Adobe Analytics Challenge 2021

For more than 15 years, the Adobe Analytics Challenge has been hosted and limited to students in North America. This year we are excited to announce that we will be opening the competition on a global scale.

The Adobe Analytics Challenge is a unique analytics-focused business case competition where university students are given the opportunity to use Adobe’s industry-leading analytics products and access to real-world data from leading organizations such as Nike, Major League Baseball, T‑Mobile, Sta rwood,  Lenovo, Condé Nast, Comcast, Overstock.com, Back country.com, Sony PlayStation, and MGM Resort International.

Press

“Students taking part in the Adobe Analytics Challenge get virtual training from Adobe to learn how to use its customer analytics program. Then the teams are set loose on the corporate partner’s data.”

International contest for up-and-coming analytics talent

Winning teams have come from universities across the world, including Duke, Indian Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore, Northwestern (Kellogg), NYU, Ross (Michigan), UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Cambridge, University of Sydney, Yale and many others.

Through this program, Adobe has exposed thousands of students to the high‑demand fields of digital marketing and analytics. Selected individuals from the Adobe Analytics Challenge will be given the opportunity to interview for internships and full‑time positions at Adobe and our sponsor company.

Over the years, Adobe has hired more than 50 students from this program, and it has been a valuable recruiting pool for other companies and agencies looking for data‑driven talent.

“The winning team focused on streamlining the digital experience with T‑Mobile and presented a simplified version of the online path a potential customer might take, estimating their improvements would make T‑Mobile an additional $8.1 million in annual revenue.”
CNBC
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“The analytics challenge began as a recruiting tool to help uncover the brightest minds and most passionate talent in analytics. It has grown into one of the top business competitions in the country for college kids.”
VentureBeat
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“This year’s contest will be the first in the decade-old Adobe Analytics Challenge to include machine learning software among the tools to which students have access, namely Adobe Sensei, the artificial intelligence engine that powers much of the creative software giant’s customer targeting and predictive analytics suite.”

2021 student team prizes
1st place         2nd place         3rd Place       4th place      5th place     6th place
$35,000         $14,000           $6,000            $3,000        $1 500         $500

The different phases of the competition
Kickoff

At the beginning of the Adobe Analytics Challenge, we’ll have a one‑hour kickoff web conference with Adobe and a customer partner. You’ll receive an overview of the competition as well as information on the analysis project. You’ll have a few days to identify the team you will enter into the competition.

To accommodate multiple time zones, we will host the kickoff call at two different times. Please see calendar for full details.
Registration & Training

Students can form teams of up to three students. You must pick a team name and have each individual complete the registration form on this site. Once you’re registered, you’ll be given access to Adobe Analytics and customer partner’s data. Your team will be invited to join a two-hour live training session (optional but recommended). The training session will be recorded in case you have a scheduling conflict. After the training session, you’ll be given access to Adobe Analytics and the customer partner’s data.

Rules

You are not eligible for this competition if you meet any of the following conditions:

• You are a part-time student.
• You already graduated from your academic program.
• You participated in this competition in the past and won a cash prize.
• You work or have worked for Adobe as an employee, intern, or contractor.

Competition Rules

1. Teams consist of 1-3 students currently enrolled in a full-time academic undergraduate or graduate program.
2. All team members must be from the same university.
3. All students must register and sign a non-disclosure agreement.
4. All teams need a faculty mentor who is currently employed by their same university (this includes adjunct professors).
5. All submissions and presentations must be delivered in English.
6. Individual countries may require additional conditions to participate – please read Official Rules for       more information
7. You may consult published works in the field of digital analytics and solicit help from your faculty mentor.
8. You may not make contact with employees of Adobe or the customer partner during the competition.
9. You may not consult with or solicit help from Adobe employees or contractors, students who are not on your team, or other outside professionals.

Official Rules NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST. VOID WHERE
PROHIBITED, INCLUDING COUNTRIES LISTED IN SECTION 1.3 BELOW.
The Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state, territorial, provincial, municipal and local laws and
regulations.
ELIGIBILITY AND COMPETITION PARTIES
1. COMPETITION ORIGINATOR; ELIGIBLE PARTICIPANTS; INELIGIBLE
PARTICIPANTS
1.1 Competition Originator/ Adobe
The Adobe Analytics Challenge (“Contest” or “Competition”) is originated and sponsored by Adobe Inc., its affiliates and subsidiaries, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California, USA, 95110 (collectively, “Adobe”).
1.2 Eligible Participants
To be eligible, each participant (“Participant(s),” “You,” “Your”) must, at all times during the Competition Period, be (a) enrolled in a full-time undergraduate or graduate program at an accredited academic institution (except for
Faculty Mentors (defined below)); (b) a legal resident of a country not prohibited by Section 1.3; (c) at least age 18 years of age (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence, whichever is older); and (d) able to speak English with sufficient fluency to present about your submission (defined below). Entrants may not participate on behalf of or as a representative of any corporate or other business entities. By participating in the Contest, Participants agree to be bound by these official rules (“Official Rules”).
1.3 Ineligible Participants
The following persons are not eligible to participate in the Competition:
a) Individuals who have previously been or currently are employees, interns, or independent
contractors, officers, or directors of Adobe, Disney Destinations LLC, or any of Adobe’s agents,
representatives, advertising, promotion, publicity and fulfillment agencies, legal advisors, successors
and assigns, or any other company or person that is involved with the production, design, execution,
administration or distribution of this Competition (collectively, the “Released Parties”), or anyone
who lives with (whether or not related), or who is an immediate family member of each (i.e., parents,
siblings, children and their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside).

