Web Experience Management

A Frost & Sullivan

White Paper

Avni Rambhia,

Loren Johnson

Mukul Krishna,

Web Experience Management

The Changing Digital Media Landscape ... 3

Digital Asset Management: The Building Block ... 4

Analytics-Driven Web Experience Management: The Roadmap to Customer Acquisition and Loyalty ... 5

Solution Brief ... 8

Adobe Web Experience Management Solution... 9

The volume of

available digital

content today,

voracious consumer

appetites, and a

diversity of

content-capable devices has

created a challenge

for companies seeking

to deliver consistent

quality across multiple

screens, engaging and

interactive Web pages,

variable advertising

models, and

ultimately, a positive

user experience.

THE CHANGING DIGITAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Seismic shifts in the media and content world are irreversibly changing how both companies and customers are creating, displaying, measuring, viewing, and consuming digital content. While media companies are investing huge sums in non-traditional distribution models, consumers are demanding and expecting ever more access to virtually any content any time on any device. Traditional business models that had sustained the media industry for decades are now proving to be insufficient, stagnant, and are rapidly losing both advocates and audience.

The unceasing and ever-increasing supply and demand for digitized media has created entirely new industries, business dynamics and competitive paradigms, and in its wake, the need for new technologies to cope with the demands. According to Internetworldstats.com, today there are more than 2.27 billion people with Web access around the world—almost a third of humanity—as opposed to just 11 percent a decade ago. Further, in many countries, online access has directly translated to tangible monetization opportunities. In North America, for example, a reported 78.6 percent of the population has access to the Web, and according to Nielsen, 94 percent of those users report shopping online. Nielsen also reports that 97 percent of all Internet-connected people in the UK and Germany shop online. The U.S. Department of Commerce further reports that e-commerce accounted for $194.3 billion in retail sales in the U.S. in 2011.

The volume of available digital content today, voracious consumer appetites, and a diversity of content-capable devices has created a challenge for companies seeking to deliver consistent quality across multiple screens, engaging and interactive Web pages, variable advertising models, and ultimately, a positive user experience. Further complicating these issues is ever-increasing consumer demand for fully integrated social media applications; interspersed online video; and personalized, targeted content.

Frost & Sullivan

views next-generation

online technologies

built around delivering

dynamic, interactive

and targeted media

experiences as critical

for the success of any

media company today.

Frost & Sullivan views next-generation online technologies built around delivering dynamic, interactive and targeted media experiences as critical for the success of any media company today. We now have access to tools that enable increased visitor attraction and retention, optimized user engagement and experiences, and improved advertising revenues and outcomes. These tools take various forms, such as Web experience management (WEM) solutions, personalization and social media optimization programs, cross-platform analytics tools, and audience research and behavioral analyses. The integration of all of these through a digital asset management (DAM) platform creates a powerful interactive media solution that empowers multichannel marketing initiatives.

This paper focuses on how technology married to sound business strategies enable media companies to not only succeed in overcoming challenges posed by the digital frontier, but also how to thrive and grow in this environment. Specifically, this paper will explore the content life cycle through creation, management, delivery, measurement and monetization. Technologies designed to address these key points in the content life cycle all have unique value propositions. Yet, when integrated into a singular solution, the synergistic impact of the combined value proposition provides media companies with the best available tool set to succeed in this brave new world.

DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT: THE BUILDING BLOCK

At the heart of any workflow, even more so for a media company, is the urgent need to manage digital assets in an integrated, collaborative, and secure environment. Digital asset management (DAM) solutions do just that—offering media companies a wide selection of features and functionality spanning the ingestion, archival, indexing, search, retrieval, browsing, transformation, version control, annotation, repurposing, collaboration, role-based access, display and transport of digital assets.

