Adobe CMO: IBM and Oracle 'don't know marketing'

Adobe’s chief marketing officer has taken a swipe at rivals IBM and Oracle saying “I don’t think they know anything about marketing”.

This morning Adobe launched the new integrated Marketing Cloud solution at its Summit conference in Salt Lake City, describing it as “the broadest platform in digital marketing”.

In a journalist briefing when asked what differentiated Adobe from its rivals CMO Ann Lewnes said they did not know marketing adding: “IBM and Oracle are IT companies and we are not an IT company, we’re a marketing company.”

VP of digital Brad Rencher said the idea behind the new system was to “stop marketers being systems integrators and get back to being marketers”.

CEO Shantanu Narayen (pictured) signalled he sees a “multi billion dollar opportunity” with digital marketing, saying the new product gave them a headstart over rivals.

He also signalled Sydney, along with Singapore, as one of the key markets the company is “seeing traction in” adding: “As we see the emergence of e-commerce in those markets we are getting more interest and we hope to be art of this as they are taking off.”

He told the audience of more than 5,000 the three tenets he believes should drive modern marketers: engage everyone; embrace rocket science and connect the dots.

“I do think the CMO is better placed than the fellas in finance to predict the future of the business,” he added.

The new product pulls together five solutions, analytics, a content management system, social media tracker, media buying tool and a targeting tool.

A “unique” user interface allows marketers and their agency and analytical colleagues to work on campaigns in real time to take advantage of data spikes and emerging trends, and rectify problems as they occur.

It is also optimised to be used on tablets and smartphones.

Expanding on the pillars, Narayen said the first spoke needs to engage people wherever they are in their day, across multiple channels, through digital.

Embracing rocket science, he added "many companies are swimming in data" but very few have actually mastered the art of refining it to provide useful insights.

In terms of connecting the dots he talked about breaking traditional silos “experts’ in certain disciplines, such as analytics, targeting and media buying sit in within most companies.

“These three pillars sound easy, but they are not,” he added.

The audience was given an extensive product demonstration of the new Marketing Cloud, which Rencher said had refined 27 product offerings into five.

He said the idea of the new product offering, which offers integration who the Creative Cloud, is to “do more with more".

He also spoke to the idea of de-siloing businesses, adding “silos only slow us down” and admitted he is surprised how often he speaks to clients which are still not optimising information across their organisations.

Alex Hayes is a guest of Adobe at the Summit conference.

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