Adobe Customer Story
Sony Electronics reaches out to
a tech-savvy audience.
Major electronics manufacturer boosts customer engagement
at South by Southwest with Adobe Marketing Cloud.
“Adobe Marketing Cloud helps us
immediately view what customers
are saying about our brand and our
products so we can alter our strategies
quickly to maximize the impact of our
marketing investments.”
Michiko Araki, vice president of brand
activation, Sony Electronics Inc.
SOLUTION
RESULTS
Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target,
and Adobe Social solutions within
Adobe Marketing Cloud
200%
REACH
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
Increased Twitter audience
by 122% and reach by 200%
with a single Twitter contest
at South by Southwest
CUSTOM DASHBOARDS
Delivered visibility into
campaigns with real-time
dashboards that allow
marketers to adjust
campaigns and react to
markets faster
MULTIPLE CHANNELS
Analyzed interactions
and tested preferences to
optimize experiences across
channels and devices
MULTI-TOUCH
Established sophisticated,
multi-touch attribution
models that accurately
determine which actions
contribute to engagement
and conversion
Adobe Customer Story
Sony Electronics Inc.
Established in 1945
San Diego, California
www.sony.com
CHALLENGES
•Continually strengthen customer
engagement, brand loyalty, and
buyer confidence
•Devise and optimize multichannel
strategy across social and other
digital channels
•Focus on SXSW to engage ideal
audience with emphasis on Sony
Tablet S participant use and giveaway
Marketing to tech-savvy audiences
As a provider of premium consumer electronics products such as digital cameras, TVs, and tablets,
Sony Electronics caters to a tech-savvy audience that spends considerable time online—researching,
shopping, consuming entertainment content, connecting with friends, and engaging with brands.
To forge one-on-one relationships with its customers and succeed in its e-commerce efforts, Sony
Electronics employs sophisticated digital marketing campaigns that are well integrated across the
company’s digital touch points, including web properties and social sites.
Sony Electronics continuously optimizes its marketing campaigns to maximize customer engagement,
brand loyalty, buyer confidence, and ultimately e-commerce sales with the Adobe Analytics, Adobe
Target, and Adobe Social solutions in Adobe Marketing Cloud.
“Digital marketing and social media are crucial touch points that enable us to extend the Sony brand and
strengthen and personalize our relationships with customers,” says Michiko Araki, vice president of brand
activation for Sony Electronics. “Adobe Marketing Cloud helps us immediately view what customers are
saying about our brand and our products so we can alter our strategies quickly to maximize the impact of
our marketing investments.”
The nexus of technology and music
In 2012, Sony Electronics launched a Tablet S campaign at the renowned arts and entertainment festival
South by Southwest (SXSW) to engage interactive gurus, film enthusiasts, and music lovers gathering
in Austin, Texas. Sony had a presence at various music events throughout the festival where top bands
and up-and-coming acts performed. Festival goers were able to interact with the tablet through on-site
contests, photo opportunities, and music demos.
Adobe Customer Story
Sony wanted to take the buzz created for the Tablet S at SXSW events and extend it online. To do
this, Sony offered fans at the show and at home the chance to win a Sony Tablet S by tweeting with a
#sonytablet hashtag.
An elegant Android tablet with a unique set of features, the Sony Tablet S is perfect for the digital
entertainment junkie. The tablet offers a 9.4-inch touch screen, access to the full suite of Sony Network
Entertainment services including Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited, and an integrated infrared
(IR) universal remote control. Its unique, ergonomic design mimics that of a folded-back magazine to
provide comfort and balance to users.
Customer engagement with a focus on social
“We found that we had a 122%
expansion in Twitter audience
and a 200% growth in reach
via a single Twitter contest.”
Callan Green, senior social media
specialist, Sony Electronics
The Sony Tablet S giveaway was a major draw, and the connecting tactic of a multi-faceted campaign that
included multiple event sponsorships, product demonstrations, and print campaigns. Sony Electronics
used the Adobe Social solution within Adobe Marketing Cloud to promote and track the activities across a
wide spectrum of social sites including Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter to spread buzz and
increase excitement about Sony’s participation at the show. The goal of all the activities was to increase
brand awareness and customer participation.
