Forrester Marketing Measurement and Optimization - Q4 2016

The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement And Optimization Solutions, Q4 2016Tools And Technology: The Marketing Measurement And Insights Playbook

by Tina Moffett and Jim NailOctober 11, 2016

FOr B2C MarkeTiNg PrOFessiONals

FOrreSTer.cOM

key TakeawaysAnalytic Partners, Marketing evolution, And Neustar MarketShare Lead The PackForrester’s research uncovered a market in which analytic Partners, Marketing evolution, and Neustar Marketshare lead the pack. aOl Convertro, ipsos MMa, ThinkVine, and Visual iQ offer competitive options. google, iri, and Ninah Consulting earn the ranking of Contenders.

B2c Marketing Pros Need Measurement Guidance And AccountabilityThe market for marketing measurement solutions is growing because today’s complex marketing environment challenges B2C marketers to meet the C-suite’s demands for accountability for marketing spending. Vendors offering unified measurement practices provide both strategic and tactical guidance.

Strategic Services And Activation Are Key DifferentiatorsMarketers need professional services from their measurement providers to interpret model results and provide recommendations. The next frontier: using these services with ad technologies to connect with fast moving customers in the moment of need.

Why read This reportin our 25-criteria evaluation of marketing measurement and optimization solutions, we identified the 10 most significant providers —analytic Partners, aOl Convertro, google, ipsos MMa, iri, Marketing evolution, Neustar Marketshare, Ninah Consulting, ThinkVine, and Visual iQ — and researched, analyzed, and scored their capabilities. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps B2C marketing professionals make the right choice for their firms.

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Table Of Contents

Adoption Of Unified Measurement Approaches Accelerates

Firms experienced in Marketing Measurement embrace The Unified approach

The rise Of Data-Driven Marketing Propels The adoption Of Unified Measurement

Marketing Measurement And Optimization Solution Evaluation Overview

evaluated Vendors and inclusion Criteria

Vendor Profiles

leaders

strong Performers

Contenders

Supplemental Material

Notes & resources

Forrester conducted product evaluations in July 2016 and interviewed 10 vendor companies: analytic Partners, aOl Convertro, google, ipsos MMa, iri, Marketing evolution, Neustar Marketshare, Ninah Consulting, ThinkVine, and Visual iQ.

related research Documents

embrace Unified Marketing impact analytics To Deliver Value across interactions

evaluate Your Marketing Performance Measurement Maturity

Vendor landscape: Marketing Measurement and Optimization solutions

FOr B2C MarkeTiNg PrOFessiONals

The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement And Optimization Solutions, Q4 2016Tools And Technology: The Marketing Measurement And Insights Playbook

by Tina Moffett and Jim Nailwith Mary Pilecki, arleen Chien, and laura glazer

October 11, 2016

http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES115182






http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=BIO2775



For B2C Marketing ProFessionals

The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement And Optimization Solutions, Q4 2016october 11, 2016

© 2016 Forrester research, inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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Tools And Technology: The Marketing Measurement And Insights Playbook

adoption Of Unified Measurement approaches accelerates

empowered consumers easily absorb information from all forms of media and multiple devices, and they comfortably straddle the digital/traditional media divide.1 Past measurement approaches that excel in only one of these domains no longer meet marketers’ needs to understand where to invest their budgets to keep pace with consumers. The evolution of the marketing environment has revealed that:

› Marketing mix models aren’t fast or detailed enough. at first, marketing mix models were a boon, giving marketers quantitative proof that brand- and awareness-building media such as TV drive short- and long-term key performance indicators — like sales conversion, revenue, or customer lifetime value. They then evolved from this backward-looking view of marketing performance to a forward-looking forecast tool that helps marketers project next year’s results based on different scenarios of budget levels and media allocation, using data from past campaigns that often require weeks or months to compile. But these models can’t provide campaign performance detail that drives media buying: the networks, programs, publishers, and sites that will optimize return on ad spend.

› Digital attribution lacks a holistic media view. attribution tools fed by cookie-level data in near-real time provide the level of performance detail marketing mix models lack, but have two flaws: they don’t account for base volume and they attribute all sales to the digital channels they track, ignoring external effects — like economy, pricing changes, or competitive performance.2 Most purely digital attribution models also overlook other traditional media, for example, the reality that a TV spot may drive the consumer to a search engine or the brand website for more information.

