What we list
- Platforms martech products (marketing automation, CRM, analytics, social management and the rest). Each has one to three categories.
- Agencies, consultancies and freelancers people and firms who plan or run marketing communications. Each has its own categories (creative, media, PR and communications, brand strategy and others).
A provider is listed because it is relevant to people planning integrated communications in our markets. A listing is not an endorsement, and nobody can pay to be included or left out.
How a listing arrives
- Researched by the team The team writes platform and agency listings from what the provider publishes itself (documentation, pricing, terms, filings, the work it puts its name to) and from reputable third parties (published rankings, award tables, trade press).
- A submission Anyone can suggest a platform, an agency, a consultancy or a freelancer on the submission form, with a website and sources.
- A claim Someone who represents a listing can ask to keep its profile up to date through a claim.
A moderator reads every submission and claim. An accepted one becomes a draft, published once checked. Each listing shows whether the team or the community added it.
Facts, with their sources
Every attribute records its value, its source and when it was checked. A value we could not confirm reads "not recorded", never "no". Nothing about a platform or an agency is invented: no estimated revenue, headcount, client list or price.
The six checks
Every listing is assessed against the same six published checks: transparency, interfaces, data, consent, delivery and commercial terms. The evidence differs by kind (a platform's documentation, an agency's published terms and statements); the checks do not.
- Three states A check is met, not met or not assessed. Not assessed means we have not checked yet, never that the listing failed.
- No credit for reputation A well-known name gets no check it has not evidenced.
- Checks never rank They feed the confidence shown beside a result, never the result itself.
The landscape lists
Each edition, IMC Report publishes landscape lists of agencies: one global list and one for each region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific), each with up to ten agencies. A list reports what published third-party rankings say; it is not our opinion of who is best.
- Eligibility Each list states who can enter it: which kinds of firm, and which markets count for a region.
- Sources Each list names the published rankings and award tables it reads for that edition, with links.
- The points rule Each list shows how a place in each of those rankings becomes points, how the points add up to the order, and how ties break. The rule is set before the rankings are read and is the same for every agency on the list.
- The basis Every position carries one or two sentences citing the rankings that put the agency there, so anyone can check it.
- No pay, no pitching Nobody can pay or ask to enter a list, move up or leave. An agency that thinks its position is wrong can send evidence; if the published rankings support it, the list is corrected and the change is noted.
Find your stack
Find your stack ranks only against the brief you give it, by the rules on the methodology page. It reads your answers and each listing's recorded facts, never who added a listing, any relationship or members' experiences.
What a listing never says
Which product or firm is best. A listing describes; a landscape list reports published rankings by its printed rule; Find your stack ranks only against your own brief; and experiences are counts beside the facts, never a ranking.