The Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q3 2010

During the past year, listening platforms continued their evolution beyond basic brand monitoring tools into integral technologies that inform a variety of marketing and business functions like campaign measurement, market research, customer support, and sales enablement. In Forrester's 76-criteria evaluation of listening platform vendors, we found that Converseon, Nielsen, and Radian6 led the pack because of the range of product functionality and ability to meet businesses' needs beyond reactive brand tracking. The market has many strong performers: Cymfony with its strong services offerings, Visible Technologies with its myriad features, Alterian with its preferred dashboard, evolve24 with its strong data analysis, and Dow Jones Insight with its strong data coverage. Our evaluation uncovered a sole contender in Collective Intellect, an up-and-coming vendor with strength in its data processing technology.