Company: Adobe, San Jose, CA
Nomination Submitted by: Golin
Company Description: Founded 40 years ago on the simple idea of creating innovative products that change the world, Adobe offers groundbreaking technology that empowers everyone, everywhere to imagine, create, and bring any digital experience to life. From students to creative professionals, and from small businesses to the world’s largest enterprises, our customers are using Adobe products to unleash creativity.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Software
 Nomination Title: The Adobe 'I Love You, Acrobat' Launch
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
June 12th, 2023
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 237 words used.
The 'I Love You, Acrobat' campaign reimagined B2B influencer marketing by collaborating with comedian Hasan Minhaj to create entertaining, comedic, and social-first content. Acrobat has exceptionally high unaided brand awareness and is the category leader in PDFs. However, much fewer audiences know that Acrobat is more than a static file format, but an all-in-one document solution for businesses. The central challenge was to showcase how small businesses and entrepreneurs can utilize Adobe's software as a tool to maximize their digital workflows and understand how editing and e-Signature capabilities, specifically, could aid their productivity.
When taking a deeper dive into traditional B2B marketing campaigns, we found that most fail because they lack strategic depth and memorability. Paul Hirsch, inaugural judge of the B2B Creative Lions at Cannes, and current CEO & Chief Creative Officer of Doremus+Co states, “There’s a need for change in how companies approach B2B marketing. Nobody cares about how great you say your product or service is unless you make them care by creating advertising that’s truly memorable.” Generally, the elements that build brand recognition are a strong story arc, characters, soundtrack, emotion and persuasive techniques. B2B and productivity software advertisements typically lack some, if not all of these. Knowing this, our challenge was to find a new, effective model for B2B influencer work – a model that would challenge the conventions of B2B and bring a new level of engagement with our audience.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
As we thought like an entertainment brand, we realized the first thing we needed to do was enlist a different type of headline influencer. They needed to be a small business owner to establish credibility among our target audiences, but they also had to be an entertainer at their core and someone we could collaborate with. The criteria pointed to actor, writer and producer, Hasan Minhaj. As a comedian with several Netflix specials and serving as guest host of The Daily Show, Hasan had the “it factor” we were looking for to help reimagine the way we target software audiences. Not only did Hasan check our entertainment box, but he is also a small business owner and an actual Adobe Acrobat customer who's cited the software as beneficial to turn ideas into projects for his production company, 186K films. Making him the perfect collaborator for our unique approach.
Campaign content was rolled out on owned Acrobat social channels in a strategic cadence that told a cohesive story, leveraged Hasan's social reach to extend to new audiences, and was amplified by Adobe's broad social ecosystem. As a social-led campaign, it was crucial that all produced hero videos were able to be formatted in channel-optimized sizes, and that we had thumb-stopping social-first content to support the main campaign videos. During the shoot, we prioritized capturing supplemental content for social, like lo-fi B-roll, overt physical comedy and bloopers, and videos using trending audio, as well as clear product integrations for small screen placements.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2022. Even if your initiative started before 2022, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2022 only (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
The collaboration with Hasan has generated record levels of e engagement with our target business audiences of entrepreneurs and working professionals at small companies Ultimately, the goal of this campaign was not only entertaining audiences but driving a true business impact.
Social audiences responded incredibly positively to this campaign, driving more than 29M+ engagements on social channels and 99% positive sentiment upon campaign launch (Talkwalker). We have generated 5x the anticipated organic influencer performance. Acrobat fans and even celebrity friends of Hasan extending the reach of this campaign and bringing the Acrobat brand to new audiences. Acrobat’s Instagram engagement rate increased 202% during the campaign launch month, and doubled the industry average engagement rate versus typical Tech & Software industry peers (Rival IQ). 130,000 users clicked through to the campaign landing page. During the campaign period of June-August, Acrobat subscribers increased +7% during the same quarter year over year, resulting in a near 10% swing in value vs the previous quarter—remarkable performance during the disengaged summer months (Tron CRM).
Finally, beyond the immediate campaign impact, the audience exposure to this campaign has led to massive opportunities within retargeting and nurture programs to drive future revenue. Adobe also worked with a a leading research team to understand campaign performance by directly measuring consumer response from the brain. They said the hero film, "I Love You, Acrobat," is “one of the highest performing ads they’ve neurotested all year”. Our entertainment approach is set to be a permanent and enduring strategy.
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 42 words used.
- Press clippings
- Work Samples
- Social posts/videos
- Photos/images
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