b) Residents of BRAZIL, QUEBEC, CHINA, LUXEMBOURG, and or any country, state, province or territory
under sanction by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, including the BALKANS, BELARUS,
BURMA, CUBA, DR OF THE CONGO, IRAN, IRAQ, LEBANON, LIBYA, NORTH KOREA, SOMALIA, SUDAN,
SYRIA, YEMEN, and ZIMBABWE. The list of sanctioned countries can change, so visit
https://www.treasury.gov/resourcecenter/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx for a current
list of sanction programs and country information.
c) Individuals from an academic institution located in one of the prohibited countries identified in
Section 1.3(b) above.

d) Individuals who have interned with Adobe, been employed by Adobe, or have participated and won a
prize in a prior Adobe Analytics Challenge (except that Faculty Mentors (defined below) who have
won a prize in a prior Adobe Analytics Challenge are permitted to participate).
e) Individuals who are currently enrolled in a full-time undergraduate or graduate program but, during
the Competition Period (defined below), are set to graduate from their academic institution.
If you, each Team Member (defined below) on your Team (defined below), and your Team’s Faculty Mentor
(defined below) do not meet the eligibility requirements or your Submission (defined below) does not meet all
other requirements in these Official Rules, you and your Submission are not eligible to enter or win.

COMPETITION SCHEDULE
2. COMPETITION PHASES; SCHEDULE; TIMING
2.1 Competition Phases. The Competition comprises of the following phases: (a) a registration phrase where
submissions will be accepted (“Registration Phase”); (b) a presentation phase where Teams will prepare a
presentation Submission (defined below) and submit it to Adobe (“Registration Phase”); (c) a judging phase where Submissions will be scored by Judges (defined below) to select Semi-Finalists (defined below) and meetings with Adobe and/or Judges will be required (“Judging Phase”); and (d) a finals phase where the Finalists (defined below) will present their Submission (“Finals Phase”). The Registration Phase through the Finals Phase is collectively the “Competition Period.”
2.2 Schedule

Open 10:00:01am
Pacific Time
Registration Phase Presentation Phase Adobe Judging
Phase
Finals Phase
September 8,
2021
September 22,
2021
October 7, 2021 Finalists announced
October 18, 2021
Close 11:59:59pm
Pacific Time
September 21,
2021
October 6, 2021 October 15, 2021 Finals to be virtually
held November 9,
2021

2.3 Timing. See Section 3 below for more details on each phase described above and the registration process.
EACH PARTICIPANT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THE NECESSARY ADJUSTMENTS FOR TIMING OF THE COMPETITION PERIOD AND ALL DATES SPECIFIED IN THESE OFFICIAL RULES BASED ON PARTICIPANT’S
LOCATION AND TIME ZONE. Adobe’s computer is the official time keeping device for the Contest.

3.1 How to Register and Participate. To register and participate, during the Registration Phase, complete the
following steps:
a) Attend Kickoff (optional): Attend one of the two one-hour kickoff web conferences with Adobe
scheduled from 9:00:00 a.m. PT to 10:00:00 a.m. PT and/or 4:00:00 p.m. PT to 5:00:00 p.m. PT on

