Going Corporate

Emily Riley | August 28, 2008, 01:17 PM

For the past two days, several Jupiter analysts attended a meeting of the minds at Forrester headquarters in Cambridge. We assembled for a few reasons. First, to get up to speed on Josh's book, Groundswell, and the surge of interest it has generated. Second, to have a visionary discussion on the future of everything social (no small task, of course.) Finally, we just wanted to gel as a team.

With Jupiter as the acquiree, driving up to Cambridge into the home turf of the acquirer was a bit intimidating. They're bigger, more tech focused, bigger. However, I was happy to realize pretty quickly that we work together just fine. It was not a meeting to 'Forresterize' us. Rather, we all brainstormed together, and found that our ideas played well off of each other. David Card's media savvy was a great compliment with Jeremiah's Silicon Valley take on things, for example.
It was a brainstorming session, but I did notice that Jupiter usually cites more data when coming up with ideas, from my end, it often includes executive survey data as well as consumer survey data. Also, Jupiter is in New York, so we definitely think more about content and the consumer while they have more coverage around vendors and tools. Together, we probably have the deepest bench of any analyst firm when it comes to social marketing (ahem, social computing.)
Speaking of data, I am excited to learn more about Technographics and how it compares to our own consumer data. I'm also now officially allowed to run Groundswell projects (let us know if you are interested!) Also, expect a few "Big Ideas" coming from the group next year, as well as some more definition around what we each will cover.