Brad Brown (pictured left) senior vice president digital retail of recreational equipment retailer REI has told the 6500 delegates at the Adobe Summit in Salt Lake City that moving into a digital world was an extremely challenging process.

Quipping that it was the reason “they call it work”, he said that he was amazed at just how quickly the world had changed for the one-time bricks and mortar retailer.

“Once upon a time we would have done some outdoor, radio, print and TV so that we could try and convince someone when they were looking to buy some gear to consider us,” he said.

“Marketing has now changed because they can pull out their phone and it’s an amazing change in a short period of time.”

He said that in an in-store experience, staff got to know people little bit by little until eventually they knew a lot about a customer, now that has to happen online.

He said that now if someone came to the brand via their mobile, the experience had to be every bit as good as talking to a knowledgeable sales assistant in a store.

When asked about whether the future lay in technology or people, Brown said that he needed both. “You need to put good technology in the hands of smart people.”

As you would expect from a guest at the Adobe Summit, Brown told Adobe’s Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager of its Digital Marketing Business in from of the whole audience that “we’re all in with Adobe and we’re betting on you and your team to continue to advance your products and tools to allow one user interface and one customer view . . .”

He said in his case, he let “Adobe do the integration so I don’t have to. But it’s still a bet and you need to take them all the time”.

David Hovenden from Adobe Summit in Salt Lake City

Image from Adobe

For more from the Adobe Summit Digital Marketing Conference, see the stories below.

Digital is not the death of creative: Adobe CEO

Adobe and SAP team up

Adobe unveils latest Marketing Cloud technologies