Today, Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) honored the seven final 2011 Forrester Groundswell Award winners for excellence in effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or business goal. Winners of the fifth annual Forrester Groundswell Awards in the International Business-to-Consumer (B2C) division were honored at Forrester’s Marketing & Strategy Forum EMEA in London. The Business-to-Business (B2B) and North American Business-to-Consumer (B2C) divisions were honored last month in Chicago, and the Management division was honored in September in Boston. The Forrester Groundswell Awards support and recognize the principles outlined in the Forrester books Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies (Harvard Business Press, 2008) and Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, Transform Your Business (Harvard Business Press, 2010).

“Companies all over the world have made great strides in their use of social technology,” said Nate Elliott, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. “These international winners have developed some truly outstanding social programs and shown that smart companies can tap into the groundswell no matter what languages their customers speak and what social tools their customers use.”

This year, there were more than 200 Forrester Groundswell Award entries. Winners in the International Business-to-Consumer (B2C) division were chosen across a number of categories — Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, Embracing, Social Impact, and Mobile Application — that represent the strategic goals that Forrester advises organizations to consider when using social technologies to interact with their customers. A detailed overview of each winning entry, along with the finalists in each category, is available on the Empowered website. Here are the winners of the 2011 Forrester Groundswell Awards in the International Business-to-Consumer (B2C) division:

  • Listening: Accor Manages Online Reputation and Customer Service by Synthesio
  • Talking: KLM Tile & Inspire by Tribal DDB and DDB Amsterdam
  • Energizing: How the Marmarati Launched Extra-Old Marmite by We Are Social
  • Supporting: Tok&Stok Twitter Manuals by DDB Brazil
  • Embracing: Come Back Ferrorama by DDB Brazil
  • Social Impact: A Singapore Spring by Tribal DDB Singapore
  • Mobile Application: StarHub “Musical Fitting Rooms” by DDB and Tribal DDB Singapore

Forrester’s Marketing & Strategy Forum EMEA

Nearly 450 people attended the Forrester Marketing & Strategy Forum EMEA, which explored how companies can build their competitive advantage in the next digital decade. The Forum served Marketing & Strategy executives in a variety of professional roles with track sessions for Consumer Product Strategy Professionals, Customer Experience Professionals, Customer Intelligence Professionals, eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals, Interactive Marketing Professionals, CMO & Marketing Leadership Professionals, Market Insights Professionals, and Technology Marketing Professionals.