Media companies are constantly deploying marketing strategies to better harness the power of the Web and reach the maximum possible viewers. Consumer groups are diverse and span all different types of demographics and geographies. To serve such a broad and dispersed target market, many companies are incorporating multi-lingual landing pages to better serve various geographic markets while also building message-specific microsites to target the demands of unique customer segments. At the same time, marketers are also adding video, animation and social media components to their Web-based marketing strategy. All these activities enable marketers to provide customers with an engaging and personalized experience. In addition, companies are also re-rendering content for cross-channel delivery for multiple Internet-capable devices, serving customers when, how and where they want.

These strategies are all effective for engaging customers in an online environment but in their wake also create a tremendous amount of content that requires active management. As effective as these strategies are in empowering marketers to execute on their online marketing campaigns, they also create a desperate need to manage the tremendous volumes of content being created to support online marketing efforts.

Using a DAM

platform to not only

manage all marketing

assets, but also

integrating it with

the WEM on the

front-end, creates a

powerful combination

for marketing

organizations to

translate online

marketing strategies

into successful

execution that is

measurable and

repeatable.

Using a DAM platform to not only manage all marketing assets, but also integrating it with the WEM on the front-end, creates a powerful combination for marketing organizations to translate online marketing strategies into successful execution that is measurable and repeatable. The value proposition of such an integrated solution helps marketing organizations in many ways. A centralized and easy-to-search repository with version control and role-based access for all marketing assets helps companies break down functional silos that exist within an organization. This also helps reduce the cost of lost or misplaced work that is endemic within traditionally siloed marketing workflows. In fact, marketing workflows that have a DAM platform as their foundation are better optimized for content discovery, and duplication or re-creation of digital assets are all but eliminated. Further, increased collaboration through the integrated platform ensures the cycle time for marketing projects is accelerated.

The ability to repurpose digital assets on the fly for multi-channel delivery helps companies discover new revenue streams as they can now launch marketing campaigns simultaneously across geographies, customer groups and channels. Additionally, companies can benefit from productivity gains as knowledge workers can now focus on the actual task of creating and executing on marketing strategies instead of wasting time on mundane manual tasks of searching for content or having to re-create lost or misplaced assets.

This value proposition becomes that much more compelling when paired with a cloud-based delivery strategy, especially for smaller-sized marketing organizations and companies. Providing a critical capability like DAM through the cloud further accelerates cycle time and the return on investment in many use-cases, further augmenting a marketing organization’s agility. Companies can avoid integration pains or deployment delays that are often associated with on-premise solutions, and business managers can explore subscription-based payment models utilizing OPEX instead of fighting for CAPEX to fund their efforts.

This paper has so far shown how DAM is a must-have for companies looking for effective management of digital assets. This is why Frost & Sullivan’s research in this market stretching back a decade has shown consistent high growth for this sector, accounting for almost half a billion dollars in global revenues in 2011 and continuing to grow at a CAGR of more than 20 percent over the forecast period.

However, managing content does not naturally translate to business success. An organization might have the greatest piece of content, but that content could be rendered totally ineffective if the company does not understand how to deliver it to its viewers. To best optimize content and deploy it to greatest effect, companies must deploy that content through Web experience management strategies, further explored in the following section.

ANALYTICS-DRIVEN WEB EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT: THE ROADMAP TO CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND LOYALTY

Any media company today would admit that unless high-quality content and compelling consumer experiences are provided to their users, the value of content can be completely lost. However, the definition of that quality consumer experience remains very fluid, often

forcing companies to be overtly reactive, agile and, sometimes, daring. Although DAM can provide the tools for companies to manage and deploy content, it is customer experiences that attract consumers, build loyalty, and spread the word about the quality of a site, the viewing experience, and the content itself.

Media companies are under intense pressure to deliver content to their audience in the most efficient and direct manner possible. Web experience management (WEM) solutions are designed to optimize Web experiences, and through their integration with Web analytics tools, power the online marketing ecosystem. The cornerstone of analytics-driven WEM systems is their ability to enable marketers to deliver targeted, personalized, dynamic content across multiple screens. This dramatically increases the probability of success for any online marketing effort.