Firms experienced In Marketing Measurement embrace The Unified Approach

Forrester has tracked the growing gap between marketers’ needs and what these separate methodologies deliver. We have also seen that “top-down” techniques like marketing mix modeling and “bottom-up” approaches such as digital attribution share similar mathematical and statistical methodologies, encouraging measurement firms to test ways to combine them into a single technique Forrester calls unified marketing impact analytics (UMia).3 as part of this Forrester Wave evaluation, our survey of 77 customers of established marketing measurement providers found strong momentum behind the adoption of UMia. The findings show we are in the early days of this new approach as:

› Half of firms use a unified approach. Unified measurement is rapidly gaining acceptance, with 49% of respondents using their measurement firm’s strategic and tactical analytics together. another 23% report that they are researching vendors or exploring the concept.4 This is aligned with Forrester’s research findings as well; brands we hear from often express interest in measurement models that can include digital campaign data and television data to better understand channel correlation and influencer effects.

› A unified approach fits today’s marketing mix. Current marketing organizational structures that isolate “traditional” and “digital” marketing as separate disciplines disregard the reality that all marketing contributes to a consumer’s purchase decision. Not only are brands reaching and




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engaging customers across multiple touchpoints, but they are also left to parse through the complex interaction and reinforcement effects as consumers see a TV ad, visit a brand website, and later see an online display ad and a video in their Facebook feeds. Deckers vice president of customer experience, Jim Davis, put it this way: “a lot of offline activities like Pr that drive value are completely unmeasurable in digital attribution . . . so blending the methodologies in an intelligent, accurate, and reliable way is inevitable.”

› Uncertainty remains about the challenges in unifying data and analytics. The urgency to move to a unified approach is tempered by the need for new techniques to emerge and prove their reliability. several marketers noted that combining cookie-level data from digital channels with aggregate data like television gross rating points or total revenue data presents methodological problems that don’t have broadly accepted solutions. scott Breitenother, vice president of data and analytics at Casper, told us, “i don’t think anyone has done a combined online/offline, multichannel attribution/marketing mix model that i would trust. i would rather have a few different answers that are accurate in different ways and triangulate to find the right answer.”

The rise Of Data-Driven Marketing Propels The Adoption Of Unified Measurement

The rise of unified measurement is one expression of an even larger trend: the rise of data-driven and contextual marketing. Marketers must use performance data to better connect with customers, applying analytics to delve into segment differences, channel preferences, message resonance, and product offer interest. Based on the ratings provided by participating vendors’ reference customers, the field of unified measurement is successfully supporting marketers’ move to data-driven marketing, even in these early days. How?

› Measurement supports data-driven decisions. The practice of developing this year’s marketing budget by tweaking last year’s lingers, but becomes less practical with brands scurrying to connect with customers at the moment of need. as a result, using unified measurement to provide “a data-driven rationale for strategic marketing investments” and for “budget allocation across channels” were the primary reasons survey respondents picked to explain why their organizations use a marketing measurement and optimization model (see Figure 1).

› Strong consulting services translate findings into new strategies. While marketers are becoming more comfortable with data-driven marketing, they still value consulting and advice over flashy technology and mathematical wizardry. Technology enables the insights, but marketers value the guidance from measurement and marketing experts who can add cross-industry expertise and channel performance benchmarks to recommend new strategies and tactics (see Figure 2).

› Vendors get high marks from customer references. The survey respondents are the participating vendors’ reference customers, so strong satisfaction with their performance is no surprise. even so, the uniformly positive grades all vendors get on clients’ most important needs show that this category is living up to its promise. The 4.5 out of 5 rating respondents give these vendors on “overall satisfaction with the value your vendor brings to your marketing measurement and optimization efforts” ices the cake.5




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FIGUre 1 Marketers Use advanced Measurement To Develop Data-Driven Marketing strategies

“Why does your �rm utilize a marketing measurement and optimization model?”(Please select your top three reasons)

13%

4%

18%

18%

22%

29%

29%

32%

36%

47%

52%

To better understand marketing, media, and otherbusiness activity impact on brand goals

To uncover customer behavior activity

To defend current levels of investment inmarketing activities

To build multiple strategic scenarios with differentbusiness and �nancial constraints

To better attribute results to speci�c tactical,campaign-level marketing activities

To better understand marketing, media, and otherbusiness activity impact on direct response goals

(such as revenue, sales conversion)

