Adobe extends its Marketing Cloud to IoT and beyond

Adobe's Marketing Cloud has offered enterprises a tool for integrated online marketing and Web analytics for several years already, but on Tuesday the company announced numerous new extensions to the technology.

Among the products unveiled at the Adobe Summit going on in Salt Lake City this week are new marketing tools designed with the Internet of Things in mind.

A feature called Adobe Experience Manager Screens, for example, aims to help brands extend interactive content including images, 3D interactive models, video and more to physical locations such as retail stores, hotels and even devices like vending machines.

A new IoT software development kit, meanwhile, lets brands measure and analyze consumer engagement across connected devices, while new Intelligent Location capabilities allow companies to tap GPS and iBeacon data to optimize their physical brand presence.

"Today, delivering an experience online isn't enough," said Melissa Webster, program vice president for content and digital media technologies with IDC. "Brands need to extend marketing to physical spaces and connect directly with customers across an ever-increasing number of touch points."

Adobe also debuted two new products as part of the Marketing Cloud: Audience Manager, which is designed to offer extended customer insight, and Adobe Primetime, which targets the management and monetization of video content online.

Also new from Adobe this week are key enhancements to Adobe Mobile Services designed to dramatically simplify the mobile app-development lifecycle.

Finally, targeting programmatic ad buying -- or the automated buying and placement of ads according to a predefined set of rules -- Adobe unveiled offerings that integrate audience and behavior data from a broad range of sources and automate delivery across marketing and ad channels.