Today is day one of the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit, bringing together around 4000 online marketers, technologists and ecosystem players. Kicking off the day today Adobe announced the latest release of their Web Experience Management platform, and this afternoon we had a chance to chat with VP of Enterprise Technology, David Nuescheler, about the CQ 5.5 release, the Adobe product roadmap, how DAM is changing digital marketing team relationships, Adobe's new Web Experience Management (WEM) in the cloud and what challenges are shaping the industry in 2012. Here are some video extracts from our chat.

Merging Online Marketing Suite (Omniture) and Web Experience Management (Day CQ)

Historically, the Digital Marketing Summit was an Omniture event. This is the first year that the Web Experience Management team -- previously Day Software -- has merged their forces with the relatively much larger Omniture energies. The event is huge. And we're curious how the two teams are influencing each other.

Here's Nuescheler's response:

 

Highlights of the Adobe CQ 5.5 Release

The company announced the latest release of Adobe CQ -- the foundation of its Web Experience Management platform -- this morning. I asked David what he was most excited about in this release and how it was building on resources and vision of Adobe's recently redefined (Oct 2011) digital marketing division.

Here are David's 5 highlights:

 

How Digital Assets Are Bringing Teams Together

Adobe's Kevin Cochrane detailed his arguments around this subject here on CMSWire back in December. With the release of CQ 5.5 and the new DAM features that it brings, we quickly revisited the subject with David.

 

Web Experience Management in the Cloud

Also announced this morning, Adobe has unveiled a Cloud-based version of their WEM platform and a related toolset branded the Cloud Manager. Currently in beta (sign-up here) this offering will bring "utility-like pricing" to their platform, giving non-technical marketers the ability to quickly deploy microsites and landing pages, with out scrounging around for more budget or scarce IT resources.

Here's David's take on the drivers behind this strategy:

 

The Year Ahead in Digital Marketing

Regardless of your perspective on the digital marketing landscape, no one is arguing that it's calcified. In fact, with the convergence of social, mobile, local and relevancy it's hard to think of a sector or a time where we face more challenges or more exciting opportunities.

With this in mind I asked David for his thoughts on the challenges in the year ahead.