Deliverables
- Created compelling strategy to gain access to decision makers on behalf of Adobe
- In partnership with Adobe sales, outlined target personas and teams within Amazon
- Built partnership with Amazon internal team through understanding of joint KPI’s
- Collaborated on outcomes of the event and ensured thoughtful follow-up
Results
- Adobe won the renewal at three times the value of the previous contract. They continue to have a strong partnership with Amazon today.
- The bespoke event approach is being replicated across Adobe’s largest enterprise accounts today.
A major account in jeopardy
Adobe had struck a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement for Amazon’s creative teams to use its design tools. But as in many large organizations, Amazon’s various creative teams had many tools at their disposal. They could choose the ones they wanted to use, and they weren’t using Adobe tools to the full extent of their license. People in Amazon were having difficulty navigating within the Adobe organization, and vice versa. By the time the contract came up for renewal, the account was in jeopardy.
Bridging the gap and bringing people together
EM provided a consultant with deep experience in Account Based Marketing who had also done many stints at Adobe and was well connected within their sales and marketing organizations. As a neutral third party, she was able to bridge the gap between the two companies. She worked with Adobe’s enterprise sales team to find the right accounts to talk to at Amazon and learn what they needed from Adobe.
Based on those learnings, she proposed a bespoke version of Adobe’s “Design Days” program. Adobe would come on site at Amazon for two days of inspiration and hands-on learning with Adobe tools.
Our consultant found the right SMEs within Adobe to meet Amazon teams’ learning needs. She collaborated on the agenda; helped recruit keynote speakers; organized an executive lunch to bring together leaders from both organizations, and led communications to get people to the event.
Not only would Amazon creatives be meeting Adobe creatives, many of Amazon’s creatives would be meeting their colleagues on distributed teams in person for the very first time. The event ended up being a mini version of Adobe’s signature Adobe MAX, just for Amazon, complete with co-branded swag that drove home the partnership message.
“Your consultant was instrumental in helping us close the deal with Amazon. The Design Day at Amazon moved us out of the ‘vendor’ category and into the ‘valued partner’ arena.”
Results
Over 300 Amazon creatives attended. Once they got a taste for how much more they could accomplish using Adobe, they went straight to their managers and requested Creative Cloud for Enterprise.
Amazon renewed its contract with Adobe for 3x the original value.
The bespoke event has now become a staple of Adobe’s enterprise ABM efforts.
