For organizations choosing the right Multichannel Marketing Hub (MMH), the Gartner Magic Quadrant is an invaluable guide. While the 2024 MMH report grabs a lot of attention, a closer look across three years reveals critical trends, changes, and momentum among MMH providers that are reshaping the industry.
The Big Picture
In the chart below, we’ve mapped Gartner’s MMH scores from 2022 to 2024, with color codes to track each provider’s movement—along with dotted lines for 2022-2023, solid for 2023-2024.
At first glance, there are a few things that pop out to us over the last three years:
Braze surged forward with substantial improvements.
New entrants like Zeta and MessageGears signal fresh competition.
Acoustic faced setbacks with noticeable declines.
RedPoint Global and HCL/Unica have fallen off the MMH report.
The Rise of Braze
Braze’s remarkable ascent over the last three years demonstrates its strategic vision and relentless drive for excellence. If you dig into the report to find out why, you’ll see several key strengths that contribute to Braze's rising position as a leader:
Scalable Data Architecture: Braze's robust architecture allows it to handle both traditional campaigns and complex customer journeys efficiently. This is essential for marketers who need to manage high volumes of data and interactions across multiple channels.
Strong Ecosystem: Braze has a rapidly growing ecosystem of partners, including major players like Snowflake. This provides customers with access to a wide range of resources and expertise to support their marketing efforts.
Generative AI Capabilities: Braze has been at the forefront of integrating AI into its platform. Its AI-powered features simplify journey building, enhance personalization, and accelerate content creation.
Customer Engagement Focus: Braze specializes in advanced multichannel execution and journey orchestration, supported by advanced data management features.
2024 Report Findings
While Braze ascends, some competitors, even those at the top, face barriers to maintaining their leadership.
Salesforce: Despite being a leader, Salesforce Marketing Cloud has shown signs of stagnation. The ongoing migration from Journey Builder to Flow Orchestrator and the need for improved next-best-action capabilities are areas that need attention.
Adobe: Adobe's MMH solution is powerful but comes at a high cost. Its complex platform strategy and rising data costs are concerns for some customers.
Iterable: Iterable has a strong focus on channel execution but needs to improve its end-to-end journey orchestration and reporting capabilities to compete with the leaders in the market.
Acoustic: Acoustic is a niche player undergoing a significant transformation with the launch of Connect. This may present challenges for existing clients and require careful evaluation by potential buyers.
The Future
Our direct experience with a variety of MMH platforms reinforces Gartner’s insights: Braze consistently excels, delivering value and innovation. As customer journeys grow more intricate, MMHs that lead in flexibility, innovation, and user experience will shape the future. Braze’s commitment to these pillars makes it a powerful ally in the evolving digital marketing landscape.