2022 Offsite Content Roundup
Welcome to the first of potentially many posts in a newly-found yearly tradition. At some point during the year, I noticed that I don’t have a continuously updated list of the things I’ve been up to outside of this blog. And even besides that, it is sometimes hard to keep up with all the content that eventually makes it onto the blog.
To help with both, I’m planning to release a post like this every year, potentially in the last week of the year. I’m going to try my best to remember all the conferences, events, webinars, and foreign posts (or even update a draft post throughout the year) and put them in some sort of order.
Thank you for another great year on this blog and I hope you enjoy all the different pieces of content!
I have a YouTube channel now!
Writing blog posts definitely is my go-to outlet for my many ideas. However, I found that some topics are better handled in a video. To practice recording and editing videos, I now have my very own YouTube channel! My very first (and, so far, only) video is about implementing Adobe Analytics in under 10 minutes. If you want to learn a quick and easy way to bring Adobe Analytics to a website or just want to get a general idea of how it can be implemented, why not give that video a try? There’s also a handy new list on the sidebar of this page with the most recent videos to keep you updated.
Adobe Events
Adobe invited me for two sessions at this year’s Adobe Summit. My good friend Eric asked me if I wanted to do a practical demonstration of the Linearity Indicator in Analysis Workspace for the Analytics Rockstars session. Hanging out with Eric would have been reason enough to say yes but then it got even better, when I learned that Jenn Kunz was also presenting some tips. Moderating the chat in the background was great with those two. How could anyone have said no to that!
Originally planned as a solo session, Adobe was giving me free rein on what I wanted to do in my own session. Instead of the usual Adobe Analytics tips and tricks, I invited my buddy Till to present the strategy and implementation approach we follow at our current company DHL. That was a lot of fun! If you look closely, you will even find some tips and tricks here or there during the session. I just couldn’t not put those in!
A bit later in the year, Adobe invited me again to speak at the Adobe Experience Makers Skill Exchange event. This session was a neat addition to the Summit sessions and allowed me to go into full detail on some of my favorite tips for Adobe Analytics. You should definitely check it out if you haven’t already!
Adobe Analytics User Group Meetings
As one of the leaders of the EMEA Adobe Analytics User Group, I was pleased to be invited to the very first meeting of the new Iberia AAUG. I was asked to share some of my experiences being the very first European customer of Adobe Customer Journey Analytics.
A few months later we had a meeting of our own, larger EMEA Adobe Analytics User Group. That meeting kicked off a series of sessions across the globe around campaign tracking with Adobe Analytics, with me sharing some options for tracking campaigns and marketing around mobile apps.
Webinars
In August, Adobe invited me to do a webinar with my fellow Adobe Champion Sarah Owen from Search Discovery on the topic of Data Quality & Adoption. Working with Sarah is always a delight and this webinar was a great collection of tips, tricks, and best practices to ensure a reliable and scaleable data collection practice.
Right after the Adobe Summit, Accutics invited me to do a Summit wrap up session together with their CEO Kasper. We went over the most exciting news and sessions, feel free to use it as a guide for your on-demand Summit viewing!
Towards the end of the year, Accutics invited me once more for a webinar. This time, I wanted to share some of my key learnings from over a decade of digital analytics. This is a great continuation of the Adobe Summit session, as it covers all of the underlying core-beliefs and assumptions from which I derive my data strategy. If you like the way I create value from analytics, this session is a must-watch!
There were also a couple of trainings I’ve done with the Analytics Pioneers, but those were unfortunately not recorded.
Podcasts
One of my personal highlights of the year was when the lovely people from the Digital Analytics Power Hour invited me to their podcast. We’ve spent an hour talking about complexity in Digital Analytics and if it may keep some practitioners or stakeholders from entering the field.
DHL-related content
From my work as Practice Lead Analytics at DHL, I wrote a four-part series on how we brought Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target to our own blog through the new Web SDK and Experience Edge Network. The series also contains a neat tutorial on real-time personalization and recommendations through Adobe Target, which should be useful even outside Web SDK implementations!
Later that year, Till and I had an (admittedly wild) idea: Why not create our very own DHL Digital Analytics Summit without any sponsored content? We’ve reached out to some of our famous friends and asked them to present on topics they are passionate about. We pulled off a professionally produced eight-hour live stream from our DHL event location. Not bad for the first time!
Just before the end of the year, we started publishing a series of Adobe Analytics training videos on our YouTube channel. In the first video, I’m explaining some basic concepts and metrics in Adobe Analytics. Stay tuned for more videos!
Twitter Threads
Some interesting conversation took place on the dying bird app. For example, I did a thread in October on how you can bring Adobe’s Web SDK behind a proxy for some true first-party tracking without any ITP or other Apple-related issues. That was a fun experiment.
In December, I’ve “documented” my go-to approach for implementation and democratization around Adobe Analytics. This, again, is also the underpinning of what was shared at Summit and other webinars.
Finally, there’s a thread on how we are integrating OneTrust consent management with Adobe Launch at DHL.
And then, there were the times when I made Adobe Analytics play the piano and do some acrobatics.
External Blog Posts
Since I’ve developed an Extension for Adobe Launch and contributed to the Core Extension, Rob from Adobe reached out to collaborate on a post about some best practices for developing an Extension. That was very cool!
Last, but not least, Improvado asked me to do a comparison of Digital Analytics Tools. Take a guess on what my recommended tool is!
Regular Blog Posts
Last, but not least, there were a couple of posts on this blog as well:
- In January, I shared my experiences building an Adobe Launch Extension and gave some advise whether companies should build their own.
- Also in January, I took a look at Adobe Launch Server Side (aka Event Forwarding aka RTCDP Connections). It’s a pretty cool solution!
- February was the perfect time to write a love letter to Jan Exner and his Constant Data Element in Adobe Launch. Great way to make working with an EDDL simpler!
- April started with a post on Cookie-less Server Side Tracking with Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, which works super well.
- Inspired by Jenn’s Summit tip, I then created some neat Channel Stacking reports for Adobe Analytics in Power BI.
- Continuing the posts on Adobe Launch, May kicked off with a post on the Event Object in Adobe Launch. Must-read for anyone starting with Launch!
- One of the most-read posts of the year was my comparison of Adobe Analytics and Customer Journey Analytics, also because of the continuous updates for future releases.
- June was the month of Activity Map in Adobe Analytics, specifically with a bunch of tips on how to make the most out of it.
- Finally, in November, I built a free Marketing Data Warehouse out of Adobe Analytics. Great approach for companies looking for a unified reporting solution!
German Analyst and Data Scientist working in and writing about (Web) Analytics and Online Marketing Tech.