Lessons Learned At the Adobe Summit

Posted on by Beth Negus Viveiros

Over 7,000 marketing and tech professionals from 44 countries converged on Salt Lake City recently for the Adobe Summit. Here’s a few soundbites heard during the event.

girl-scouts-adobeMmmmmm…..Cookies
Looking for the next generation of great marketers and sales people? Hire a Girl Scout. Sarah Gormley, CMO of the Girl Scouts, noted that the iconic cookie sales program teaches scouts business ethics, money management, how to connect with other people and give back to the community.

“Parents of Girl Scouts believe their daughters are more confident because they are Girl Scouts,” she told attendees, who loved her presentation not only because of the message but because of the boxes of cookies Scouts distributed to the audience via Red Flyer wagons. (Adobe bought enough boxes of cookies for every one of the 7,000 attendees. Wonder what troop got credit for that sale?)

The Girl Scouts have moved the cookie program into the digital space and it’s been a delicious experience—3.5 billion media impressions results from the effort in the first four days alone.

Purchases With a Purpose
The brand FEED was built on the concept of “conscious consumerism,” noted founder/CEO Lauren Bush. Every product—including totebags, messenger bags and other accessories—that FEED sells has a number stamped on it to signify the number of children who will get fed thanks to the sale.

“The millennial consumer wants to put her energy behind things she believes in,” said Bush.

That consumer wants to do more than buy things though. That led to the next phase for FEED, called FEED Supper, an initiative that began last fall. The fundraiser encouraged people to share a meal with friends and family, raising awareness and money. The initial effort raised $1.9 million, nearly double the $1 million goal.

Know Your Numbers
ESPN blogger, author and statistician Nate Silver talked about a problem that many marketers probably have when trying to discuss metrics with their team and c-suite.

“Everyone who deals with data at some point has to figure out hot to communicate it,” he said. “The first part is that you need to know what the story is—and sometimes, the real story is more interesting that what you’re trying to tell. If people can’t communicate to a wide audience, then sometimes I wonder if they know the material themselves.”

“If you don’t know your data, be a poor writer,” he said, eliciting laughs from the audience. “If you know your data well, that’s when you can be more clever with your voice.”

But…Don’t Just Think About Numbers
Unlike Nate Silver, former NFL quarterback Steve Young isn’t necessarily always a fan of statistics. Being a successful quarterback is more about art than science, he reasoned.

“They always say numbers never lie—but numbers never tell the whole truth either,” he said.

If there was a blood test that would have predicted his life path or aptitude when he was young, he never would have wanted to take it. “You don’t want to predict whether someone would be great at something—that would be limiting. Don’t tell me I can’t do something.”

michael-keaton-adobeHe’ll Always Be Batman to Me
Actor Michael Keaton noted that his career path was a mix of being deliberate and going with the flow. Over the years, he’s done a variety of things for both creative and financial reasons, to increase his probability of getting diverse roles down the road.

“I wanted to be challenged,” he said. “Sometimes you take a job because it’s a good job, or financially it pays off and buys you time Not to be B-S spiritual, but you create a mentality, you create type of focus, a mentality where you see the opportunities and they come into clear focus, and then you go after that. They’re always there. But it’s impossible to get what you want without hard work—there wasn’t a master plan, but there was a type of discipline.”

When asked if he thought he should have won the Oscar for best actor this year for his role in “Birdman,” he laughed and said “Yeah—but you have to think that way, and you have to be realistic.”

He noted that at a pre Academy Awards luncheon an older gentleman waxed poetic about Keaton’s performance in the film, but then said “Unfortunately, illness always wins.” (Indeed, Eddie Redmayne took home the trophy for portraying Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.”)

“I’m about to play [McDonald’s founder] Ray Kroc in a movie. I’m thinking of doing it in a wheelchair,” he joked.

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