Dynamic omnichannel marketing
Adobe uses Adobe Experience Cloud to manage its Experience Business brand advertising campaign using a data-driven, programmatic approach.
30%+
Expanded reach by diversifying advertising mix to include display, video, audio, TV, connected TV, and digital out of the home
Objectives
- Find and engage with C-level customers, regardless of location, to drive enterprise business
- Leverage customer data to drive 100% programmatic advertising strategy
- Boost performance of advertising campaigns without sacrificing quality of experience or control
Results
- 30%+ expanded reach by diversifying advertising mix to include display, video, audio, TV, connected TV, and digital out of the home
- Deployed a 100% programmatic ad campaign to successfully engage with executives and decision makers
- Delivered greater control over spend and customer experience without sacrificing performance
- Engaged customers via the screens, devices, and channels they prefer most by leveraging data
“Data directs our creativity and the way we engage with customers across products, screens, and channels. Our creativity extends beyond aesthetics with Adobe Advertising Cloud, and using data to activate audience segments, we can get the attention of the audiences that drive our business”.
Steve Weeks
Director, Media Strategy and Planning, Adobe
The path less traveled
Programmatic advertising has an image problem. Many companies view it as low quality, low impact, limited in functionality, and vulnerable to fraud. So why did Adobe decide to take a 100% programmatic approach with its latest global advertising campaign?
Adobe Advertising Cloud provides a new path for success. The Adobe solution is an independent, end-to-end platform for managing advertising across a full spectrum of channels—including display, video, social, audio, TV, and digital out of home—delivering high-impact, brand-safe, dynamic campaigns.
By using high-quality customer data, combined with greater visibility into campaign performance, Advertising Cloud provides marketers the control over programmatic that they’ve never experienced before. As a result, companies can connect with high-value audiences everywhere they engage with content.
Adobe prides itself on using captivating, creative marketing campaigns to engage customers’ imaginations. Its latest Experience Business campaign is no exception. The campaign’s focus was to strengthen Adobe’s position as an experience business enterprise solutions provider featuring firsthand accounts of what it means for businesses across industries to deliver great customer experiences. It targets C-level executives—including CMOs, CIOs, CDOs, CTOs, and CXOs—with high-impact creative that its brand is built upon.
Previously, Adobe only invested 20% of its advertising budget in programmatic campaigns. By taking a 100% programmatic advertising approach, Adobe can leverage first-party audience data, find the best ways to reach them, and measure impact. At the same time, Adobe can provide executives with a new level of transparency into the power of programmatic advertising.
“Data directs our creativity and the way we engage with customers across products, screens, and channels,” says Steve Weeks, Director of Media Strategy and Planning at Adobe. “Our creativity extends beyond aesthetics with Adobe Advertising Cloud, and using data to activate audience segments, we can get the attention of the audiences that drive our business.”
In addition, transparency offered by Adobe Advertising Cloud—knowing exactly where ads are running and what fees are being added by publishers—helps ensure that campaigns perform optimally without sacrificing brand safety by advertising on inappropriate sites. Added visibility also helped Adobe advertising teams gain buy-in quickly for the new strategy and create momentum behind the new campaign.
“Today’s most successful brands focus their energy on delivering a consistent, unified experience through many different channels. We’re using Adobe Advertising Cloud and this all-programmatic approach because we can now effectively target audiences by analyzing their behaviors and actions online and engage with them more naturally”.
Alex Amado
Vice President, Experience Marketing, Adobe
Powered by intelligence
This is a new direction for a business that’s relied on traditional media and ad buying strategies. It’s no longer just focusing on outlets that intuitively align with what marketers think Adobe audiences will engage with, but now addresses the specific interests, behaviors, and preferences of customers. With Adobe Advertising Cloud, the team can now analyze actions—such as time spent on a page or navigation patterns—across channels and leverage data from multiple sources to target customers where and when optimal opportunities exist.
With Adobe Advertising Cloud—including Advertising Cloud TV, the cross-screen planner, and display, social, audio, and video capabilities—Adobe has enabled marketers to target audiences more precisely. Through its integration with Adobe Analytics and Adobe Audience Manager, both part of Adobe Analytics Cloud, Adobe measured on-site engagement and used that as a signal to optimize media placements toward higher engagement.
