Acquia Engage Continues: Day Two Highlights

While the Engage Boston program was chock-full of priceless content for everyone, the networking and conversations amongst peers might have been even more valuable. It’s been enlightening to overhear discussions between people with similar experiences and challenges but who introduced different ideas, perspectives, and solutions for consideration. 

That spirit of Engage, along with all of the learning and celebrating from day one, continued today. So, let's carry on with a recap of the highlights from day two. 

Shaping the future with Acquia’s Innovation Showcase

Following a welcome from Acquia president and CEO Steve Reny, who reaffirmed Acquia’s mission of creating the open DXP, we dove into the Innovation Showcase led by our co-founder and chief technology and strategy officer, Dries Buytaert, and SVP of DXP product, Deanna Ballew. Dries and Deanna invited us to imagine the future before walking through how Acquia views the coming years and the steps we’re taking to turn that vision into a reality. That future will include:

• Integration of tools simply by describing the desired result
• Elimination of operational tasks so you can focus on innovation instead
• Personalization based on user emotions and real-time reactions
• Custom digital education plans tailored to learning styles
• A web that everyone can truly contribute to and build
• A web built from the ground up to be safe and private

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Dries and Deanna then previewed the steps Acquia is taking to improve content creation, product experiences, and optimized experiences to move us all closer to this ideal future. For example, our new Customer Experience Trends Report found that 78% of marketers struggle to produce content quickly enough and 98% already use artificial intelligence (AI) to create content, so it only makes sense to embrace it. The future is now with AI-crafted experiences, such as using AI within Drupal for content creation via the OpenAI module, demoed by  Kevin Quillen, Drupal Practice Lead at Velir. Deanna and Dries also walked through the use of AI assistants and automation in Acquia DAM to help with copy suggestions, metadata, search-optimized product descriptions, and more. 

Regarding productive digital experiences, we heard more about how our strategic partnerships with Conductor and VWO will help with creating relevant content experiences that raise awareness, convert, and are personalized. We also got a sneak peek of what’s to come in 2024: product syndication directly within our product information management (PIM) solution via a partnership with Syndic8, data validation, data sharing with Snowflake, and an expanded Acquia Exchange integration hub.

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Lastly, we learned more about how the acquisition of the Monsido platform will help overcome challenges in building optimized experiences that are accessible to all. Following an intro of Monsido from Co-Founder Thomas Christensen, attendees were invited to get a free website accessibility scan from the leading web governance platform. 

Learning from partners’ and customers’ experiences

If you didn’t get your fill of AI conversations on day one, more was served up today. Pat Gilbert, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at TA Digital, shared the latest evolution of their composable commerce as a service solution, Commerce Factory, that launched last year at Engage Miami. Now, with the combination of commerce, insights, data, and generative AI, TA Digital is automating and accelerating content generation and personalization at scale with Intelligent Commerce Factory.

Attendees also heard another exciting customer panel on brand management with Greg Mello from New Balance and Todd Webster from Hunter Douglas. Both shared their experience with Acquia DAM and words of wisdom for others facing digital asset management challenges. As a 100+ year old company with many divisions and groups, Hunter Douglas struggles with tech silos and redundant technologies. The company is currently trying to consolidate its martech stack and to connect systems. Meanwhile, New Balance began using a DAM solution eight years ago with its marketing team; since then, other teams have added on to it. Three years ago, Greg explained, they realized they needed to take a step back and reassess their intention with the DAM system: what to bring in, how to organize it, and how to get content out most effectively. Greg’s advice: Have a plan and an intent but don’t overthink it.

We also got lots of valuable lessons and insights from Acquia customers and partners throughout a multitude of breakout sessions. Topics spanned the gamut, with tracks on digital experience, marketing, IT and web operations, as well as web design and development. 

We heard about Hologic’s DX transformation and the lessons learned when the company unified its regional corporate sites through twin hub sites. With the U.S.-based North America hub and UK-based EMEA hub, Hologic could take advantage of a shared code base, shared design system, and shared and customizable content to deploy regional sites more efficiently for greater cost savings.

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Cox Automotive talked about the use of first-party data within Acquia Campaign Studio for more effective targeted marketing campaigns. Offering car dealerships an Automotive Marketing Platform (AMP) powered by Acquia Campaign Studio, Cox Automotive sees the power of leveraging real-time data and consumer insights to deliver a personalized experience with the right message at the right time to ensure success. In fact, dealers who use AMP see incredible results: Consumers who receive AMP messages are nine times more likely to purchase within 45 days, and the dealers’ average ROI in sales gross profit is 14 times greater.

Drawing from their own experience, Brightcove offered tips for using video to create a first-party data machine. With cookies crumbling, it’s becoming more urgent for organizations to devise a first-party data strategy, then come up with a data collection plan. You can then activate the data and use it, such as in account-based marketing (ABM), as Brightcove does. The company’s own strategy for using video to fuel its first-party data machine is based on: 

• Subscriber registration: Although the company’s video content is ungated, subscribers to PlayTV, Brightcove’s video channel, receive access to additional features.
• Event-based tracking: Brightcove tracks different event types, such as view stats, content topics, devices, abandonment rates, and quality of experience (QoE).
• Content distribution: Video is distributed through Brightcove’s main website, PlayTV, and third-party syndication vendors.

Until next time . . .

As always, Engage would not be possible without our 60 incredible presenters and support from our partner sponsors. A huge thanks to Platinum sponsor, Bounteous; Diamond sponsor, TA Digital; Gold sponsors AWS, Brightcove, EPAM, Phase2, SearchStax, and Third and Grove; Silver sponsors CI&T, Moovly, Elevated Third, FFW, Genuine, KPMG Customer Advisory, Smartling, Material+, and Velir; and exhibitors Altudo, Axelerant, Hounder, and Tactis.

We look forward to seeing new and old friends as we continue the Digital Freedom Tour. Upcoming stops in 2024: London in May, Paris in June, and Tokyo in September!