Personalization & Optimization Takeaways from Summit
Adobe Summit 2023 may be over, but now the real fun begins as attendees take the insights, tips and tricks learned at the conference and put them into action. Implementing the strategies discussed during the sessions can help attendees improve their digital marketing tactics and drive better results for their businesses. Let’s take a look at some exciting takeaways from the conference, and discuss some real-world applications in the personalization space.
Gen AI Applications
Gen AI, or Generative Artificial Intelligence, was a recurring theme throughout the conference. This AI technology has the potential to transform personalized experiences across all digital channels by learning human behavioral patterns and leveraging these insights to fuel optimization.
An awesome application of this technology in the digital marketing space can be visualized through cross-channel personalization in web and app. As explained on AIMultiple.com, “Using a combination of data analysis, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning algorithms, generative AI tools have the ability to create content that is specifically tailored to your target audience. By analyzing consumer behavior and identifying patterns in their interactions with a particular platform or brand, it can generate unique content strategy based on preferences of customers and outreach them via personalized emails and targeted social media posts.” As noted by several keynote speakers, AI will inevitably “enhance” and “augment” a digital marketer’s abilities, and we’re currently just scratching the surface.
During “Summit Sneaks”, the fun showcasing of projects in development, there was a demonstration of an AI-powered personal shopping assistant. In this e-commerce application, a customer uploads an image of themselves and the AI shopping assistant would leverage generative AI technology to create an outfit that matches their style, preferences and skin and hair tones. Additionally, shoppers can filter search results by these recommended items to more quickly find items they like.
Let’s also not forget about the Adobe Firefly announcement. The beta version of this AI Art Generator was released, which allows designers to create original digital artwork using generative AI technology. The applications of this tool in the creative space seem endless, with examples ranging from image manipulation, video editing, font creation and even website design. Firefly is the first Adobe AI-powered creation tool to be released to the public, showing Adobe’s commitment to bringing cutting-edge AI technology to the creative industry.
The redundancy of this buzzword throughout the week in Vegas drove the point home that AI isn’t going anywhere. As the technology that birthed ChatGPT continues to evolve, personalization opportunities for marketers will only continue to expand.
Native Retail Capabilities of the Experience Cloud
Many of the features and functionality that power retail marketing on the Adobe Experience Cloud are not necessarily new, however a few use cases stood out to me as especially interesting for personalization-focused marketers.
An example of leveraging the full arsenal of AEC tools available was outlined by the Program Manager of Dick’s Sporting Goods in the session “Going for the Gold with your Personalization Program”. In this session, the speaker outlined how customers – or athletes in Dick’s lingo – are segmented into groups based on browsing and purchasing history. Additionally, these athletes are targeted cross-device with personalized deals and product offerings powered by Target Recommendations. Onsite behavioral data is used to build specific cloud-shared audiences with unique product and brand preferences that inform targeted marketing campaigns. These curated, affinity-driven audiences have significantly improved email campaign effectiveness in particular.
Despite the familiarity of these various technologies and capabilities discussed, Dick’s strength appears to be the seamless integration and orchestration of these Adobe Experience Cloud tools to deliver the most relevant product offerings and deals that align with the unique sport, brand and lifestyle preferences of their customers.
The undeniable power of a CDP
The sheer power of a Customer Data Platform to gather, unify and activate data across multiple sources seemingly bled into most sessions I attended at Adobe Summit, despite never attending a CDP-specific session!
While a Customer Data Platform is not necessary for all organizations, the ability to centralize customer data and activate on behaviors in real-time was a recurring theme in personalization and optimization discussions. With the adoption of advanced AI technologies, it is exciting to see how Adobe will continue to grow and evolve the Experience Platform (AEP) to stay at the forefront of customer data management and personalization technology.