To model the impact of future marketing andmedia investments

To drive the highest ROI across channelsand products

To obtain a complete view of marketing performanceat the strategic and tactical campaign level, inclusive

of all marketing initiatives

To create a data-driven approach for strategicmarketing investment decisions across the

channels and products

To create a data-driven approach to guidereallocation of budgets between channels, tactics,

and media placements

Base: 77 marketing measurement professionals

(multiple responses accepted)

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2016 Global Marketing Measurement And Optimization Solutions Forrester Wave™ Customer Reference Phone/Online Survey




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FIGUre 2 Marketers Value guidance, analysis Capabilities, and reputation

No. 1 reason No. 2 reason No. 3 reason

36% 19% 8%

7%15% 19%

12% 9% 15%

11%

7% 11%

4%

13%

9%

5% 23%

Please rank the top three reasons you originally selected your vendor as your marketing measurement and optimization provider and rate your vendor on the reasons you indicated you selected them.

Base: 75 marketing measurement professionals

(multiple responses accepted; not all responses shown; rank and rating questions were answered as two subsequent questions; respondents asked to rate on a scale of 1 [extremely dissatis�ed] to 5 [extremely satis�ed])

Source: Forrester’s Q3 2016 Global Marketing Measurement And Optimization Solutions Forrester Wave™ Customer Reference Phone/Online Survey

1%

Breadth of marketing measurement approaches(e.g., mix modeling, attribution, uni�ed approach)

Technology platform offering access to modelresults, data visualization, scenario planning tools,etc.

Depth and breadth of statistical approaches (e.g.,regression models, time series models, game theorymodels, etc.)

Reputation (e.g., known as a leader in this �eld,recommended by a peer)

Depth and breadth of metrics and analysiscapabilities (e.g., ability to analyze cross-channeleffects, ability to run frequency reports, etc.)

Ability to help us translate measurement �ndingsinto strategic and tactical changes to our marketing

Mean satisfaction 4.43




4.82


Mean satisfaction




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Marketing Measurement and Optimization solution evaluation Overview

To assess the state of the marketing measurement and optimization solutions market and see how the vendors stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the top marketing measurement and optimization solutions vendors. after examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 25 criteria, which we grouped into three high-level buckets:

› current offering. These 18 criteria are grouped into five capabilities that span data and model management capabilities, features of the platform clients use to interact with the model, services offered to help clients translate insights into improved business results, use cases demonstrating these capabilities in actual client situations, and how many of the vendors’ reference clients have already adopted their unified solutions.

› Strategy. as a new discipline, Forrester expects unified measurement to continue to evolve rapidly in the near future. Thus we evaluated three criteria related to each vendor’s future direction: vision and strategy for this evolution, how this is reflected in its product strategy, and how well its execution road map will deliver the new capabilities needed to remain competitive. The unified approach demands broad partnerships in data and the adtech ecosystem while an emerging discipline like this benefits from collaboration with others in the industry. as a result, a fourth criterion in our strategy criteria looked at each vendor’s partnership ecosystem.

› Market presence. Three criteria define the vendor’s size and ability to service global companies and brands: revenue, industry presence, and global offices.

evaluated Vendors And Inclusion criteria

We initially cast a wide net, sending a screening questionnaire to 67 firms, 35 of which completed and returned it. Forrester selected 10 vendors based on the responses provided: analytic Partners, aOl Convertro, google, ipsos MMa, iri, Marketing evolution, Neustar Marketshare, Ninah Consulting, ThinkVine, and Visual iQ. each of these vendors (see Figure 3):

› Has a large active client base, skewed toward enterprise firms. Vendors that had more than 30 clients, 50% of which had $1 billion in revenue, were included in this Forrester Wave. Unified measurement is attracting a number of innovative companies like Conversion logic and OptiMine that haven’t yet built this size client base but which we will continue to monitor for inclusion in future Forrester Wave evaluations.

› Offers omnichannel measurement capabilities. Vendors included in this Forrester Wave demonstrated a diverse revenue stream of measurement solutions and showed growth in unified marketing analytics approaches. a unified measurement approach is an evolution from specific measurement capabilities like marketing mix modeling or attribution measurement, so it was imperative to consider vendors’ various measurement approaches and innovations.




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› competes with other measurement solutions. For this Forrester Wave, Forrester considered participating vendors’ competitive set based on vendor disclosed competitors and our own client inquiries. This ensured that the study was of like players and eliminated those that might deliver advanced measurement solutions as a complementary functionality to their core business model.

