Situation
In 2021, Adobe’s Digital Media (DMe) team sought Sage’s PR support to educate federal civilian, defense, health and human services, national security, and state and local government decision makers on the value of secure digital signature capabilities. This support involved thought leadership outreach aligned with well-funded government initiatives and industry trends. In 2022, Adobe decided to expand its relationship with Sage to support its DX sales team’s public sector presence. The aim was to show the full breadth and depth of Adobe’s digital experience solutions and capabilities with field marketing and PR enablement.
The partnership aimed to provide Adobe PR, sales, business development and marketing enablement support that educates the public sector, promotes thought leadership, solves customer use cases, promotes customer success, drives business value and benefits from Adobe solutions, and builds the company’s One Adobe story in the public sector.
Approach
Sage responded by convening an integrated internal team of PR and marketing experts to develop assets that told a cohesive, mission-focused story. These deliverables ranged from features, bylines, award nominations, solution overview documents, blogs, POV PowerPoint decks, customer success stories, and more. Each piece focused on different Adobe sales plays and solutions — arming Adobe sales reps and executives with material that wasn’t overly sales-focused but instead felt customer-centered and needs-driven.
Results
Since the start of this engagement, Sage has accomplished the following:
Increased exposure in the public sector — Secured approximately 45 earned media hits — mostly features and bylines — capturing over 8.6M unique impressions/month (+3 pending).
Customer advocacy — Developed 20+ Brag Book customer success stories and 14 thought leadership blogs to demonstrate Adobe’s value to the government mission. Submitted 12 award nominations and captured 8 winners/finalists (+4 pending decision) for Adobe executives and customers for accolades such as the Service to the Citizen, AFCEA, Innovate IT, and FedScoop 50 and StateScoop 50.
Executive elevation — Launched executive social media program for Adobe Public Sector VP Michael Levy and secured byline placements in Tier 1 media for Adobe public sector executives James Hanson and Tanya Chowdhury. Provided media and social media training, blogs and talking points for Adobe subject-matter experts (SMEs) to support Adobe at events including the Adobe Government Forum, GovForward FedRAMP Summit, CISO Roundtables, etc.
Thought leadership — Established Adobe’s public sector expertise via 10 SMEs on hot-button topics including FedRAMP, CX/21st Century IDEA, EX and IT modernization in various media outlets including Nextgov/FCW, Federal News Network, SNG, Federal Times, Federal Tech and Daily Scoop podcasts. Consistent message pull-through across all owned and paid content and earned media.
Sales enablement — Developed 5 PPT sales presentations, 8 customer overview documents, 6 messaging documents, 8 sales play documents, and 10 pieces for promotional campaigns to support executive meetings and pipeline activities —overall, enabling the Adobe ecosystem to tell a One Adobe story in the public sector. Supported the development of an internal newsletter that highlights Adobe events and accomplishments each month. Conducted account-based marketing research on top 5 agency targets, including GSA, VA, DHS, USDA and Dept. of Interior.
Sage further solidified its role as a trusted partner to Adobe by supporting many quick-turnaround projects that Adobe leveraged in large deal opportunities. We look forward to continuing this partnership to help build and elevate Adobe’s thought leadership and continue to position Adobe as a credible and strategic government partner.