M+E Daily

Adobe executives and special guest Peyton Manning, the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, discussed the importance of personalization during the day one keynote, “A Game Plan for Personalization at Scale,” at the online Adobe Experience Makers Live event on Sept. 13.

Ehren Hozumi, VP and GM, Industries at Adobe raised the subject during a discussion with Manning (both from Colorado) and Peyton’s brother, Eli Manning (from New Jersey), also a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

Hozumi pointed to the personalization features of the alternate live TV broadcast of Monday Night Football hosted by the Mannings that is widely known as the “Manningcast.”

Personalization is “exactly what it is,” said Peyton, who founded the entertainment company Omaha Productions after retiring from the National Football League (NFL).

“This is the way that Eli and I would watch a football game,” according to Peyton.

“When the game is good, we’re going to be tuned in and we’re going to be probably talking out loud” about what’s happening in the game, he noted. It’s hard to do that in person anymore because Peyton said he is usually in Denver, while Eli is usually in New Jersey.

The brothers typically have conversations when the game is not so great, Peyton pointed out.

“Eli and I like being around people that love football as much as we do,” Peyton said, noting he thinks the Manningcast is “fun because it is different…. The fact that we get to do it from home is different.” They are “just trying to give the viewers a different viewing experience – something that’s real [and] authentic,” he said.

“Eli shot the bird last year on national TV” during a Manningcast, he noted, adding: “I don’t know if gets any more authentic as that. I might have had a little microphone mishap as well…. [It] is pretty raw and off the cuff. That’s what makes it fun.”

Asked what they miss the most about playing football, Peyton said: “For me, I miss the plane rides” and the “camaraderie” r with his teammates after winning a game. “I miss the competition,” Eli said.

Earlier in the keynote, Anil Chakravarthy, president, Digital Experience Business, at Adobe, said: “Our theme over the next few days is squarely focused on the next great opportunity for each of us when it comes to customer experience, and that is to make the digital economy personal.”

He explained: “The shift to digital that we have all experienced over the past two-plus years has been unprecedented. Indeed, it is the digital economy that continues to drive growth for businesses around the world today…. In fact, this digital first economy is projected to reach a trillion dollars in the U.S. alone.”

With that in mind, he said: “The question is how much do we as experience makers unlock this massive opportunity?”

“Put simply, it’s all about the experience,” he went on to say. “Specifically, the ability to create and deliver digital experiences that are relevant to the individual, consistent across every interaction, that provide strong value, and always honors customer preferences and respect privacy.”

He conceded that “personalization itself is not new – far from it.” And “each of you is distinctly aware of its importance in the work you do,” he told viewers.

“But today and going forward, our success as experience makers will be defined by a new standard,” he said. “And that is the ability to achieve personalization at scale. In other words, delivering these relevant experiences in real-time for every customer on every channel, both online and offline, including the immersive experiences that continue to grow in prominence – all this to millions of customers in milliseconds.”

He added: “Timely, relevant, useful, satisfying and connected. That is the bar for digital experience today. It’s what your customers rightfully expect. And it is what builds mutual trust – something that has never been more important.”

He conceded that it’s not so simple to do all this but told viewers that the “perfect recipe” to achieve it would be offered during the online event.