“Data provided us the right business case to move forward with the campaign, but it wasn’t until we got our first few wins that executives could really understand the potential,” says Weeks. “In-depth reporting provided by the Advertising Cloud team enabled us to effectively communicate how we connect with high-value audiences and at what cost, and helps us refine our strategies on an ongoing basis.”
After the first six months of running the solely programmatic campaign, Adobe found that display and video viewability, impressions in target markets, brand safety, and fraud-free success metrics were at or well above industry benchmarks—validated by DoubleVerify. The team also cut cost per thousand impressions (CPM) by more than half, from $25 to $12.
Most importantly, Adobe is continuing to deliver experiences that are brand safe and engage with customers more organically. “Today’s most successful brands focus their energy on delivering a consistent, unified experience through many different channels,” says Alex Amado, Vice President, Experience Marketing at Adobe. “We’re using Adobe Advertising Cloud and this all-programmatic approach because we can now effectively target audiences by analyzing their behaviors and actions online and engage with them more naturally.”
Learnings gained through Adobe’s programmatic activities are also helping to support traditional online and offline advertising efforts. Adobe can view which content runs on premium inventory and what was most viewed by target audiences, helping the company further refine strategies for linear TV and offline advertising.
“Adobe has a clear vision of what it wants to achieve through programmatic advertising. We’re enhancing what Adobe is doing with Adobe Advertising Cloud by diving deeper into data, leveraging our expertise from working on other programmatic campaigns, and offering refinements—such as improvements to buying strategies—that build on the company’s success”.
Alison Finley
Senior Partner and Senior Director, WaveMaker
Moving the needle
Adopting a data-driven, programmatic approach to marketing has surpassed Adobe’s expectations for delivering on visibility, customer experience, and over 70 KPIs. In near real time, Adobe can view which channels are driving desired results and advertising teams can adjust spend within minutes based on results, as well as make hourly or daily optimizations.
In addition to leveraging analytics within Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe worked with a close agency partner, WaveMaker, to provide added oversight for its Experience Business campaign, and enhance account-based marketing strategies. A strong collaboration between WaveMaker and the Advertising Cloud media strategy team helped Adobe develop innovative strategies to take advantage of new social channels, including LinkedIn, and identified key drivers behind success, such as pairing video and display advertising.
“Adobe has a clear vision of what it wants to achieve through programmatic advertising,” says Alison Finley, Senior Partner and Senior Director at WaveMaker. “We’re enhancing what Adobe is doing with Adobe Advertising Cloud by diving deeper into data, leveraging our expertise from working on other programmatic campaigns, and offering refinements—such as improvements to buying strategies—that build on the company’s success.”
Over the course of the Experience Business campaign, the partners have helped boost awareness and engaged customer visit rates by 1.5X, compared to the previous two quarters. This success is attributed to an increase in reach using multiple channels—30% higher than what was previously possible—as well as more successfully targeting key audiences. Additionally, Adobe can take better advantage of digital out-of-home channels—such as digital billboards, bus station signage, electronic elevator signs, and similar—to be everywhere customers are and expand its reach.
“The best feedback we got from our Experience Business campaign was from our customers, letting us know that they found us on some unlikely websites,” says Weeks. “They typically followed with the question, ‘What made you think to connect with me there?’ Our response was simple—’Because you were there.’ Adobe Advertising Cloud enabled us to make that vision a reality.”
Adobe has also seen a 13% increase in unaided awareness and has increased customer association between Adobe and the “Make Experience Your Business” tagline from 16% to 27%. Adobe is also seeing an overall improvement in perception across customer segments by up to 6% on customer surveys.
“Our mission is to put customers at the heart of everything we do,” says Weeks. “Programmatic, data-driven advertising is helping us reinforce that message and connect with customers how they want and where they are.”
From Adobe’s perspective, the more automated approach is also enabling advertising and marketing teams to spend more time on strategy and creative, instead of daily management of media accounts and administrative tasks. Further integrating customer and website data from Adobe Analytics Cloud will enable Adobe to leverage even more audience and behavioral data to better target campaign content.
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