FIGUre 3 evaluated Vendors: Product information and selection Criteria

Vendor

Analytic Partners

AOL Convertro

Google

Ipsos MMA

IRI

Marketing Evolution

Neustar MarketShare

Ninah Consulting

ThinkVine

Visual IQ

Product evaluated

GPS Enterprise (GPS-E) powered by the ROI Genome

Uni�ed Marketing Activation Platform (UMAP)

Attribution 360

On-Demand and Integrated Commercial Effectiveness

IRI’s Unify Platform

ROI Brain

MarketShare DecisionCloud

TotalMetrics

ThinkVine Spark

IQ Intelligence Suite

Product version evaluated

2.0

Marketing Foresight 5.0, IRI Lift 1.0

2016.6

MarketShare Strategy 6.4, MarketShare Action 5.2, MarketShare TV 2.3,

MarketShare Benchmark 4.2, Neustar PlatformOne, ElementOne

1.2

IQ Envoy 5.0, Audience IQ 3.0, IQ Sage 4.0, IQ Deploy 3.0

Vendors that had more than 30 clients, 50% of which had $1 billion in revenue, were included in this Forrester Wave.

Vendors that demonstrated a diverse revenue stream of measurement solutions and showed growth in uni�ed marketing analytics approaches were included in this Forrester Wave.

Forrester evaluated participating vendors’ competitive set based on vendor disclosed competitors and our own client inquiries to determine inclusion in this Forrester Wave.

Vendor inclusion criteria




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Vendor Profiles

This evaluation of the marketing measurement and optimization solutions market is intended to be a starting point only. We encourage clients to view detailed product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings to fit their individual needs through the Forrester Wave excel-based vendor comparison tool (see Figure 4).

FIGUre 4 Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement and Optimization solutions, Q4 ’16

Challengers Contenders LeadersStrong

Performers

StrategyWeak Strong

Currentoffering

Weak

Strong

Go to Forrester.comto download the Forrester Wave tool for more detailed product evaluations, feature comparisons, and customizable rankings.

Market presence

AnalyticPartners

AOL Convertro

Google

Ipsos MMA

IRI

MarketingEvolution

NinahConsulting

Neustar MarketShare

ThinkVine

Visual IQ




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FIGUre 4 Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement and Optimization solutions, Q4 ’16 (Cont.)

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).

