Brand Monitoring: Where Are They Now?

Back-channel emails are a wonderful thing. A couple of CEOs have pointed out how few of the vendors ever featured in Forrester's reports on social media analysis are still independent. So, in the spirit of the filmmaker who's not sure how to end a movie, let's roll the "where are they now?" clip.

The first report in the space was Peter Kim's Forrester Wave: Brand Monitoring (September 2006), which introduced us to seven companies:

  • Biz360
    Acquired by Attensity in 2010.

  • Brandimensions
    Folded into its BrandProtect sibling in early 2009.

  • Cymfony
    Acquired in 2007 by TNS, which was acquired by WPP in 2008. Cymfony is now part of WPP's Kantar Media.

  • Factiva
    Dow Jones bought out Reuters' interest in Factiva in 2007. The Factiva Insight product is now known as Dow Jones Insight.

  • MotiveQuest
    Still doing what they do.

  • Nielsen BuzzMetrics
    Nielsen bought the rest of BuzzMetrics in 2007 and used it as the core of NM Incite, its joint venture with McKinsey, in 2010.

  • Umbria
    Acquired by J.D. Power & Associates in 2008.

Suresh Vittal's January 2009 report, Forrester Wave: Listening Platforms also covered seven companies, two of which two were not in the 2006 report:

  • Radian6
    Acquired by Salesforce.com this week, but you knew that.

  • Visible Technologies
    Still doing what they do.
To complete our set of steak knives Wave reports, we have Zach Hofer-Shall's July 2010 update on Listening Platforms, which added four companies to Forrester's coverage:
  • Alterian
    Entered the market through its 2009 acquisition of Techrigy.

  • Collective Intellect
    Still doing what they do.

  • Converseon
    Still doing what they do.

  • evolve24
    Acquired by Maritz Research in 2010.
So, out of 13 companies ever featured in a Forrester Wave in this space, four are specialist firms that are still independent. In case you were wondering.

Related:

For a really entertaining angle, ask the same question, but focus on the people at each company this time. You'll have to do that one on your own, though. I don't want the angry emails. :-)


About Nathan Gilliatt

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  • Voracious learner and explorer. Analyst tracking technologies and markets in intelligence, analytics and social media. Advisor to buyers, sellers and investors. Writing my next book.
  • Principal, Social Target
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