Thomas Husson

Fifteen developments we expect to see in the coming year — along with five that won't come to pass.

VP and Principal Analyst Thomas Husson shares five predictions expected to impact CMOs and B2C/B2B marketers in Europe in 2020.

I focus a lot of my research on marketing innovation and have been working on mobile (first as a marketing guy at a telco in 1998, then as an analyst) for more than 20 years. However, it is still fascinating to me to see how many marketers wrongly think their company has fixed mobile basics […]

For the first time in 15 years, I will not attend Mobile World Congress (MWC). When I mentioned this to some clients, some of them told me, “Yes, you’re right: Mobile is dead. There is no innovation anymore. It is all about AI and blockchain these days.” (?!!) I could not disagree more. The reason […]

After New York City, San Francisco, Sydney, Singapore, and London, Forrester hosted its first event dedicated to customer experience (CX) in Paris. It was a great pleasure for me to host about 150 leaders in a unique venue: the Parc des Princes (PSG’s football stadium!!) for a networking event to discuss CX trends and best […]

Only 16% of CMOs are responsible for leading the execution of their firm’s digital transformation. Now is the time to rethink your role. Too few CMOs actively lead or are deeply involved in digital transformation. CIOs, COOs, CXOs, and CDOs have filled the gap but don’t represent the voice of the customer or bring the […]

To shift from brand monologues to two-way dialogues, many brands are embracing live chat and piloting marketing initiatives on new conversational interfaces such as chatbots and voice-based assistants. However, conversational marketing is not new: It is simply based on listening to your customers, incorporating feedback into your marketing strategy, and communicating back to them in […]

I am really honored to have represented Forrester in the jury of the eCAC40/Les Echos Index measuring the digital maturity of the largest French companies quoted at the French stock exchange (CAC 40 Index). The results are as follows (top 10 only): Société Générale  Total Schneider Electric Air Liquide Orange BNP Paribas Atos ENGIE AXA […]

I am very excited to have been invited for the third time to give the opening keynote speech at One to One, a great marketing conference taking place on October 10–12 in Biarritz in the southwest of France. To summarize my talk in a few points, I have shared some global marketing trends and how […]

In a recent workshop with the marketing team of a large European brand, we discussed the importance for marketers to deliver their brand promise. About 45% of marketers now report to be in charge of the customer experience. Whether they officially own CX or simply orchestrate CX talent and resources does not matter. In that […]

Marketing technology (martech) vendors are heavily pitching AI. However, AI per se is not new and won’t solve CMOs’ problems overnight. In fact, many marketers use AI without even knowing it, when they use AI-powered algorithms for programmatic ad buying! The reality is that AI will scale existing data-driven marketing approaches and give modern CMOs […]

In February 2015, Forrester predicted that the future of mobile wallets would go beyond mere payments. We argued that within five years, mobile wallets would become marketing platforms in their own right — a new channel where marketers mixed their offline and online marketing efforts. Despite the growing adoption of wallet solutions from Apple, Google, and Samsung, […]

There is no doubt that the VivaTech conference is a great demonstration of how France is catching up and embracing tech innovation with more than €2.5 billion invested in startups last year and with significant investments from tech giants such as IBM or Salesforce. In this good summary article, The New York Times looks back at […]

From Thursday to Saturday, more than 70,000 visitors will attend the third edition of VivaTech in Paris, one of the largest digital and tech conferences in Europe. The aim is to celebrate innovation and to help startups and businesses grow. The lineup of speakers is pretty impressive, starting with Mark Zuckerberg, who will join a […]

Building on the research “Emotions Fuel Your Brand Energy” from my colleagues James McQuivey and Dipanjan Chatterjee, I have done some research on the role of emotions on digital and especially mobile touchpoints. Marketers need to rethink how their brand conveys emotion beyond the confines of TV advertising. Mobile touchpoints like messaging apps and conversational […]

Forrester just released a new report on mobile and new technology priorities for marketers, based on our latest global mobile executive survey. We found out that marketers: Fail to deliver on foundational mobile experiences. Consumers’ expectations of a brand’s mobile experience have never been higher. And yet, 58% of marketers agree that their mobile services […]

It’s that time of year again! From next Monday (February 26) through March 1, 2018, Mobile World Congress (MWC) will take place in Barcelona. I attended this event (then 3GSM) for the first time in 2005 and it is fascinating to see how the event has morphed from a B2B telecoms technology trade show to […]

How can a company receive $1,9 billion in funding, be valuated $6bn and not even have launched a commercial product? There must be some magic here. Precisely! Adi Robertson is right to ask “why do people keep giving Magic Leap money?” One of the obvious reasons is that investors believe Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented […]

Over the past few years, “mobile first” has become the new marketing imperative. However, few B2C marketers are good at executing this concept. More importantly, focusing solely on mobile-first doesn’t truly put mobile at the heart of the customer experience and business transformation. Apple is celebrating the iPhone’s tenth anniversary this year, just as an […]