Adobe webinar – 2022 digital trends revealed
I’ve always been a sucker for any webinar that Adobe presents, and this was no different. As the Senior Marketing Manager, it’s up to me to stay on top of the never-ending, ever-changing digital trends, and 2022 is going to be jam-packed with them according to the Adobe team.
Although what we gained from the webinar was just a small slice of the experience forthcoming at this year’s Adobe Summit, the discussions provided left the audience with valuable insights and ultimately, a leg up for the year ahead.
And not to mention NBA legend and four-time champion Shaquille O’Neal made an appearance too…it’s a good thing I’m a Celtics fan! 🍀
To kick off the event, Loni Stark, Vice President of Product and Strategy at Adobe was joined by Susan Bloomberg, Vice President of Personalisation and Product Performance at Marriott International. Loni asked Susan how she drove the culture of change and what it looks like.
“We’ve started by changing the way we collect our data. When I joined, we had a very tech-driven implementation and we changed it so that it was more customer-centric, meaning instead of capturing what was happening in or on the page, we captured really what the customer was experiencing. And once we had the right set of data, we changed how we used it. We went more from reporting and understanding what was happening to real insights and why it was happening.” Susan stated that they put the customer at the center of everything they do: “If we earn a customer’s love, we will get their money.”
Things to consider for an end-to-end journey:
- Where does this fit?
- What does your customer need?
- How can you provide that to them?
- Use tactics like experimentation, personalisation, to figure out what customers and consumers react positively to and what they react negatively to so you can take that experience away.
Another major point made by Susan is the continued shift to mobile. “We’re always in front of our phones. I’ve been known to sit on my phone in front of my desktop computer, so everything has to be mobile – we need to think about small screens before we think about big screens.”
The Digitally Rewired Customer
For the last 11 years, the Adobe Digital Trends report has been inclusive of the latest predictions for businesses in the coming year. Jim Clark, Research Director at EA Consultancy helped Adobe lead the effort of surveying over 1,000 business leaders and compiling the overall report revealed the top digital trends for the year ahead.
In terms of some of the big call outs, Jim stated that we’ve seen the customer’s name changing, and most senior executives that were surveyed agreed that customers have been digitally rewired; with digital now being the dominant medium for service and attention.
His discussion also included points around certain brands doing better than others and the gaps between these. “We’re seeing a chasm opening up between those that are certainly flexing their business models. This year, we created what we call our marketing performance index, based on a question where we asked respondents to rank their organisation around levels of agility, innovation, tech, collaboration, talent development and diversity of backgrounds and opinions.”
Clark also talked about how brands need to be much more mindful of the data that’s required to engineer what is the best possible experience, data stewardship, you could call it. So, not just forcing customers to jump through an endless round of hoops. You don’t need to ask someone to share their birthday with you to get a great digital experience. At the same time, it’s about respecting the data that the customers have provided to you.
The Adobe 2022 Digital Trends Report has some fantastic data you can utilise within your own organisation. One of the main themes stressed throughout the document is the urgency in becoming more agile to align with customers – keeping pace isn’t enough, you need to be ahead of the curve. Of course, getting the right technology will be critical, but only as much as it will augment the workforce in the workplace of the future. That’s what we need to be thinking about today. At the end of the day, people are the greatest asset and you need to unleash greater creativity to deliver on productivity and innovation more so than ever.
Closing the show was Steven Frieder, President of Americas at Adobe, joined by the one and only Shaquille O’Neal. A lot of people know Shaq as four-time champion NBA superstar, but he’s also a phenomenal businessman with a fantastic mindset for growth. He’s been in the public eye for over 30 years across sport entertainment and business, and throughout that time, things have clearly changed but a lot of things have also stayed the same.
Because Shaq is such a fan favourite, he’s become a lucrative figure for brands to endorse, and instead of accepting shoe deal after shoe deal, even a $40 million deal from Reebok, he wanted to make more affordable shoes. “I know a lot of kids get teased for wearing my shoes, but if you look at them, they don’t look like they cost $29 and I take pride in that.” More than 90 million pairs of these shoes have been sold over the years.
Frieder asked “So Shaq, how do you decide? Obviously, you know, everybody coming to you. You’re the man, so how to you decide where you spend your time and who with?” Shaq responded “So there’s three simple answers. One. If I’m not familiar with your product, I will not do business with you. Two. If I’m at a shoot and you’re not touching up my photos with Photoshop, then there’s nothing to talk about. Three. We have to have the same vision.”
Honestly, there was a lot to talk about from Shaq’s involvement in the event, but a lot of it was about his favourite cereal (which are Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops and Fruity Pebbles, by the way), so I’m not sure it’s too relevant here!
You can download the latest 2022 Digital Trends Report here. If you have any questions, or want to out these trends to use in your own strategy, get in touch.