Stagwell expands Adobe tie-up for enterprise marketing

Stagwell has expanded its strategic partnership with Adobe, with the agreement focused on enterprise marketing.

Under the multi-year arrangement, Stagwell will run targeted demand-generation programmes in priority industries, work with Adobe on key accounts, and provide strategic advice and value realisation services for customers using Adobe technology.

Code and Theory, Stagwell's digital transformation agency, is central to the work. It is developing a set of industry-specific products with Adobe, and the portfolio has grown from three planned products to seven since the partnership began.

The new work reflects demand from sectors including financial services, business-to-business marketing, sport and retail. Two products are already in the market: the Creative Intelligence System for financial services and the Content Operating System for sport.

Both use Adobe CX Enterprise and are designed for organisations facing rising content demands. A third industry-focused product is due later this year, with further offerings planned over the following 18 months.

The broader partnership is intended to help Adobe win new enterprise customers, deepen existing relationships and retain clients longer. Stagwell is drawing on agencies across its network to support that effort, combining data analysis, creative work and advisory services around Adobe's software.

Industry focus

Financial services and sport appear to be early areas of emphasis. In sport, the tie-up also includes a broader investment by Adobe and Stagwell in marketing linked to fandom, culture, technology and business.

That sports element includes Adobe's role as official experience partner for SPORT BEACH, part of what the companies described as a shared approach to bringing together brands, athletes, creators and business leaders.

For Stagwell, the expanded Adobe relationship adds weight to its push to position itself as a marketing network with stronger technology and artificial intelligence capabilities. The group has sought to differentiate itself from larger holding company rivals by tying creative services more closely to software platforms and data-led marketing.

Adobe, meanwhile, has been building its enterprise marketing business by combining content, customer experience and data tools for large organisations. Deeper agency partnerships give software groups a route into board-level marketing budgets and clients that want outside help using complex platforms.

The collaboration also underlines the growing role of agencies in packaging software around specific industry use cases rather than offering broad implementation services alone. In this case, Code and Theory is shaping products around sector needs, with the first releases focused on content production and creative decision-making.

Mark Penn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Stagwell, outlined the company's view of the relationship.

"Adobe and Stagwell share a belief that the future of enterprise marketing will be defined by the convergence of data, AI, technology and creativity," said Penn.

"By bringing together Adobe's industry-leading platform with Stagwell's strategic, creative and marketing expertise, we are helping brands create lasting business value at scale," he added.

Michael Treff, Chief Executive Officer of Code and Theory, also described how the agency is approaching the work.

"By combining our technology, experience, and marketing expertise with Adobe's platforms, we're building solutions that are far more differentiated than what either of us could deliver alone. Take our first solution: most enterprises test creative after the fact when it's too late to change anything meaningful. We flipped that, putting intelligence at the moment of creation, not after it. Each solution is built to solve a specific problem and deliver value immediately," said Treff.

Stagwell operates in more than 40 countries. Code and Theory's client roster includes Amazon, IBM, JPMorganChase, Microsoft, NBC and the NFL.