September 8, 2021 by visiting adobeanalyticschallenge.com. This presentation will provide you an
overview of the Contest as well as information on the analysis project. The meeting will be recorded
and later made available for on-demand viewing.
b) Form Team: Form a Team, as follows:
(i) Find and form a team of up to three Participants who attend the same academic institution and
each individually meet the eligibility requirements in Section 1 above (each a “Team Member”)
(together, a “Team”);
(ii) select one Team Member to be the leader of the Team (the “Team Leader”) (references to
“Participant,” “Team Member,” and “Team Leader” in these Official Rules still refer to the single
Participant in a one-person Team); and
(iii) find and select one faculty member of the Team’s accredited academic institution to be the
Team’s faculty mentor (a “Faculty Mentor” who meets the eligibility requirements in Sections
1.2(b)-(c) and 1.3 above)
c) Complete Registration: Once your Team is formed, complete the instructions below by the end of the
Registration Phase (11:59:59 p.m. PT on September 21, 2021):
(i) First, the Team Leader must visit adobeanalyticschallenge.com/register (the “Registration Page”)
to register as the Team Leader and follow the instructions, including providing a resumé (pdf
only), their personal email address, Team name, Team password; signing any required non-
disclosure agreements (“NDA”); and indicating their agreement to these Official Rules;
(ii) After the Team Leader has registered, each Team Member and the Faculty Mentor must
individually, during the Registration Phase, visit the Registration Page
(adobeanalyticschallenge.com/register) and follow the instructions to register for the Contest,
including by providing a resumé (pdf only) and their personal email address; signing any required
non-disclosure agreements; and indicating their agreement to these Official Rules (except that
Faculty Mentors do not need to provide a resumé and their registration is open throughout the
Competition).
d) Training (Optional): After the Registration Phase, your Team will be invited to attend one of two live
training sessions from 9:00:00 a.m. PT to 11:00:00 a.m. PT or 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PT on September
23, 2021. The invitation will come from Adobe after registration is complete and each NDA is signed.
The training session will be recorded and later made available for on-demand viewing.
e) Project Work and Submission: After completing the Registration instructions above, each Team will
be given access to Adobe Analytics and Adobe’s customer partner data (Faculty Mentors are not
permitted to access this data) and each Participant will be subject to the NDA. Teams must analyze a
company’s digital data in Adobe’s analytics tools and build a PowerPoint presentation on the Team’s
analysis, findings, and recommendations as set forth in these Official Rules and the instructions
otherwise supplied by Adobe or posted on the webpage (the “Submission”). Submissions must
comply with the Submission Guidelines in Section 4 below and be entirely in English. For clarity,
Submission means any presentation and all other materials a Participant provides in connection with

the Competition (including the Semi-Finalist Presentation and the Finalist Presentation). While teams
may choose to use tools like Tableau, Excel, etc. to augment their presentations, please keep in mind
that the primary analysis tool should be Adobe Analytics and each team may be required to spend
three minutes showcasing their projects in Analysis Workspace in certain phases. A Teams’ ability to
walk through Adobe Analytics may be factored into the judging process of certain phases. Each Team
Leader must submit their Team’s PowerPoint presentation to their Team profile on
adobe analytics challenge.com before 11:59:59 p.m. PT on October 6, 2021.
By submitting the Submission, each Team Member agrees that their Team’s Submission complies with these
Official Rules and conforms to the Submission Guidelines below. Upon completion of the above steps and Adobe screening for compliance with these entry requirements, each Submission will be judged by an independent panel of judges selected by Adobe (“Judges”) as set forth in Sections 6.
Important: As set forth in Section 6 below, if your team is selected as a potential semi-finalist or finalist, additional steps will be required to continue to participate, including web-conferences and other meetings.
3.2 Limits on Submissions
Each Participant in the Contest may only be a member of one Team and each Team may only submit one
Submission (not including modifications made to Submissions during Judging Phase III) during the Competition Period. Participants or Teams may not use multiple email addresses or alternate user identities in an attempt to submit more Submissions than are allowed from a single Participant or Team. Submissions received by other methods will not be accepted, and no Submissions will be acknowledged or returned. Each entry must meet the requirements as specified below in Section 4. Any nonconforming Submissions will be disqualified. Altered, defaced, mutilated, illegible, or incomplete entry forms are not eligible. Adobe cannot guarantee that all persons attempting to enter will be able to participate. Faculty Mentors may serve as a Faculty Mentor to more than one
Team.
3.3 Team Submissions
If a Submission is developed by a Team composed of more than one Team Member, the Team Leader may be
required to obtain additional written permissions from each Team Member. If requested, Team Leaders must be able to demonstrate proof of such permissions in a form acceptable to Adobe. As set forth in Section 1 and Section 3.1 above, each Team Member must satisfy the eligibility requirements and complete the registration process.
3.4 Using Adobe creative software
If needed for development of a Submission, many Adobe Inc. desktop software applications, services, and touch
apps are accessible on a trial basis with Adobe Inc. Creative Cloud membership (both FREE) at
http://www.adobe.com/downloads.html. Not all applications, services, or features are available in all languages
and countries.

4. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
4.1 All Submissions must conform to these guidelines in Section 4 (“Submission Guidelines”) and be in good taste
and in keeping with Adobe’s image, as determined by Adobe in its sole discretion. By submitting a Submission
in this Competition, each Team Member warrants and represents that (1) he/she has the legal right and
necessary permission(s) to do so (including permission from any associated Team Members); (2) his/her
school and/or employer (as applicable) do not prohibit or restrict their participation in this Contest in any way;
and (3) that his/her Submission (including all creative and other content comprising his/her Submission)
conforms to the following:
a) Submissions must be in either “.ppt” or “.pptx” format (e.g., other formats like Keynote files will not
be accepted) and use the following naming format: school acronym team name (e.g.,

MyU_thunder cats.pptx”). Slide quantity in Submissions is not limited, but must represent the actual
content you plan to present in 10 minutes. Including 2-3 sentences of notes per slide to explain your
findings are is encouraged and will be considered part of the presentation. No supplemental
materials will be reviewed;
b) Submissions must satisfy the elements of the Judging Criteria attributes in Section 6 and must be
entirely in English;
c) For Teams composed of a single Participant, Team Leader is the sole designer, creator, and owner of
the Submission, including all visual and auditory components, or has, permission to use copyrighted
components, and further warrants that the Submission does not contain information considered by
Participant’s place of business or any other third party to be confidential or prohibited or restricted
for distribution or sharing in any way. By providing a Submission as a Team with multiple Team
Members, each Team Member warrants that they jointly designed, created, and own the visual
and/or auditory Submission or have permission to use the Submission, and further warrant that the
Submission does not contain information considered by any Team Members’ place of business or any
other third party to be confidential or prohibited or restricted for distribution or sharing in any way;
d) If the name, likeness, or other indicia of persona of a person appears in a Submission, it should be
only that of a Team Member. However, if a Submission contains the name, likeness, or other indicia
of persona of persons other than a Team Member, then by submitting the Submission, the Team
Leader represents he/she has permission from all recognizable persons (or the parent or legal
guardian of any minor child) featured in the Submission to use such person’s name and/or likeness,
and to grant the rights granted to Adobe in these Official Rules;
e) Submissions must not contain content created by a third-party, if applicable, and must not infringe,
violate, or use without permission the rights of any third party, including trade names, trademarks,
logos, copyrights privacy or publicity rights, or other intellectual property rights;
f) Submissions must not have been previously submitted in a prior competition or promotion of any
kind, or used for any other commercial, or non-personal public purpose;
g) Submissions must not contain images or depictions of historical landmarks, or other content not
created by the Participant and associated Team Members, if applicable, and must not infringe,
violate, or use without permission the rights of any third party, including but not limited to trade
names, trademarks, logos, privacy or publicity rights, or other intellectual property rights;
h) Submissions (and the social media accounts associated with Participants and/or such Submissions)
must be suitable for publication and viewing by all ages, and must not contain material that is
indecent, obscene, tortious, defamatory, harassing, harmful, slanderous, libelous, disparaging,
objectionable, or that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred, harm, or discrimination against any group,
individual, or entity (as determined by Adobe), or any other material that is unlawful, or in violation
of or contrary to the laws or regulations in the jurisdiction from where the Submission is sourced or
submitted; and
i) Submissions must not violate the online terms of use or privacy policy of Adobe or the website where
the Submission submitting mechanism for the Competition may be hosted.

4.2 By submitting a Submission in this Competition, each Participant warrants and represents that they have
complied with the following rules at all times during the Competition: (1) Participants may not make contact
with employees of Adobe or Adobe customer partners; (2) Participants may not consult with or solicit help
from Adobe employees or contractors, individuals who are not Team Members, or other outside
professionals (however, Teams are permitted to consult published works in the field of digital analytics and
solicit help from the Team’s Faculty Mentor); (3) Participants may not grant access to or otherwise allow
any individual or entity to view the Adobe customer partner data; and (4) Participants will not, and have
not, published statements (or other content) that are grossly offensive or violate generally accepted
standards of behavior or otherwise leads Adobe to believe or conclude that public association with
Participant and/or the Submission would tend to subject Adobe or its brands to ridicule, contempt,
controversy, embarrassment or scandal.
4.3 Proof of submitting the entry materials and/or parts of a Submission is not proof of delivery or receipt of that Submission by Adobe. Use of a false email account will disqualify a Submission. If there is a dispute regarding a Submission, or the identity of a Participant, the Submission at issue will be deemed by Adobe to have been made by the natural person who is the authorized account holder assigned by an Internet access provider to the email address associated with the Submission, and that person must comply with these Official Rules. Participants may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holder.
4.4 By participating in the Competition, each Participant accepts and agrees that Adobe, in its sole discretion, may disqualify any Team whose Participant(s) (whether in fact or by attempt) subverts, circumvents, or tampers with the entry process, or the lawful operation of this Competition or the Site, or who Adobe finds to be acting in an unsportsmanlike, fraudulent, unfair, or disruptive manner, or in a manner otherwise in violation of these Official Rules