WEM allows digital marketers to quickly define ideal content for individual page visitors based on analytics-derived visitor attributes. For example, contextual visitor information generated from search engines, demographic models, and/or real-time analysis of on-site behavior can power segmentation tools that can create user profiles and predict preferences, expectations, and activities. Such Web analytics tools are integral to improving website performance, building upon existing success, and delivering increasingly personalized content and Web experiences. Frost & Sullivan’s research shows that WEM solutions can have an immediate impact on production costs. For example, if a deployed WEM solution can save one hour of content discovery per day for a Web content manager, it can save significant operational costs: if a Web content manager at a media company marketing department costs $200/hr, fully burdened, the savings can be calculated as $200 per hour x 250 working hours per year = $50,000 in savings every year—and that is for just one knowledge worker and one function; it does not account for the additional productivity gained from applying those 250 extra hours toward alternative tasks such as faster reaction time to create and update Web content.

A media company researched by Frost & Sullivan found that the cycle time for production workflows has accelerated since deployment of its DAM solution as all content stakeholders, creative contributors, and management are now able to view and browse the same system for search and retrieval or approval instead of spending time and resources hunting for production assets in silos.

The company also found that its media assets are now getting repurposed more often for delivery across multiple channels—whether through traditional TV platforms or over the top (OTT). Further, since media assets are not languishing in silos anymore, increased asset discovery has led to more assets being recycled rather than procuring footage from other sources. The system also enables deep collaboration between various departments, especially between the producer and the editor. They can now access the same system, annotate assets, edit, and collaborate and work toward the shared goal of creating a better product to increase the revenue potential for the network.

A global sporting apparel company researched by Frost & Sullivan used microsites very effectively as part of its WEM strategy. Though the company sold directly to consumers, a large portion of online revenues came from its business-to-business customers, professional sports franchises

Though the screen size

and resolution may

differ significantly

across smart phones,

tablet PCs, desktops,

and over the top

(OTT) devices, WEM

solutions can enable

media companies

to deliver similar

exceptional user

experiences across

these platforms.

Personalized

preferences can also

be integrated across

multi-screen sites,

retaining customized

settings across devices.

and retailers. The company created unique microsites focused on each professional sports franchise it worked with. Through these sites, the company was able to accelerate its product marketing and sales cycle from weeks to minutes as it no longer needed to send physical marketing collateral. Further, the company was able to update all the individual microsites with relevant and targeted content for the franchises and retailers much more frequently—especially around the start of a new season, crucial games and trades. This helped generate increased traffic from retailers who needed to stock up on the latest apparel in anticipation of consumer demand. The company was able to acquire many more retail customers globally as it included multi-lingual supported and geographically tailored microsites, for example a Japanese microsite. The two examples above show how powerful a combination DAM and WEM are in helping media companies and companies handling a lot of digital assets reach a wider audience in a more targeted and efficient way.

WEM solutions also enable media companies to deliver content seamlessly across multiple Internet-enabled devices. Though the screen size and resolution may differ significantly across smart phones, tablet PCs, desktops, and OTT devices, WEM solutions can enable media companies to deliver similar exceptional user experiences across these platforms. Personalized preferences can also be integrated across multi-screen sites, retaining customized settings across devices. The past few years have witnessed a revolution in online consumer interactivity. Companies that are best plugged in to the latest consumer trends have opened new channels of communications, enabling consumers to react to company brands and programming through splash pages on social media sites, integrating comments and discussion areas on their websites, capturing user-generated content (UGC) on their own and other content sites. The integration of UGC in the form of community-generated testimonials, forums, recommendations, favorites lists, shopping lists, and other social navigation tools can measurably increase website hits, increase time spent on the site and reduce customer care calls. This also helps foster customer loyalty and retention, resulting in repeat customers and increased revenues.

