I love festivals. Some of my favorite memories come from attending Lollapalooza, Coachella, SXSW, and Edinburgh Fringe. The chance to see the best and the newest in a field in one place and at one time is an invigorating thrill. Although some events award prizes, that isn’t the main objective. Instead, their primary purpose is to celebrate an art form or field of endeavor in an immersive, fun, and public setting.
Conducting my first Forrester Wave™ of marketing measurement and optimization services (MMOS) providers offered a similarly immersive and high-quality experience (admittedly with smaller crowds, fewer celebrities, and a little less partying). I spent weeks meeting with and studying the best measurement consulting providers in the market — it was like being at a measurement festival and attending every stage. And earlier this week, the results of my analysis were published in The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement And Optimization Services, Q1 2026.
Top Providers Lean In To Broad Measurement Use Cases And Deep Client Engagement
The most common struggles marketers face when running measurement are a lack of skills within the organization, inconsistent data quality, and a lack of internal trust and buy-in. The MMOS industry is addressing these challenges with:
Broader service offerings. All providers in the Wave consult on solution implementation, results interpretation, and media planning. Top vendors go further, bringing proven measurement approaches to new measurement areas, such as creative execution, supply chain management, and pricing/promotion assistance. Generative and agentic AI measurement capabilities are on the roadmaps of all reviewed providers; a few have these capabilities live already.
Data quality assistance and partnerships. In addition to providing thought leadership and automated processes for client data processing and taxonomy building, leading providers offer extensive and sometimes exclusive access to broad datasets of consumer purchases, global economic conditions, credit card transactions, and walled-garden media exposures — among others.
Measurement culture support. Gaining enterprise support for marketing measurement is a top challenge. The best MMOS solutions help clients cultivate a culture of measurement via comprehensive education programs for nonmarketing executives, bespoke results readouts for different management levels, and regular meetings across enterprise leadership.
Using The Forrester Wave Evaluation
The Forrester Wave contains detailed summaries of 12 providers: Acxiom, Analytic Partners, C5i, Circana, Ekimetrics, Gain Theory, Ipsos MMA, Kantar, LatentView Analytics, Merkle, OptiMine, and TransUnion.
We selected each provider for its consulting focus, substantial measurement revenue, and mindshare among our customers. I encourage all Forrester clients to go beyond the Wave graphic to read the summaries of each provider. Just like my choice of the best Lollapalooza lineup might differ from yours, the right MMOS provider for your situation will depend on your organization’s unique needs. Use the “Compare vendors” functionality at the top of the report page to select the criteria that are most important to you and receive a custom vendor list.
To apply the Wave findings to your own RFP process, create a vendor shortlist, or discuss the right vendor fit for your measurement needs, book an inquiry or guidance session.
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