Articles by category: Opinion

In 2016 I had the privilege and pleasure of being part of the first cohort of Multi-Solution Architects at Adobe Consulting. We had to undergo super-intense training, but it was worth every second. I learned a lot and met with exceptional coworkers. I still remember those days as one of the best experiences I have had at Adobe. A lot has changed during these 8 years (already 8 years!?), which means that the role has also changed significantly. So I thought it was time to write a follow-up to the post I wrote on the role of the Multi-Solution Architect when I started this path.

As a small kid, I loved watching Sesame Street. One of my favorite characters was the Cookie Monster. I liked how he would try to eat as many cookies as possible, creating a mess. I later heard that there was an initiative to make him eat vegetables and fruits, but I never saw it and I do not know how true that statement was. Returning to the mess, this is a very accurate picture of what we have today with browser cookies, especially third-party cookies.

Ever since I started working as an Adobe Analytics consultant, more than 10 years ago, I always recommended my clients to follow a naming convention. I probably should have done a better job of explaining the why and the how. They say it is better late than never, so I am going to redeem myself today.

Earlier this year, Google reached an agreement to delete billions of records. This time, the reason was how private browsing was perceived vs. what it really was. This post will explore the technical aspects of private browsing, the lawsuit, and how it can affect digital marketing in general.

Many of you may be wondering what the heck I am going to write about today with this title. I know, the first time you hear these words together it sounds like someone made a bad choice of words. However, once you finish reading this post, it will make a lot of sense. In fact, I am sure you will get it even before getting to the end.

My first post of the year, where I talk about use cases vs capabilities, has been very successful. Even last week a coworker mentioned it to me, 4 months after publishing it. The interest in this topic has kept me thinking about what else I could write about. Then I had a flash, an idea where I realized that there are certain parallelisms between SMART goals and use cases, and I am going to explore them.

In my last post, I introduced the problem with flicker. The post was already becoming too long and I decided to split it into two. This is the second part, where I will explain the solutions that can be applied. If you have landed directly on this post, I strongly recommend that you first read my previous post.

For the past 5 years or more, almost every client I work with has raised their concerns about flicker or the causes that generate flicker. For reasons that will become clearer in this post, this topic tends to be a bit heated, with very strong opinions on either side. I will try to stay away as much as I can from subjective matters, but I will also give you my point of view. This is the first post of a two-part series, where I will talk about the problem and potential solutions to this issue.

This is a post I have had on my list for quite some time and today I thought it was high time I wrote about it. If you do a quick Internet search, you will see that this topic is very popular, with hundreds of results. I will not repeat what others are saying. Instead, I will provide my point of view with the aim of clarifying what each acronym is and is not. I know there is some confusion about these terms.

First post of 2024! Throughout my career at Adobe, I have seen from time to time a conflict between the two potential approaches when implementing a new technology: base it on use cases or base it on capabilities. I have a very hard time when I have to face this discussion with my customers, as I understand both sides and see the benefits of both approaches. However, the choice will have a deep impact on the future usage of the tool.

Here we are again, at the end of another year. I remember a conversation with my grandmother many years ago, where she told me that, for her, the days just flew. As I grow old, I am beginning to feel the same. Just looking at this blog, I started it almost 9 years ago, with my first post in February 2015. A lot has happened since then, but today I will only cover the events of 2023.

Ever since I had my first statistics lesson in high school, I have hated the subject. All I can really understand is that each side of an unloaded dice has a probability of 1/6. Other, more complex concepts like stochastic processes are just black magic to me. Unfortunately for me, there is one area of digital marketing that requires a good knowledge of statistics: the measure of incrementality. I do not claim to be an expert, but I more or less understand the important concept behind it. I will do my best to explain it in this post, although this is more for me to keep track of something I have learned.

Digital marketing requires enough customer data to be able to segment your customer base and run personalized campaigns. Quite often I find clients who tell me that they have very little data from their customers, leaving them mainly with anonymous behavioral data. In some cases, there is a fairly easy solution: a loyalty program. Let me explain the benefits you get beyond the “loyalty” part.

You probably remember when you were in primary or secondary school and you were taught about the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. Some people will also add how, me being one of them. It is very handy that, in English, these words start with WH, making them easy to remember. When you learned them, they were just boring language constructs you had to learn. However, over the years I have realized that they are much more important than just that. It helps a lot to ask these questions in everything in life, but today I will focus on digital marketing.

As I explained in my last post, I was invited to attend the US Summit 2023, an invitation that made me very happy. If you have attended this year or any of the previous events, this post is probably not for you. However, if you have never attended, this will give you a flavor of what you get.

Sometimes I joke with my colleagues saying that, if I had to start again my career as a consultant, I would have chosen security as my area of expertise. I do not think that I would have liked it as much as my career at Adobe, but I know that I would have always been in demand. That being said, we all have to be very conscious of the security of everything we do, even in digital marketing. Let me explain why.

We made it again! With all the issues that we have faced due to the pandemic in the last three years, we have reached the end of 2022. At least I can say that this year has been better that the previous 2 years for several reasons.

Today I want to tackle an area that I rarely mention in this blog: digital transformation. I know, this is a very broad concept, with many ramifications and ways of implementing it. Every digital strategist has their idea of what it is, how to approach it and how to implement it. My goal today is just to introduce the three pillars of a digital transformation program: people, process and technology.

Those of us in the digital marketing industry use very liberally some concepts, taking for granted that everybody knows what they mean. Two of such concepts are “segments” and “audiences”. I have used them in my posts very often, without giving much thought to which word I use. I had a recent enablement session with a customer and I realised that I have never explained these terms.

It has been a long journey, but here I am: in less than 1 week I will celebrate my 10th anniversary at Adobe. It has been an amazing journey, much better than what I thought 10 years ago. Without a doubt, it has been my best job ever. Not everything has been rosy, though. Let me summarize the positives and the negatives of these 10 years.