Brandon Bunker, senior manager of analytics for Sony Electronics, heads up analytics for this and all Sony
digital marketing campaigns. He used Adobe Social to measure specific keywords used within social media
channels, and then correlated spikes in use of the selected keywords to website traffic.
“We found that customers who engage with our brand through social channels are much more passionate
about Sony, so catering to them is critical to our business,” says Bunker. “In particular, the SXSW data collected
with Adobe Social showed greatly increased brand interactions.”
Callan Green, senior social media specialist for Sony Electronics, adds that the results across social channels
during SXSW were impressive. “We found that we had a 122% expansion in Twitter audience and a 200%
growth in reach via a single Twitter contest,” says Green.
To enable executives and staff to see campaign-results data in real time, Bunker set up dashboards in Adobe
Analytics. The immediacy of the information let Sony marketers and other executives see what is or is not
working and take action, making course corrections to campaigns as they are in progress to reach marketing
and business goals faster.
“Online analytics at Sony Electronics has gone from a sideline to something that’s absolutely necessary
to be successful across job functions,” Bunker says. “As with South by Southwest, we’re using the data to
influence our future strategies, especially with social media.”
Adobe Customer Story
“Adobe helps us uncover
insights as quickly as possible
and act on them. In the world
of digital marketing, that’s a
competitive imperative.”
Aleks Reljic, vice president of
e-commerce, Sony Electronics, Inc.
SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
•Adobe Marketing Cloud, including the
Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and
Adobe Social solutions. Capabilities
used include:
• Marketing reports and analytics
• Data connectors
• Social analytics
• Social campaigns
• AB testing
• Adobe Consulting
For more information
www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-marketing
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
USA
www.adobe.com
Optimizing customer engagement
To enhance customer experiences, Sony Electronics follows industry best practices to continually optimize
the company’s online initiatives. According to Aleks Reljic, vice president of e-commerce for Sony Electronics,
the stakes for the website are higher than ever. Events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, not to mention
holidays such as Christmas, are crucial. “We have to make sure we deliver the right message, offers, and
navigation within a narrow window of opportunity,” says Reljic. “It’s absolutely critical to fostering customer
engagement, brand loyalty, and buyer confidence.”
To help ensure a positive customer experience, Sony Electronics has created mobile-friendly versions
of its website customized to display properly and be easily navigated on smaller screens. With Adobe
Analytics, the Sony team can capture general information about customer visits. While the team does
not collect personally identifiable information about customers, they are tracking important interactions,
such as where visitors are coming from—including Facebook and Twitter—which paths people follow
through online channels, and other general information about how people interact with the site. The
team can also test preferred colors and content with Adobe Target. Sony teams use this data to create
and deliver more optimized, multidevice experiences.
The digital marketing imperative: understanding Big Data
Using Adobe Marketing Cloud, Sony Electronics is now looking beyond “last-click” tracking and is
establishing sophisticated, multi-touch attribution models. The aim is to help gauge customer behaviors
and interactions across an array of marketing channels and programs, including TV advertising, search,
shopping engines, email campaigns, and social networks, to allocate proper credit and determine what
actions contributed to brand engagement or conversion.
For example, Sony relies on integration between Adobe Analytics and other applications to view conversions
beyond initial clicks from an email campaign and then continually refine and boost returns on email campaigns.
The company also uses Adobe Target to test and optimize variations of content, designs, colors, promotions,
page layouts, and other factors.
Reljic notes that he can’t overstate the importance of data. The entire company is awash in data, but
the ability to dissect and understand the data gives Sony Electronics a distinct advantage. “With Adobe
Marketing Cloud, we can quickly understand in a visual way why people are coming to our site, what
they are looking for, and how to cater to them one-to-one to make the experience personalized and
meaningful,” says Reljic. “Adobe helps us uncover insights as quickly as possible and act on them. In the
world of digital marketing, that’s a competitive imperative.”
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