Adobe Symposium 2016, the annual digital marketing conference that drives the future of marketing and business transformation through Adobe Marketing Cloud, will be held today in Sydney.

More than 1,600 business leaders, marketers digital marketers, publishers, advertisers, and content managers are expected to attend to hear from Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Adobe Executive Vice President for Digital Marketing, Brad Rencher, along with leading brands including ANZ Banking Group, HCF, News Corp Australia, Spark New Zealand, Sydney Opera House, Travelocity and Virgin Australia. Conference speakers will explore the challenges and criticality of creating an integrated, exceptional customer experience.

“Adobe Symposium is the largest event of its kind in Australia, reflecting the demand for information and ideas in this area, and I’m excited to welcome local and international innovators to talk about the experience-led business,” said Paul Robson, president, Adobe APAC. “Those brands are laser focused on customer experiences at every touch point, and already pulling ahead of competitors by creating a new normal for consumers. Experience is the new competitive advantage.”

Driving the Experience Business

Digital has set a new bar for customer expectations. Customers today demand and expect compelling, personalised experiences along their journey with a brand – from brick-and-mortar stores to mobile apps and websites. It’s essential that brands lead with experience and transform into an experience-led business.

Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron AM said: “Jørn Utzon conceived the Opera House as a journey of inspiration – from arriving at Bennelong Point and crossing the Forecourt to ascending the Monumental Steps to experience something remarkable. Today, millions of visitors first experience the Opera House online. Our partnership with Adobe will enable us to share quintessential Opera House experiences with people wherever they are, with all of the intimacy, immediacy and excitement of being here.”

“When it comes to the relationship between a brand and a customer, there is an element of customer experience in every digital touch point,” said Jenny Williams, chief marketing officer at HCF. “HCF’s DNA is about making healthcare understandable, affordable and customer-centric, and Adobe’s platform allows us to test, learn and evolve the customer experience in a much faster way.”

At Adobe Symposium, Adobe showcased several new capabilities to help brands become an experience-led business:

• Connected Shopping Experience Advancements: According to a recent eConsultancy report, APAC organisations are nearly twice as likely as their European and North American counterparts to say that more than half of their overall ecommerce revenue is transacted directly on mobile devices. Adobe Sneaks, which offers a peek at the innovations percolating inside Adobe Labs, will feature the unveiling of the “adaptive store” kiosk that integrates personal shopper information and data-driven product recommendations into the offline shopping experience.
• Virtual Reality Capabilities: Adobe will showcase how it is enabling the end-to-end delivery of video experiences across virtual reality devices. New capabilities within Adobe Primetime include ad-driven monetisation for VR, the support of playback of DRM-protected content (using Adobe Access) for both Virtual Cinema and 180/360 VR video scenarios and device support for Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. Support will come later for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
• Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe FrameMaker Integration: Consumers are becoming even more sophisticated in how they research throughout the purchase process, and are increasingly referencing technical documents like user manuals. This new integration helps brands manage and publish complex technical content across all channels, devices and formats.

News Corp Australia to Deliver Rich Digital Experience for Rio Olympics

User-generated content (UGC) is increasingly one of the most effective ways for a brand to tell its story. News Corp Australia has partnered with Livefyre, part of Adobe Experience Manager, to develop a Rio Olympics social hub that surfaces curated, UGC sourced from social media to create a rich and timely addition to its regular special event coverage and complements the company’s official support of the Australian Olympic team.

“Consumers today are always connected and demand compelling and meaningful digital experiences. During a global event like the Rio Olympics this demand is heightened, ” said Mark Drasutis, Chief Product Officer, Digital at News Corp, Australia. “As part of our ongoing partnership, Livefyre, part of Adobe Experience Manager, presented us with a great opportunity to surface and curate social content that will expand and deepen Australia’s Rio story and enhance the connection with our audience and them to the greatest sporting event on earth.”

Adobe Symposium will showcase how professionally created content combined with UGC delivers the most engaging, personalized experiences to customers.

Conference Highlights

Adobe Symposium features more than 50 sessions across four tracks focused on topics integral to the experience-led business: data-driven marketing, customer experience, cross-channel marketing, and marketing insights for technologists. Adobe partners including Deloitte Digital, Accenture Interactive, IBM Interactive Experience, Publicis.Sapient, Sapient Nitro, WPP and Valtech will also participate in the event.

This year, Adobe Symposium will feature a Tweet-for-Good campaign to raise up to $13,000 AUD for Tour de Cure, a charity that organises cycling rides raising awareness and funds for cancer research as presented by Drew Ginn, Olympic rowing gold medallist.