News Analysis
The Gist
- Tech evolution. Optimizely acknowledges marketing stack transformation.
- AI revolution. CEO compares AI's impact to the printing press.
- Platform unification. Optimizely One aims for comprehensive marketing solutions.
SAN DIEGO — At Opticon this week, there were product introductions. However, what stood out most to this writer was Optimizely's acknowledgment of the marketing stack's evolution.
Reflecting what many analysts have predicted, the leadership team announced a consolidation of the overarching tech stack. They also hinted that, with the rise of generative AI, content creation will soon be "frictionless." In this envisioned future, AI will generate, test and release content to accelerate business outcomes.
Optimizely One: The ERP for Marketers
Given Optimizely CEO Alex Atzberger's background with SAP, the company's recent move is somewhat expected. At SAP, manufacturing, material and finance systems eventually coalesced into enterprise resource planning (ERP). Reflecting this, Optimizely has strategically unified its systems, both organically developed and acquired, into a singular platform. Named "Optimizely One," this ERP for marketers, as described by the company, serves as an operating system for marketing professionals, aiming to boost efficiency and efficacy in marketing.
Optimizely Targets Adobe: Marketing's Unified Platform
Undoubtedly, there's a significant chance to unify marketing solutions on one platform. "Marketing," Atzberger said, “is the only remaining enterprise function that doesn’t have a go-to platform.”
In essence, Atzberger envisions establishing an operating system for marketers. He openly admits his ambition is to dominate the enterprise landscape. For instance, Salesforce, an investor in Optimizely through its venture arm, now utilizes Optimizely to enhance its marketing prowess. Furthermore, the company acknowledges that its genuine competitor is Adobe. This writer speculates that, given the intensifying battle for CMO attention and funding, Optimizely could be integrated into Salesforce in the foreseeable future.
CMOs Have Had Difficult Choices
Optimizely contends that customers constructing and integrating their own marketing stacks has been both expensive and overly complex. This has complicated the roles of both CMOs and their CIOs.
Concurrently, organizations face a challenging decision: building a stack suited for IT developers or marketing users. Optimizely points to a tension between openness and user-friendliness. While openness and customizability introduce complexity, practitioners desire simplicity combined with adaptability.
Without addressing these requirements, organizations grapple with fragmented solutions, resulting in increased overhead costs and inconsistent workflows. This surge in IT marketing expenses comes just when organizations should be channeling funds into digital transformation.
To rectify this issue, Optimizely recommends that marketing organizations transition from a segmented to a continuous approach. It's indeed commendable to witness concepts such as DevOps and Agile being incorporated into marketing operations.
Related Article: Focusing on People Can Help Your Digital Transformation Take Flight
Creating a Single Marketing Fabric
To succeed, Optimizely advocates for the creation of a unified marketing fabric that's highly modular. This design grants teams the latitude to select precisely what they require within their marketing ecosystem. Rather than juggling isolated, disjointed marketing processes, CMOs and their squads can oversee a holistic procedure. Optimizely terms it the "marketing lifecycle," facilitating a seamless transition from idea conception to content production to prospect engagement.
In this perspective, content emerges as the linchpin for marketing. Central to this is a cohesive, streamlined workflow designed to simplify content creation, management, delivery and optimization, all within one platform. The idea of isolated content creation is outdated, and content shouldn't advance without due experimentation.
Tiffani Bova, in her recent book “The Experience Mindset,” emphasizes how "employees carry the torch every day of the values and mission of their company." Optimizely's leadership posits that this sentiment extends to marketing teams designing campaigns and content. Their conviction is that technology should augment job efficacy and value, not replace it.
Related Article: Staying Human While Using Generative AI Tools for Content Marketing
Enter Optimizely One
Optimizely One equips marketers with the tools to coordinate their content, capitalize on experiences and experiment across all interactions. Touted by Optimizely, the platform boasts intelligent workflows and is enhanced by AI. Its objective is to empower organizations to craft comprehensive web experiences using a low or no-code interface. This facilitates the unification of digital marketing efforts.
Interestingly, they position themselves as the singular platform while also championing integration, adaptability and selection. A clever approach!
Optimizely aims to empower users to craft modular common services spanning from concept development to testing and finally, delivery. A live demonstration showcased AI's capability to produce an entire campaign, including crafting content that aligns with a company's style guide.
AI Flips Marketing on Its Head
AI undeniably offers a chance to revolutionize marketing. Atzberger likens its impact to that of the printing press, predicting a complete overhaul of marketing operations. This era will be remembered as a pivotal moment. Content should inherently support campaigns rather than being conceived in solitude.
AI introduces an enhanced dimension of experimentation, facilitating fluid content creation. Without doubt, AI provides a platform to extract insights, evaluate recommendations, produce fresh content and act as a supportive assistant when needed.
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In realizing this vision, Optimizely has collaborated with Writer, leveraging business-centric language learning models (LLMs) to generate superior AI-driven content enriched with industry-specific knowledge. As AI's evolution accelerates, its significance grows exponentially. Evidently, there's an imperative for organizations to refine content creation and data-driven actions. AI harbors the promise to reshape the way businesses approach content creation and personalization.
Parting Words on Optimizely
Undoubtedly, technological advancements are thrilling. Yet, without enhancements in people and processes, the excitement is in vain. As CIOs often point out, culture trumps strategy.
Optimizely's announcements carry weight. Marketing thrives when systematic. AI holds the potential to reshape the entire marketing landscape. This significant move will influence the existing market dynamics. Observing responses from Adobe and other market players will be intriguing, especially as the pace of change quickens.