Analyt

ic Par

tner

s

AOL Con

vertr

o

Google

Ipso

s MM

A

IRI

Mar

ketin

g Evo

lution

Neusta

r Mar

ketS

hare

Ninah

Consu

lting

3.71

4.04

4.35

4.35

3.45

3.00

3.70

3.00

4.00

5.00

4.00

2.60

1.00

4.00

3.00

weight

ing

Forre

ster’s

50%

0%

10%

20%

20%

15%

35%

50%

50%

25%

20%

5%

0%

35%

30%

35%

3.65

3.74

3.45

2.65

4.36

4.00

3.20

3.00

4.00

3.00

2.00

4.35

5.00

4.00

4.00

2.39

3.52

1.85

3.30

2.06

2.00

2.75

2.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

4.35

5.00

4.00

4.00

2.98

3.63

3.95

2.40

1.96

3.00

4.10

4.00

4.00

5.00

2.00

3.70

5.00

3.00

3.00

1.80

2.84

3.30

2.70

2.14

0.00

3.35

3.00

3.00

5.00

2.00

3.35

3.00

3.00

4.00

3.76

3.91

4.55

4.65

3.23

3.00

4.75

5.00

4.00

5.00

5.00

1.90

1.00

4.00

1.00

3.86

3.50

4.15

5.00

4.23

3.00

3.65

3.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

4.35

5.00

4.00

4.00

2.26

3.35

2.65

1.65

2.43

2.00

1.60

1.00

3.00

1.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

Think

Vine

Visual

IQ

2.44

2.59

3.00

2.00

3.19

2.00

3.35

3.00

3.00

5.00

2.00

1.90

1.00

4.00

1.00

3.00

2.51

3.35

4.30

3.49

2.00

3.40

2.00

5.00

5.00

3.00

2.25

1.00

4.00

2.00

Current Offering

Product offering

Data and model management

Services offered

Marketing analytics use cases

Technology platform

Customer reference adoption

of uni�ed measurement

Strategy

Corporate strategy

Product strategy

Execution road map

Partner ecosystem

Market Presence

Revenue

Industry presence

Global capabilities




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Leaders

› Marketing evolution. Marketing evolution was one of the first measurement firms to build a person-centric approach, which earned it the ranking of leader in its first marketing mix modeling Forrester Wave evaluation in Q2, 2013.6 Founder rex Briggs is well known as a leading market researcher and he has continually innovated his platform to create a hybrid measurement, panel research, and marketing planning tool. One client reference noted it has assigned media planning duties to Marketing evolution and replaced its prior planning agency with a media buying firm. The firm earns high marks for its unified methodology, strategic services, and ability to optimize campaigns by placement, creative, and customer segment. On the other hand, one customer reference noted, “Top-down and bottom-up are well integrated for impression data, less so for pay-per-click and retargeting. i have a feeling they are less experienced with these kinds of buys.” Customers also cited that the recommendations couldn’t always be executed due to lack of available inventory, changing prices for inventory, and other market factors. While data management and visualization are strengths, the firm reports relatively few clients use its interface, and in our customer reference survey the interface earns relatively low marks. Marketing evolution is a strong choice for firms that embrace a person-centric view of marketing’s future and are willing to depart from the well-accepted paths of marketing mix modeling and attribution for a partner that, in the words of one customer, “will be on the cutting edge as the space changes.”

› Neustar MarketShare. a leader in the Q2, 2013 marketing mix modeling Forrester Wave, Neustar Marketshare also earned strong Performer status in the Q4, 2014 cross-channel attribution Forrester Wave.7 The acquisition of Marketshare by Neustar in Q4, 2015 brought several assets that support the former’s vision of a person-centric marketing measurement and optimization strategy, notably the Neustar identity graph for cross-device individual identity. The acquisition was managed well, with customers noting they saw little disruption to the quality of service they received. advertisers considering Neustar should be aware that the firm announced in June 2016 it will be separating into two entities — so firms that plan to engage Neustar should be aware of the potential impact this change may have. in 2015, Neustar Marketshare significantly upgraded its technology platform, acquiring analytics firms Datasong and launching the DecisionCloud application. While over half of its clients are using it for a unified approach, customer references commonly said they felt the approach uses multiple models, with one customer telling us, “it feels like it has three separate products that don’t necessarily talk to each other.” even so, Neustar Marketshare received among the highest satisfaction ratings for its overall value so the firm is a good choice for marketers looking for a powerful analytics platform.

› Analytic Partners. analytic Partners was a leader in the Q2, 2013 marketing mix modeling Forrester Wave, with high marks for analytic expertise, consulting services, and benchmarking capabilities. since that Forrester Wave, analytic Partners grew its cross-channel attribution capabilities and its overall unified marketing measurement approach. it built out data management services, providing marketers with training for data collection, normalization, and management training, and it established processes to ensure high quality data — a cornerstone for marketing analytics. Customer




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references tell us that analytic Partners’ strengths include “insights expertise” and “comprehensive marketing recommendations,” which is a testament to its well-balanced offering of services, training, and technology. Conversely, the firm’s vision is conservative; its product and execution strategy focuses on incremental improvement to existing capabilities. analytic Partners is a great fit for both novice and advanced marketers; it can guide measurement laggards in the area of data and model development and deeper marketing insights, and advanced marketers will be impressed with analytic Partners’ deep knowledge of marketing strategy development.

Strong Performers

› Ipsos MMA. One of the most established firms applying statistical methodologies to marketing measurement, ipsos MMa has been a leader in several Forrester Waves, most recently in the Q2, 2013 marketing mix modeling Forrester Wave. it has also been innovative in building technology platforms with its DaVinci data management tool, the NeMO automated modeling platform, and the avista interface. its high-touch service approach and strategic consulting capabilities have placed MMa ahead of other firms that focus on the tools and methodologies of marketing analytics with its ability to provide strategic consulting on marketing and business issues. ipsos MMa continues to push this frontier — helping clients evaluate tradeoffs in customer experience investments versus increased marketing spending. But it still lacks its own attribution tools and treats feeds from customers’ attribution tracking as an additional data source to refine its marketing mix models. This could be a limiting factor for firms with a heavy emphasis on digital channels, but the vendor told us new attribution capabilities are on its product road map. For firms that want to embed analytics into their business strategy as well as marketing strategy, and for those that want strong guidance from a strategic partner, MMa is a solid pick.

