With the approach of the holiday shopping season and Cyber Monday, a new survey released this week demonstrates the importance of mobile online safety as more businesses and consumers are taking part in digital shopping via smartphones. Last week, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and McAfee released their annual home user study, revealing insights about how our digital shopping practices and behaviors could impact our online safety and our nation's collective digital infrastructure.

According to a new survey by GfK Custom Research North America, this Holiday season may be one of the more challenging in memory as 84% of consumers intend to spend less or the same amount while shopping as compared to last year. Breaking down the data, 40% of American households will spend less this year, while 44% will mirror their spending from 2010. Only 11% plan to spend more.

A recent Nielsen survey shows kids' holiday gaming and electronics appetites are whet by a number of top-selling Apple devices. The Apple iPad is the most desired consumer electronic among kids ages 6-12 for holiday 2011. In fact, the iPad increases its stronghold, with 44% of kids expressing interest in the product, up from 31% in 2010. Two other popular Apple devices, iPod Touch and iPhone, round out kids' top three, with computers and other tablet brands each appealing to a quarter of younger consumers.

According to a new study and presentation from The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), four out of 10 executives indicate they are participating in the same number of exhibitions today as they did several years ago. Looking out to the next several years, 60% of executives say the number of exhibitions will hold to current levels, while 25% expect them to increase. The first released fact sheet, from The 2011 Changing Environment of Exhibitions Study, shows that marketing executives assign high value to using business-to-business exhibitions to achieve their most pressing marketing and sales objectives.

According to a new study, "Women of Tomorrow: U.S. Multicultural Insights," Women are the world's most powerful single demographic. They control the majority of household spending decisions, their influence is growing, and they are increasingly exercising this new-found power in a variety of ways. From 21 countries, representing 60% of the world's population, and 78% of GDP, there is one very positive commonality: women believe their roles are changing for the better.

According to the Q3 S.M.A.R.T.(TM) report, an in-depth look at the mobile advertising landscape, brands are spending more, and trying a variety of things to drive campaign success. Local market targeting grew 50% quarter-over-quarter, and certain "post-click" options like the ability to watch video, grew 78% quarter-over-quarter. In addition, 6 different verticals grew over 140% year-over-year.

A new study from the CMA Council, "Localize to Optimize Sales Channel Effectiveness," reports that localization of messages, images, creative executions, offers, deals, and interactions is still critical to marketing effectiveness and customer relationship building across many business categories. While the Internet has eclipsed the Yellow Pages book as the primary go-to resource for finding things locally, says the report, consumers still desire a very local buying and service experience from a trusted community participant and presence.

According to a recent Mintel report, consumers want and need to eat out, but the foodservice industry has a huge carbon footprint. Getting industry operators and consumers on the "green" bandwagon is necessary to minimize the impact that restaurants have on the environment, says the report. 57% of respondents to the study are willing to pay more for local and sustainable fare, but the majority of those are only willing to pay 1 to 5% more.

According to third quarter global online consumer confidence findings from Nielsen, consumers around the world are more sensitive than ever regarding their future spending budgets. Dr. Venkatesh Bala, Chief Economist at The Cambridge Group, says that "Third quarter was volatile and challenging for global economies and financial markets amid stagnant U.S. unemployment figures... a recessionary mindset is... up four percentage points from last quarter and seven points from the start of the year... the result is continued spending restraint for discretionary expenses... "

According to a Burst Media survey of online U.S. adults aged 18 or older, 71.6% of web users overall watch online video content in a typical week, and 39.0% of all viewers spend between one and five hours per week with online video. Men aged 18-34 are the heaviest consumers of online video content, with 19.7% saying they consume 10 or more hours of video on the web per week.