Nicole Dvorak says, “I recently “overheard” a member of our market research online community (MROC)say, “I treat my smartphone like my child and carry it everywhere I go.” It’s official: Smartphones have replaced children. Not really, but the statement speaks to the way that consumers have changed their thinking and behavior because of mobile devices. The rapid adoption and dominant presence of mobile devices speaks to their importance in consumers’ daily lives. As part of our effort to develop forward-thinking research using innovative approaches, Forrester is collecting... [...]

Julie Ask says, “Today Yahoo! announced its acquisition of mobile analytics and ad platform, Flurry.TechCrunch and Kara Swisher on re/code both reported the deal, with a $300M minimum price and $1 billion on the upper end. According to the press release, Flurry sees app activity from 1.4 billion devices monthly and 5.5 billion app sessions per day. A little math: 1.4 billion devices does not equal one billion active users. However, a user could have one or many apps on his phone with the Flurry software embedded. Apps do not tend to have exclusive arrangements with one mobile analytics... [...]

Deanna Laufer says, “In celebration of the season, Best Western Great Britain is sharing a new idea for a summer expedition every day on its blog. Suggestions include taking in a sheep race in Moffat (between Carlisle and Glasgow), sampling some 4,000 cheeses at the International Cheese Awards in Nantwich (the largest cheese event in the UK), and catching the first few stages of the Tour de France in Yorkshire (who knew the Tour started in Northern England?). It’s all part of its “hotels with personality” campaign, which aims to celebrate the unique story behind each of the brand’s... [...]

Laura Ramos says, “When it comes to content marketing, the majority of B2B marketers we surveyed last month are not as mature as they think. Roughly half of respondents (52%) are in the early stages of assembling a content strategy and executing against it. We call this early majority “Aspiring Editors” and, while their practices are often inconsistent or not fully embraced across the organization, these marketers are busy laying the foundation upon which to build an editorial point of view that gives their buyers something useful and valuable to read, watch, or interact... [...]

Sarah Sikowitz says, “I recently joined Forrester’s CMO team as a principal analyst covering agencies — the world where I spent most of my time over the past 15 years. I have been fortunate enough to have worked at thriving agencies as they have undergone major change: Avenue A as it built out its media capabilities and tools; OMD at its start — merging four strong media divisions to form one media buying firm; and for the past five years, 360i as it grew from a search powerhouse into an award-winning full service digital agency. As marketers shift their focus to become more customer-obsessed,... [...]

Xiaofeng Wang says, “Ever since we published the Social Media Measurement In China report (and accompanying blog post) last year, marketers in China have been constantly asking us if we have any case studies. This year, we interviewed Nestlé China, one of the few marketers in China that has started to measure the link between social media metrics and business outcomes rather than basic volume and engagement metrics. The result: our new Case Study: Nestlé China Raises The Social Media Measurement Bar For Its Ice Cream Brands report. Nestlé China’s ice cream business unit has... [...]

Dan Bieler says, “The enterprise network is the ugly duckling of enterprise technology landscape, looked at disparagingly by CIOs and often ignored by the business. The enterprise network is much less exciting than all the fancy projects like cloud, mobility, and big data. Yet the enterprise network represents the vital underpinning for all these projects and increasingly evolves into a business-critical asset for companies looking to succeed in the age of the customer. It becomes the nervous system of the digital business. It facilitates deeper customer engagement by connecting manufacturers,... [...]

Oliwia Berdak says, “Have you ever had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Maxwell the Pig? Maxwell is a likeable if slightly assuming animated pig. At times he can be a bit dismissive of those who aren’t as digitally savvy as he is. Maxwell is also a celebrity, featuring in a number of videos promoting Geico’s mobile insurance offerings.  In one he bewilders a policeman with his digital insurance ID, in another he demonstrates how time and space have been obviated by the convenience and ubiquity of mobile insurance. Talk of the mobile moment! Even if you don’t know Maxwell,... [...]

Nate Elliott says, “Ever since Facebook CFO David Ebersman admitted last October that young teens were visiting the site slightly less frequently, most have accepted as fact that young people are fleeing Facebook en masse. Ivy League researchers have forecast that the service will be all but dead by 2017; President Obama recently claimed that young people “don’t use Facebook anymore”; and when comScore recently reported that fewer college students were using Facebook, media outlets ran stories on the “social platforms college kids now prefer.” But if you take a closer look at... [...]

The latest article on ‘The Forrester Blog’ is titled “Amazon’s Firefly Generates Impulse Sales Moments”. Julie Ask says, “With the launch of Firefly, Amazon has the opportunity to create millions of what Forrester calls impulse sales moments. These are the mobile moments when I pull out my phone and make an unplanned purchase – even if it is for something that I need. Impulse sales moments are one of the leading mCommerce opportunities, which we detail in our new book, The Mobile Mind Shift. They include flash sales, sales of diminishing/remnant inventory, or sale of goods... [...]