› AOL convertro. aOl Convertro was a leader in the Q4, 2014 cross-channel attribution Forrester Wave with notable strengths in its algorithmic approach, interface, and scenario planning capabilities. in May 2015, Verizon acquired aOl, giving the aOl Convertro platform access to a large deterministic cross-device identity database, and it launched its Unified Marketing activation Platform (UMaP) in september 2015. UMaP is built as a person-centric analytics tool that uses a single modeling methodology rather than reconciling separate marketing mix and attribution models. Customer references give the company high marks for data management and satisfaction with the overall value it provides. However, its capabilities don’t yet match its strong vision and strategy: its heritage as an attribution provider makes it stronger in tactical marketing optimization than strategic marketing planning. But aOl Convertro has shown great progress since the 2014 cross-channel attribution Forrester Wave and the complementary fit of its person-centric vision with the Verizon identity assets lays the foundation for additional innovation. strong training offerings and solid support make aOl a good fit for a company with an emphasis on digital marketing that wants to be hands-on with the analysis.




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› Visual IQ. Visual iQ was a leader in the Q4, 2014 cross-channel attribution Forrester Wave, with extensive expertise in cross-channel attribution, specifically measuring the revenue impact of digital marketing and media initiatives, like display, online video, and paid search. its core strength is still the ability to measure and optimize digital marketing channels and integrate offline conversion points. Visual iQ continues to be an expert in digital marketing measurement and optimization, balancing technology with the right set of services to help marketers uncover cross-channel effects, digital media buying opportunities, and deeper audience trends. Visual iQ lacks a complete unified marketing impact analytics solution, as it is still grappling with integrating offline traditional media channels and exogenous factors to gain a full view of marketing performance. To date, the firm does not have a robust top-down approach but it has pursued an open approach, allowing customers to plug in top-down models from other vendors. its product strategy and development timeline include further development and automation of top-down analysis, though bottom-up capabilities remain a higher priority. Marketers looking for digital measurement expertise with some basic UMia approaches, like integrating specific offline marketing tactics, should consider Visual iQ for its customer-level data integration.

› ThinkVine. in Q2, 2013, ThinkVine was a leader in the marketing mix modeling Forrester Wave with its innovative customer-led agent-based modeling approach. ThinkVine continues to excel at integrating all marketing exposures at the customer level and providing deep marketing insights for customer groups across channels. ThinkVine has high scores for its ability to build customer-level models and to optimize customer interactions in flight. its road map offers a clear plan of what it needs to focus on: predictive audience optimization. Client references say ThinkVine’s agent-based approach “allows them to deeply explore the marketing impact of other factors including owned and earned media.” ThinkVine must continue to build out its third-party data and media execution partnerships that enable clients with insights execution. This vendor has the opportunity to further enhance its interface with more collaboration and visualization capabilities that will allow marketers to share and modify insights more easily. advanced marketers seeking to break away from traditional measurement approaches should consider ThinkVine for its customer-based marketing measurement approach, using new and innovative techniques.

contenders

› IrI. iri has innovated significantly since its ranking as a strong Performer in the marketing mix modeling Q2, 2013 Forrester Wave. The firm continues to build on its heritage as a strong strategic partner, offering sophisticated services to apply insights to marketing objectives, especially in the consumer packaged goods and retail industries. its liquid Data platform complements its strong proprietary data assets with greater flexibility to bring in third-party data or clients’ first-party data and to conduct sophisticated analyses — and is the building block for its marketing performance measurement solution. its March 2016 launch of iri lift attributes offline store sales to digital marketing. However, iri’s unified solution is relatively new and while iri provided us with evidence of capabilities to support a robust unified measurement approach, none of its client references




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reported using it so we were unable to independently verify these capabilities. although it has a strong vision for building a person-centric platform, iri has further development work to transform its current household data structure. as more firms want direct access to models for decision-making, iri will need to improve its user interface and offer more extensive training and education. Forrester senses a new vitality and energy in this industry stalwart and believes marketers should monitor its progress in unified measurement as we expect to see it make rapid progress.

