Samsung EO, at Samsung Electronics, and brings experience from previous roles at Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, and Yourzine. With a robust skill set that includes web development, CSS, CMS, email marketing, jQuery, and more, Fons de Waard contributes valuable insights to the industry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Multimedia & Design from Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven.

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