In this era of digital transformation, it has become clear that people buy experiences, not products. Account-based marketing (ABM), a method traditionally focused on the accounts that will drive the most revenue, is picking up steam, and it’s proving to be an effective B2B marketing strategy to generate revenue and increase ROI.

Brightcove, an online video hosting platform, has joined LaunchPoint by Marketo, an Adobe company and Accelerate partner, to enable Marketo Engage customers to incorporate video assets into their marketing strategies.

Marketo CEO Steve Lucas has announced his departure from Adobe, roughly one year after the company signed a definitive agreement to purchase Marketo for $4.75 billion.

Adobe has launched new capabilities within the Marketo Engage ABM Essentials offering, part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud, including new AI-powered models in its Account Profiling tool and an expanded LinkedIn partnership. The two updates aim to help accelerate the execution of ABM strategies for sales and marketing teams, as well as drive personalized and account-based experiences.

Adobe unveiled Technology Previews, which are designed to use AI and machine learning technology to help users test out new analytics innovations in real time.

B2B business has a bad reputation for continuing to push traditional, lengthy, inhuman sales cycles on its prospective buyers. However, a variety of vendors and practitioners in the space are making the push to turn the B2B buying process into a conversational, personal experience. At this year’s Adobe Summit, in particular, we saw Marketo and Adobe unveil integrations with a variety of companies in an effort to better enable companies to offer frictionless customer experiences with a conversational approach.

For years, B2B marketing has discussed the “consumerization” of the B2B buyer. However, technology specifically has continued to remain siloed as B2B or B2C point solutions. Adobe has shown that it is positioning itself as the cross-practice cloud ecosystem, especially with the acquisitions of Marketo and Magento, to drive digital transformation that meets buyer expectations of a frictionless, memorable experience.

At its annual summit in Las Vegas, Adobe announced a new integration with LinkedIn, as well as a deeper partnership with Microsoft. The company stated that the partnerships with both companies better position B2B customers to deliver targeted account-based experiences to prospective buying teams.

On the opening night of the Adobe Summit, senior-level executives from Adobe and Marketo recognized their 2019 Adobe Experience Maker and Marketo Revvie Award winners. The Marketo Revvie Awards are designed to honor Marketo users who are driving business growth and positive buying experiences, while the Adobe Experience Maker Awards aim to recognize best-in-class Adobe Experience Cloud users.

Marketo unveiled its 2019 Marketo Champion Class, which seeks to recognize users who are Marketo Certified and act as brand ambassadors to share their knowledge and expertise with others in the Marketing Nation Community.