Companies that use such channels to reach out to existing and new consumers and gauge perceptions, demand, and usage trends, and develop new programming to address those needs have made a positive impact with the public, company stakeholders, and their bottom lines. These multiple channels have created a critical mass of content and business processes that must also be integrated into a company’s media assets.

Modern consumers can react to content like they never have been able to before—instantly, directly, and creatively through comments, discussions, social networks, and UGC. Analytics can enable companies to capture, organize, and interpret diverse customer data and use that collective information to make strategic decisions that empower both the consumer and the company. When intelligence gained from analytics tools can identify incoming visitor attributes, channel those attributes into a decision engine, retrieve the best corresponding content from an integrated WEM, and deliver a customized page for that visitor—all in real time—it is a very powerful tool. And when the consumer is delivered pertinent information, directly relevant to their expectations, they are more likely to have a positive user experience on the site, stay longer, return, and take a desired action.

The more refined

the knowledge

and management

of consumers is,

the better media

companies can build

and adapt revenue

models around

them. Analytics

have been critical

in understanding

consumers and

integrating the best

and most effective

advertising for them,

generating higher

quality hits, reactions,

and conversions.

Such analytics-driven WEM strategies enable marketers to competently target individual consumer segments. The more refined the knowledge and management of consumers is, the better media companies can build and adapt revenue models around them. Analytics have been critical in understanding consumers and integrating the best and most effective advertising for them, generating higher-quality hits, reactions, and conversions.

Consumers are eager to take their content with them, to access content anywhere and on any device, and to own their experience. Analytics-driven WEM platforms working in tandem with a well-integrated DAM can make it happen. Analytics can be deployed to measure activity, define metrics, decipher larger viewer trends, and benchmark performance. In turn, these can be used to devise new media strategies; improve messaging and performance, while bringing content closer and providing portability to the end user through cloud access environments; and create transformative relationships with consumers.

Engage Personalize Deliver Optimize Manage Create Measure

Web

Experience

Continuum

As discussed in this paper, the online marketplace is very complex as it is lucrative and has fueled an amazing array of solutions to meet the ever-growing challenges. We have also seen how many challenges faced by companies are now being answered by the next generation of solutions coming to market. To put these offerings in perspective, the next section of this paper will look at a vendor example to illustrate how these solutions can help companies accelerate the deployment and monetization of digital content.

The next part of this paper will explore Adobe’s offering as an example of how a leading vendor in the market has stepped up to the plate to help address the challenges of a constantly evolving digital media landscape.

Adobe® Web Experience Management Solution

Adobe Web Experience Management, a solution of the Adobe® _{Digital Marketing Suite, offers}

a unified content management platform for both marketing and IT that includes Web content management (WCM), marketing campaign management (MCM), digital asset management (DAM), marketing campaign management (MCM), and mobile and social applications. At the core of Adobe WEM is Adobe CQ®_{, which is integrated with the rest of Adobe Digital}

Marketing Suite products, allowing businesses to use analytics to deliver more targeted content to identified segments as well as transform digital properties from static content to focused vehicles for personalized engagement that optimizes lead generation and revenue acceleration. Adobe® _{CQ Web content management provides a browser-based user interface for both business}

and IT to create interactive, media-enriched, multichannel customer experiences to build an engaging digital presence, drive more effective campaigns and grow online customer communities. The solution empowers marketers to create, analyze, and optimize site content, campaigns, and targeted user experiences. In an easy-to-learn, fun-to-use authoring environment with support for in-place editing, drag-and-drop page composition from a rich library of Web components, and intuitive controls for search engine optimization (SEO), it also assists in marketing optimization with integration to real-time A/B and multivariate tests, scheduled content delivery, and analytics. Additional capabilities include advanced tools for rolling out new campaigns and promotional websites quickly, managing multilingual content and global brand messaging across local markets, and real-time optimization of customer segmentation and content targeting rules for continuous site improvement.

