Los Angeles—Forrester Research kicked off its Marketing Leadership and Customer Intelligence conference here Wednesday with keynotes by marketing leaders at Adobe Systems and Coca-Cola Co., as well as breakout sessions covering social media and other topics.

In an opening keynote presentation, Ann Lewnes, senior VP-global marketing at Adobe, said when she joined the company five years ago from Intel Corp., she was surprised at how little digital marketing Adobe was doing. Now it makes up nearly two-thirds of the company's marketing budget.

“We are a brand on the move. However, many of our customers don't know about our brand transformation,” Lewnes said, pointing to Adobe's mission to not only help customers create content, but also to optimize and monetize content.

She discussed Adobe's digital marketing efforts, from making website experiences personal and relevant, to using social media to engage customers and prospects.

Lewnes also talked about the importance of measuring digital media efforts, including social media.

“I have to have an ROI target at the beginning of a campaign, and show performance against goals,” she said. “The best part is, hopefully this has all worked out and I can ask for more money.”

In a breakout session titled “B2B marketers: Turn Social Media into a Driver of Demand,” Jeff Ernst, principal analyst at Forrester, said b2b marketers must focus on the “social” part of social media rather than the “media” part.

“Many b2b marketers are using social media in a random manner, not systematically,” he said.

Ernst compared social media to an engine, and said marketers need to be systematic in approaching it. The fuel is creating social content, the engine is growing and engaging social relationships, and the output is action as a result of social media, he said.

Ernst cited several examples of b2b marketers that are doing a good job with a systematic approach to social media, including Boeing Co., CDW and EMC Corp.