Adobe rolls out Ryan Gosling and a host of stars to showcase the emotional capabilities of its Experience Cloud
On day two of its annual showcase, Adobe Summit, the software giant shared the stage with a host of celebrities including Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling and retired NFL star Peyton Manning to trumpet the launch of its Experience Cloud.
Ryan Gosling headed the bill at Adobe Summit 2017
Gosling topped the bill on the final day of on-stage proceedings, where he sat down with Adobe chief marketing officer Ann Lewnes to engage in a lighthearted conversation where he discussed, the use of social media, the power of storytelling, and that cereal meme.
“The thing about Twitter is that it takes the fear out of public speaking, but not the consequence,” he said, explaining his use of the social network (where he has over 2 million followers). Gosling’s use of the platform began when he was made aware of someone setting up an account assuming his own identity, where he quipped that, "the other guy doing it was probably better than me."
He later went on to explain his theory on how the democratization of media meant that everyone with access to cell phones and film-editing software on their laptops was now a storyteller and that, arguably more importantly, it meant they had control over their own story. “That’s something that Orson Welles tried to get for years,” he said.
Gosling later went on to broach the Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal meme, and the strange pseudo-relationship that struck between he and the originator of the viral hit.
"I had this weird relationships to it, but it was like a part of my day-to-day but he eventually got cancer and passed away, and it was weird because I never met him, and he was part of my life in a way, and in a way I was part of him,” he said. “So I just decided to film a Vine of me eating my cereal and it was kind of like a circle had been closed. It was a powerful thing in a way.”
Hosting the morning’s proceedings was Adobe VP of strategy, alliances and marketing, John Mellor who spoke about how technology can be used to create and measure emotionally impactful interactions with consumers. “Experiences are meaningful because they create an emotional experience… emotion is the currency of experience,” he said.
Meanwhile, fellow presenter NBA chief marketing officer Pam El spoke of how a lot of the athletes competing in the league are storytellers that are “bigger than basketball." She also went on to stress how their talents at communicating experience can help engineer societal change beyond US shores, as well as commercial success.
“Ours is a true mix of sports, fashion and entertainment [on and off the court]. All [of] these collide… we’re all a small part of a very big world,” she said.
“Many of you are familiar with Q-scores that are used to measure marketability… and we’re lucky enough to have 20 athletes who are at the top of that list,” she said, discussing NBA stars including Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry and LeBron James.
She also went on to highlight how the NBA was changing its own skill set internally to put data at the heart of its storytelling, whereas, in the past, they would have only sought out creative talent.
“Just like the experience on the court, we’re hiring data scientists and analytically-minded people because that’s the way the game and audiences are growing — and we’re going to stay ahead of that,” she said.
Also taking the stage was retired NFL star, and ex-MVP of the league Peyton Manning, who spoke with sportscaster Colin Resch on the importance of analytics, internal communication and preparing for any likely eventuality when it comes to performing at the top of one's game.
“It starts with preparation. I was never out there just winging it… that’s how it has to be,” he said. “There’s always going to be an element of guts and instinct… the preparation the time, the communication and surveying the possibilities, the scenarios… the more prepared you are the better.”
The enterprise IT giant used the annual showcase event to demonstrate and launch the capabilities of its newly launched Experience Cloud, an umbrella product that houses all of its earlier analytics, creative and marketing cloud capabilities.
Also showcased at the event was Adobe’s open data initiative, co-led by Microsoft, pooling their respective data, sales and marketing expertise to help brands de-silo the information they have at their disposal.
Sharing the stage with Adobe was Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise division, who went on to explain how this joint approach will help marketers more easily compile customer insights across various channels, and creating a single view of the customer.