A key enabler of any digital marketing strategy, the Adobe WEM solution consists of:

An easy-to-use, cloud-ready, unified Web content management system

Adobe offers an intuitive portal that enables marketers to easily author, manage, and deliver digitally immersive online experiences to reach and engage online consumers for greater market share. As the hub for managing and delivering multichannel digital experiences, Adobe® _{CQ is at the heart of the Adobe WEM solution.}

A rich analytics framework

Adobe offers powerful integrations between Adobe CQ and a collection of analytics applications for online business optimization. This unique framework enables customers to collect, test, and measure customer interactions with their brand to further refine the user experience, reinforcing a sustained, virtuous cycle that is constantly optimizing.

Other key capabilities offered by the above Adobe WEM solution components include:

Automated personalization

The solution enables the delivery of targeted content to customers based on their persona, context and other data, and simulates user experiences for different personas. As marketers identify which offers and content are relevant to their customers, they can continually evolve their experiences by executing multiple testing to improve content relevance in any channel.

Multichannel publishing

Through the Adobe WEM solution customers can rapidly deliver content to all screens (create once, publish many), as Adobe CQ automatically detects the user device and sends the representation optimized for its device group. Content authors can simulate the mobile experience as it would appear on a particular device.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

As discussed earlier in this paper, DAM resides at the heart of any workflow and sets the stage for a media company’s global branding outreach with a single repository for organizing and managing its digital assets. DAM integrates with Adobe® _{Creative Suite}® _{authoring tools to}

provide a seamless path from asset creation to storage, approval, publishing, and reuse.

Social communities

The solution also provides the ability to easily embed social properties such as wikis, blogs, calendars, and forums to glean customer insights that further help media companies drive business forward, foster brand advocates to evangelize their products and services, and empower customers to share their own content, driving a deeper engagement with their brand.

Campaign management

The Adobe WEM solution further enables the automation of the management of a media company’s multi-channel campaign to help it handle customer segments, lists, leads, and reports.

Optimizing Creative Workflows through Integration with Creative Suite®

The deployment

strategy of the

technologies discussed

in this paper may well

define the difference

for a media company

from being an “also

ran” to being at

the forefront of the

industry, with a clear

ability to manage its

assets, allocate its

resources, understand

its consumers, and

reach them where

they live within

the dynamic media

environment of

tomorrow.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The digital media-driven economy and Web-connected communities have become ubiquitous in many people’s lives, with content quality defining the success or failure of many media campaigns. Today’s media company must deal with a wide range of new challenges and opportunities to remain successful and profitable. Optimized content experiences and analytical measurement of their performance can validate a company’s multi-screen approach, distribution and revenue model. Although benchmarks for Web content effectiveness are fluid, adjusting to market, technology and operational realities, smart companies will consistently put the customer at the center of their business focus, monitoring and adapting to their changing demands and activities, and anticipating Web trends, their competitive environment, and customer moods.

The deployment strategy of the technologies discussed in this paper may well define the difference for a media company from being an “also ran” to being at the forefront of the industry, with a clear ability to manage its assets, allocate its resources, understand its consumers, and reach them where they live within the dynamic media environment of tomorrow.

The targeted use of dynamic-rich media sourced from the DAM repository and delivered through an analytics-driven WEM platform enables marketers to create truly engaging and personalized Web experiences for their customers seamlessly across multiple devices.

The synergistic effect of combining these solution areas is being proven successful across vertical markets. Today, it is all the more important for media companies to increase agility, and grow positive impressions and reputation while capturing more consumer and advertising revenues. An extremely proactive vendor community led by companies like Adobe is empowering marketers to gain advantage through the implementation of the discussed tool sets in this paper that may well define the structure of the media landscape through the foreseeable future.

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Based in Mountain View, California, Frost & Sullivan is a global leader in strategic growth consulting. This white paper is part of Frost & Sullivan’s ongoing strategic research into the Information Technology industries. Frost & Sullivan regularly publishes strategic analyses of the major markets for products that encompass storage, management, and security of data. Frost & Sullivan also provides custom growth consulting to a variety of national and international companies.

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