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Adobe Systems - Team

Company: Adobe Systems, Inc.
Company Description: Founded in 1982, Adobe today is one of the world's largest software companies, generating annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion. Approximately 3,500 employees across the world share Adobe's commitment to helping people communicate better. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Adobe is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ADBE.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Communications Team

Nomination Title: More than a Pretty Picture: Adobe Reinvigorates the Design Community

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Graphic artists, designers and photographers can be a jaded and skeptical bunch. They often view upgrading the software they rely on for their livelihood as a hindrance that stifles their creativity. In the midst of competitive assaults from both Microsoft and Apple and just 18 months after these creative professionals were introduced to Adobe’s Creative Suite, Adobe wanted customers to upgrade to a new version. Adobe needed to create a sense of urgency that would motivate and inspire the creative design community. PR needed to make designers and photographers see Creative Suite 2 as essential, not an incremental product improvement. To drive adoption, Adobe PR delved deeper into what inspires creativity and communicated a sense of empathy for the struggles designers face everyday. The PR team mounted a communications program that focused on the limitless possibilities of Creative Suite 2, rather than simply promoting the long list of features and capabilities.

Adobe showed the design community at-large how Adobe Creative Suite 2 is a standout product advancing the state of design and creativity today, and therefore the customer’s ability to innovate. The PR team: • Established Creative Suite 2 as a major step forward. • Communicated the value of the Suite to customers who feel they only need one or possibly two point products. • Secured in-depth product coverage and reviews to demonstrate how the Suite significantly improves productivity and helps creative pros realize their design visions. • Gained exposure for new collaboration features and services to drive adoption. • Mitigated negative press on Adobe’s involvement in royalty-free stock photography.

The overall duration of the PR campaign lasted six months in addition to several months of planning. In that timeframe, PR orchestrated a sizeable NDA press event (40 press attended) during Macworld San Francisco and mounted the largest press tour in Adobe’s history, meeting more than 130 publications (business, technology, trade, vertical, online, and blogs) coast-to-coast and 221 journalists and analysts. Highlights: • More than 200 news articles, including stories in CNET, Dow Jones, Communication Arts, and InfoWorld. Successful pull-through of key messages include the tougher themes of integration between applications, improvements to Version Cue and value of Adobe Bridge and Adobe Stock Photos. • Tripled coverage goal, securing 135 positive reviews in publications spanning all targeted market segments. Sidebar Campaign promoting the collaboration features and services produced 95 noteworthy mentions. • Nineteen covers and cover mentions in publications including PC Magazine, HOW Magazine and Macworld. • Twenty-three Editors’ Choice awards and eight “perfect” ratings from top publications including PC Magazine.  • Secured only positive coverage of the potentially controversial new Adobe Stock Photos service. • Industry luminaries Fred Fishkin (Bloomberg Bootcamp) and Michael Miller (PC Magazine) were among the 40 press members to attend Adobe’s one-day “Ideas Conference” in New York City. Design luminaries, Adobe customers, including MTV Networks, Google and Pentagram Design, and Adobe executives met to discuss topics ranging from creativity to technology in branding and to showcase the innovative ways creative professionals use Creative Suite 2.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Coverage Links:
Chicago-Sun Times, New Tricks Make Adobe Suite Sweet
http://www.suntimes.com/output/worktech/cst-fin-andy14.html

eWeek, Adobe Bundle More than Sum of Parts
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1839897,00.asp

Digital Output, Adobe Creative Suite 2 (Cover Story)
http://www.digitaloutput.net/content/ContentCT.asp?P=680

Press Releases:
Adobe Creative Suite 2 Now Shipping
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/
200504/042705CreativeSuite.html

Adobe Video Collection Professional 2.5 Now Shipping with Photoshop CS 2
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/
200504/042705VideoCollection.html

Adobe Photoshop CS2 Now Shipping
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/
200504/042705Photoshop.html

New Adobe Stock Photos Service Now Available
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/
200504/042705StockPhotos.html

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Denise Styerwalt, Senior PR Manager, Adobe Systems Incorporated, is responsible for Adobe’s Creative Suite PR programs. She led the PR efforts of the Creative Suite 2 worldwide launch and coordinated Adobe’s marketing team involvement. In addition, she staffed the majority of the Creative Suite 2 tour and press briefings. Styerwalt’s PR team engaged creative professional, enterprise and consumer audiences with the Creative Suite 2 campaign that reflected core qualities of the Adobe brand – quality, reliability and trust.