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No wonder one of the speakers at this year's summit.adobe.com/">Adobe Summit 2013 is from NASCAR. The message that the software company wants to deliver at its digital marketing conference this week is that speed matters.
"Every day a new normal has been set," Brad Rencher, Adobe's senior vice president of digital marketing, told an audience of about 5,000 at Wednesday's keynote address to kick off the conference. "The expectations in terms of speed have changed."
Digital marketers have to assess what their customers want quickly and get it out to them faster than before, he said.
"What's really important is to focus on the individual and the individual's needs," he added. "We are tasked with delivering experiences in milliseconds."
The three-day Adobe Summit, which explores digital marketing and Web analytics, runs through Friday at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.
Other speakers will include Felix Baumgartner, the man who made the record-setting 24-mile skydiving jump on Oct. 14; Brigham Young University business professor Jeff Dyer; Jack Philbin, CEO of mobile marketing company Vibes; and Marc Jenkins, digital media vice president for NASCAR.
Adobe develops software for Internet management, as well creativity programs that include Adobe Photoshop. Three years ago, San Jose-based-Adobe purchased Omniture, a Web analytics company in Lehi, establishing a presence in Utah. The company recently opened a 280,000-square-foot operations building that is home to nearly 1,000 employees.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen took the stage during Wednesday's keynote to describe three mandates that must be met for effective digital marketing.
First, marketers must reach customers anywhere they are, whether it's at desktop computers or on mobile devices. Second, they need to collect and analyze the customer data to predict what they will want next. And finally, their organization has to react quickly and efficiently, and act on what is known.
"It's clear you will have to go to your customers or they will not come to you," he said.
Adobe develops six cloud-based products, Rencher said, that can help digital marketers get their ideas to customers. They include Adobe Analytics, a suite of programs that helps track Web traffic; Adobe Experience Manager, which organizes and manages all of the marketing content; and Adobe Social, which helps marketers integrate social media into their campaigns.
These programs and more are all put together in one cloud-based system called Adobe Marketing so that all employees can access the work. Rencher showed off a new version of Adobe Marketing that will be released later this year.
To demonstrate the power of marketing to the Web and mobile devices, Rencher also brought on Nate Morley, vice president of global marketing for Park City-based audio accessories manufacturer Skullcandy to talk about his company's advertising campaign.
Other sessions this week will focus on a range of subjects, from digital marketing and social media to marketing tips and Web analytics. To register go to summit.adobe.com.