Ryan Skinner says, “An agency head told me how he was on a call between the European head of marketing for a US brand and that brand’s board of directors. The chairman asked the marketing honcho, “How is the European market?” The marketer answered, “There isn’t one.” Awkward silence. “That is, there is no European market. There is a French market. A German market. A British one. And so on. I can tell you about those.” In no other sphere of marketing are these national differences magnified more than in social media. Social media is, by its nature, participatory and thus takes... [...]

Kim Celestre says, “Chances are, you’ve recently visited a brand’s webpage and stumbled upon a visually appealing, Pinterest-like media gallery with photos of happy customers and the brand’s products. Today, media galleries are all the rage as marketers attempt to capture the priceless content their audiences are generating on social networks and at live events. But before you run out and invest what’s left of your 2014 marketing budget on a social content curation platform (see Figure 2 from this report) make sure social content curation will help you: Drive... [...]

Jitender Miglani says, “Last week, two news items captured the front-page headlines of the Indian financial newspapers. The first was an announcement by Flipkart on July 29 that it has raised fresh capital of $1 billion in one of the largest funding rounds. The second was an announcement by Amazon on July 30 that it will invest another $2 billion in India. These numbers appeared large to us when seen in the context of overall online retail sales in India. As per the Forrester Asia Pacific online retail forecast published in early October 2013, India’s online retail spending was expected... [...]

Stephen Walker says, “We at Forrester believe Digital Money Management, often referred to as Personal Financial Management (PFM), is the future of digital banking. But as we find in our new report, The State Of Digital Money Management 2014, available here, it doesn’t appear to be the present. Fewer than 22% of customers in the US and Europe have used a single money management feature in the last 90 days. Why? It’s simple: most people just don’t want to manage their money. They don’t want to budget, as in doing any work. They don’t want insight, beyond one or two bite... [...]

Zia Daniell Wigder says, “Many brands eyeing Latin American eCommerce markets look first to Brazil, and with good reason. Brazil is Latin America’s largest online retail market by a wide margin and growth rates remain high: Our forecast shows the market growing by a CAGR of 18% to reach $35 billion in 2018. As in every fast-growing eCommerce market, however, companies that compete in this environment face numerous challenges. Issues like complex tax navigation and the long path to profitability are well documented. In addition, companies need to prepare for shifts in what consumers... [...]

Fatemeh Khatibloo says, “The tide is turning on privacy. Since the earliest days of the World Wide Web, there has been an increasing sense that the Internet would effectively kill privacy – and in the wake of the NSA PRISM program revelations, that sentiment was stronger than ever. However, by using our Forrester’s Technographics 360 methodology, which blends multiple qualitative and quantitative data sources, we found that attitudes on privacy are evolving: Consumers are beginning to shift from a state of apathy and resignation to caution and empowerment. In our recently published report,... [...]

Tracy Stokes says, “Is this the long-awaited year of mobile? Last week, Facebook announced that its quarterly profits had more than doubled, driven in large part by mobile; 62% of Facebook’s ad revenue now comes from advertising on mobile devices. Forrester forecasts that mobile will be the fastest-growing digital marketing category in 2014, increasing 47% in 2013 over the prior year. And Forrester believes that we are witnessing a mobile mind shift — “the expectation that I can get what I want in my immediate context and moments of need.” But mobile’s marketing moment has not... [...]

Oliwia Berdak says, “”When will Google launch a bank and what will it look like?” is a question I frequently hear from our banking clients. Google’s activities in digital wallets and payments, as well as its reputation as one of the most disruptive firms in the market, have obviously left many banking executives worried. Unfortunately, they’re asking the wrong question. I’ll leave aside the issue of whether Google or perhaps Apple or Amazon should be the focus of this increased attention. Each of these players has its unique strengths and growth plans, and some of these... [...]

Ryan Skinner says, “Pundits’ take that Facebook has “solved” mobile advertising after its home run last week hid a bigger, behind-the-scenes story: We’re finally seeing branding and direct response marketing merge in a meaningful and measurable way; Facebook is just one place where it’s happening most demonstrably. Here’s important context: Facebook’s quarterly earnings beat projections last Thursday, driven by the 62% of its ad revenue that comes from mobile. Also note that Facebook’s only ad revenue from mobile is its in-feed ads (or native ads, or whatever you want to... [...]

Ted Schadker says, “Facebook’s steely revenue march is fueled by mobile ads: 62% of Facebook’s Q2 2014 advertising revenue came from mobile ads, up from 41% just a year ago. This ad revenue may still just be a paper castle waiting to fall — my colleage Nate Elliott’s analysis that Facebook is still failing marketers suggests that. But right now over a billion people around the world — 81% of its entire member base — access Facebook on mobile devices every month, twice as many as did just two years ago (see Figure 1). And they are seeing ads. I see three... [...]