Brooks’ Take on the Adobe/Omniture Acquisition: Data is the new creative!

I’m not as plugged into the hard core web analytics scene as Eric Peterson, Bill Bruno or Adam Greco, but here is my quick take on the breaking news of the week: Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture. I am a believer in the statement that “data is the new creative.” This statement was coined by David Verklin of Carat last year, and is an eloquent explanation for why I, the CEO of a creative firm,  spend so much time thinking about data.

I think it also applies to the reasoning behind the Adobe/Omniture acquisition. Adobe has always provided the software platform for the tactical creative side of the house. They have also closely monitored the trends in the creative world. At first, they had Photoshop and Illustrator when Print was all the rage. Then, when the Internet started to heat up, they went out and purchased Macromedia. This allowed them to offer the digital platforms: Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and most importantly, Flash.

Adobe correctly predicts that data analysis (and the accountability that comes with it) is going to be an important trend in the future. And that, of course, means that they will want to own the platform upon which this is based. Like Macromedia, Omniture is clearly the platform leader in this space.

It’s a brilliant move by Adobe, and I am doing the same thing that they are: placing my chips on web analytics as the future of creativity.