Adobe moves upstream in the value chain

I was surprised and impressed to see Adobe announcing the acquisition of Omniture.  It shows that Adobe is ready and willing to move from the content creation realm into the management and delivery analytics of that information as it makes its way to the ultimate end user.  Earlier in my career, I recall someone telling me that the most value is created at the end nodes of a network.  It makes sense that the original producer enjoys less competition (possibly) and can influence price transparency more than the “middleman”.  The same goes for the entity that provides the last sale of the product in its final form.  The last provider benefits from the cumulative value that has been added along the way.  It seems that Adobe is going after the two ends of the value network for B2B digital marketing content.

As with any acquisition, there is the cultural challenge and whether or not the new products are truly complimentary to the current portfolio.  The end customer is the marketing department for both companies so they have a common buying center.  I participated in an Omniture study recently that ensured I would receive the results of the study once they were published.  I was blown away by the personalization of the study which included my responses right alongside my peer group and overall responses.  The study had a customized cover sheet describing my areas for improvement and linked those back to Omniture offerings.  That was the best content marketing example I have seen all year.

Ultimately, I think it is a wise move when your product portfolio includes tools that help measure and quantify the ROI of the rest of the tools in your offering.  There could be another not so well publicized reason for the acquisition.  There has been increased talk about outsourcing of marketing and if that trend really takes hold it would hurt sales of Adobe creative tools.  The management and monitoring of marketing’s contribution will likely stay within the four walls as a sort of check and balance – Omniture provides just the sort of oversight capability you would need here.

Kudos to Adobe for venturing upstream while most are looking for safe harbors.