› Google. google was a leader in the Q4, 2014 cross-channel attribution Forrester Wave with its acquisition of adometry’s cross-channel attribution technology. since then, it rolled out google analytics 360, a tool that offers a streamlined view of all marketing performance, including a complete revamp to adometry’s core attribution solution, and new marketing mix and television attribution models. google continues to promise marketers the ability to leverage cross-identity capabilities to measure digital and mobile with in-store, web, or mobile purchases, but they have limited examples of cross-channel identity and measurement. google has yet to provide a comprehensive unified measurement approach or invest in resources that provide deep expertise in non-digital channels, and it struggles to provide robust strategic and insights services to help marketers identify media consumption trends and future marketing investment opportunities. google is behind a number of other vendors in this evaluation in the ability to push model optimization recommendations into adtech platforms to change buying parameters. Marketers who want to focus on digital versus traditional marketing should consider google as a contender for digital attribution with capabilities to measure mobile and offline conversions.

› Ninah consulting. Ninah was a strong Performer in the Q2, 2013 marketing mix modeling Forrester Wave, with its highly customized mix modeling approach and strong knowledge of the media ecosystem. since then, Ninah extended its core services to include attribution modeling to enhance its core offering around analytics. Customer references give Ninah high marks when it comes to “managing models, data, validation, and insights.” This vendor continues to develop its expertise around new approaches, extend its data integration, and amp up its technology to support a unified approach. However, its current offering does not include a comprehensive unified approach, and only a few clients are working with Ninah to create a bridge between attribution and mix modeling. The executive team has a deep understanding of media buying, performance, and media consumption, giving them an inherent ability to draw out practical recommendations for their clients. Marketers will find Ninah a good choice if they are looking for a highly customized approach with a hands-on partner with deep expertise in the marketing workflow process, but are less interested in directly accessing the model themselves.




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supplemental Material

Online resource

The online version of Figure 4 is an excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings.

Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave

Forrester used a combination of three data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave, in part, using materials that they provided to us by september 5, 2016.

› Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.

https://go.forrester.com/apps/

http://forr.com/1einFan

http://www.forrester.com/Analyst-Advisory/-/E-MPL172

https://www.forrester.com/events?N=10006+5025




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› Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations of their products’ functionality. We used findings from these product demos to validate details of each vendor’s product capabilities.

› customer reference calls and surveys. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also conducted reference calls with three of each vendor’s current customers and surveyed all additional current customers provided by the vendor.

The Forrester Wave Methodology

We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.

after examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires, demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.

We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave evaluation — and then score the vendors based on a clearly defined scale. We intend these default weightings to serve only as a starting point and encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the excel-based tool. The final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every Forrester Wave follows, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/forrester-wave-methodology.html.

Integrity Policy

We conduct all our research, including Forrester Wave evaluations, in accordance with our integrity Policy. For more information, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/integrity-policy.html.

Survey Methodology

Forrester fielded its Q3 2016 global Marketing Measurement and Optimization solutions Forrester Wave™ Customer reference Phone/Online survey to 77 total individuals who are current clients of the vendors included in our Forrester Wave evaluation. each vendor was asked to provide 10 customers (minimum of three). For quality assurance, panelists are required to provide contact information and answer basic questions about their firms’ revenue and budgets.

Forrester fielded the survey from June to august 2016. respondent incentives included a copy of the published research.




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endnotes1 Measuring the customer shows how customers have evolved in their consumer behaviors, attitudes, and expectations

that lead to customer empowerment: willingness to experiment, device usage, digital/physical integration, information savviness, and self-efficacy. see the “The rise Of The empowered Customer” Forrester report.

2 Base volume refers to the sales that would have happened in the absence of any marketing.

3 Forrester defines UMia as blend of statistical techniques that assigns business value to each element of the marketing mix at both a strategic and tactical level. Marketers must embrace this measurement standard that will measure marketing’s entire value and identify the best ways to optimize customer interactions. see the “embrace Unified Marketing impact analytics To Deliver Value across interactions” Forrester report.

4 source: Forrester’s Q3 2016 global Marketing Measurement and Optimization solutions Forrester Wave™ Customer reference Phone/Online survey.

5 source: Forrester’s Q3 2016 global Marketing Measurement and Optimization solutions Forrester Wave™ Customer reference Phone/Online survey.

6 Forrester identified and evaluated nine of the most significant marketing mix modeling vendors in its Q2 2013 Forrester Wave evaluation. see the “The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Mix Modeling, Q2 2013” Forrester report.

7 Forrester identified and evaluated eight of the most significant cross-channel attribution vendors in its Q4 2014 Forrester Wave evaluation. see the “The Forrester Wave™: Cross-Channel attribution Providers, Q4 2014” Forrester report.






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