Adobe has announced the general availability of Adobe Workfront Planning, part of Adobe Workfront, an enterprise work management application. This new offering connects fragmented workflows and data across marketing teams, with actionable insights that allow brands to execute campaigns with greater speed. Workfront Planning provides full visibility into day-to-day marketing operations. The solution creates a “marketing system of record”. The practice allows other functions such as sales or finance to power planning and execution with data intelligence.
Instead of manually gathering details across teams, Workfront Planning allows marketers to quickly answer questions such as “How many campaigns are we running this year?” Alternatively, “Which tactics are most frequently used in our campaigns?”. Users have these actionable insights right at their fingertips, surfaced through both curated visualizations and a generative AI-powered conversational interface. This can shorten the time it takes to plan and launch new campaigns.
Adobe says this removes the labour-intensive work of aligning teams on timing and objectives. Users can accelerate time-to-market by leveraging generative AI to summarise information, keep marketing records up-to-date or set up new campaigns.
According to Amit Ahuja, senior vice president, Digital Experience Business at Adobe, “Some enterprises suffer from fragmented marketing operations. As a result, too much time is spent trying to align programmes and stakeholders. A problem Workfront Planning solves providing a centralised solution to plan campaigns, deliver marketing briefs and orchestrate work across teams.”
Workfront Planning capabilities include:
Curated visualisations
The marketing calendar in Workfront Planning visualises day-to-day marketing work in an easy-to-digest format. For instance, a timeline view displays all active campaigns in a chronological format customisable for any team or stakeholder. A user can automatically view campaigns targeting a certain audience. For example, loyalty programme members or for a specific objective, such as a holiday season promotion). A spreadsheet view provides a deeper look into each campaign. This provides end-to-end visibility on key messages, individual contributors, project status and more.
Brief creation with generative AI
When marketers need to create a new campaign, generative AI-powered capabilities will enable users to build on previously static plans. Marketers will be able to upload existing assets (such as a presentation deck detailing the project) to create campaign records and generate a marketing brief. This curated view will include everything from marketing tactics and objectives to relevant assets and timelines. The conversational interface in Workfront Planning, powered by generative AI, also allows users to query details across campaigns. This can help answer pressing questions that come up during the planning stages.
Easy record keeping
Effective planning hinges on marketing records that are accurate and up-to-date. These records can include details such as target audience and region, tactics, relevant business unit and more. This is also known as the “metadata” of marketing. With the generative-AI-powered conversational interface, users can automatically create or update records as plans evolve. Marketers upload an asset, such as a Word document with the latest campaign details, and the record is automatically updated. Records can then be connected into a marketing graph, which visualises the connections between teams and workflows. This produces additional insights to drive alignment and shortens the time it takes to get campaigns into the market.
Adobe says global brands from Deloitte and IPG Health (part of Interpublic Group) to NASCAR have used Workfront Planning to boost productivity. In addition to meeting the rising demand for highly personalized marketing campaigns. The new offering is also having an impact on the Adobe Global Marketing Organisation. It enables teams to develop coordinated plans and gain full visibility into marketing activities.
Enterprise Times: What this means for businesses?
The daily work of marketing teams has become increasingly complex, as different teams move forward on individual campaigns. Such marketing work and initiatives often take place without much visibility into the efforts of internal colleagues. Furthermore, marketers have been under increasing pressure to deliver highly personalised customer experiences, without any material increase in resources.
Adobe recently surveyed UK marketers to determine their current pain points. The survey also sought to identify ways marketers are adapting their workflows to drive efficiencies and cost savings in 2024. The survey found that UK marketers are seeking to automate manual processes through content AI and chatbots (56%). Improve the use of analytics insights to inform resource allocation (55%), and identify workflow inefficiencies to avoid wasting budget (50%).
The company’s Workfront Planning attempts to address all three of these concerns. It enables marketers to plan and collaborate on campaigns using data and insights and automate processes with generative AI. Adobe says it will boost their productivity and prevent wasted budget. Marketers will welcome any tool that makes their professional working life easier and more effective.