Over the last two years, the Multichannel Marketing Hubs (MMH) market has shifted from generic campaign tools to unified, AI‑native platforms that can orchestrate complex customer journeys in real time. QKS Group’s 2024 and 2025 SPARK Matrix™ evaluations illustrate this evolution. As expectations for personalized, seamless brand experiences rise, MMHs have become essential for orchestrating campaigns and integrating data across channels. The 2025 report notes that AI‑driven journey orchestration, predictive segmentation, and autonomous agents are transforming these platforms, moving them from assistive to autonomous execution.
The comparison below examines how vendors shifted positions between the 2024 and 2025 SPARK MatrixTM reports. It highlights vendors that retained their leadership, those that climbed into the Leader quadrant, strong contenders that are still building momentum, vendors that repositioned or exited the matrix, and the trends that will shape the next wave of innovation.
Steady Leaders
The following vendors retained their Leader status across both years, reflecting sustained investment in unified data foundations, AI‑driven orchestration, and global scale:
Salesforce
Remaining at the top of the matrix, Salesforce doubled down on its AI‑first approach with Marketing Cloud Next. The platform integrates Data 360 for real-time profiles with Agentforce autonomous agents to automate campaign creation, lead qualification, and cross-channel orchestration. Built-in identity resolution, sub-second data ingestion, and deep integration across Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Tableau give Salesforce a unified backbone for CRM‑driven marketing.
Adobe
Powered by the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), Adobe continues to combine journey orchestration, real-time CDP, creative asset management, and generative AI in one environment. In 2025, the new Agent Orchestrator modules and multimodal agents (Brand Concierge, Firefly Services) delivered autonomous optimization, while enhancements to identity resolution and unified governance strengthened compliance and scale.
Braze
It retained its leadership position owing to its streaming-first architecture and the 2024 launch of Braze Data Platform, which unifies ingestion, segmentation, and activation with zero‑copy data access. Braze AI™ (Sage AI), now embedded across segmentation and personalization, accelerates experimentation and content generation. It offers expanded channel support (WhatsApp, Rich Communication Services (RCS), and LINE). It also provides deep e-commerce integrations through partnerships like Shopify, which further cemented Braze’s leadership for mobile-first and retail brands.
SAP Emarsys
SAP retained its leadership by leveraging the SAP ecosystem. Emarsys integrates with SAP Commerce Cloud, Customer Data Platform, and S/4HANA. This enables marketers to orchestrate cross-channel campaigns while connecting engagement to transaction and loyalty data. Its library of verticalized Strategies and Tactics offers out‑of‑the‑box lifecycle programs (replenishment, churn prevention, and loyalty activation), and native loyalty management supports points, tiers, and wallet integration.
Zeta Global
Zeta Global’s unified stack combines CDP, ESP, DSP, and identity resolution in one platform. Its deterministic dataset merges global identifiers with intent and transactional signals, powering precise lifecycle management and real-time personalization. The AI Agent Studio and new agent-based workflows allow marketers to chain custom agents and adapt interfaces dynamically. Furthermore, its modular adoption and flexible pricing broaden appeal.
Acoustic
The company retained its leadership position across two consecutive years by focusing on marketer usability and mobile engagement. Acoustic Connect provides cross-channel campaign management, journey orchestration, and first-party data management with low-code tools. Recent innovations include AI-driven segmentation, dynamic content assembly, and deeper support for WhatsApp and mobile messaging. A roadmap centered on contextual delivery, predictive personalization, and stronger governance keeps Acoustic competitive.
Optimove
Optimove’s customer-led marketing platform maintains its leader ranking through self‑learning micro‑segmentation, predictive recommendations, and autonomous campaign orchestration. Its Positionless Marketing platform enables marketers to execute campaigns without relying on multiple teams, while embedded generative AI assists with content creation and journey design. Hybrid deployment options and robust analytics dashboards support regulated industries and global brands.
HCL Software
HCL’s Unica and Unica+ suites blend proven campaign execution with agentic AI. Unica’s visual flowcharts, multi-wave execution, and robust planning modules remain a staple for high-volume campaigns. In 2025, it introduced autonomous agents for segmentation, content optimization, and campaign insights. This is supported by the MaxAI toolkit, enhanced predictive decisioning and real-time personalization. Modular adoption and strong governance across industries kept HCL firmly in the leader quadrant.
These vendors show that leadership in MMH requires more than channel breadth. Unified customer data, generative and predictive AI, and built-in governance have become table stakes for sustained differentiation.
New Leaders and Upward Movers
- HubSpot – HubSpot made a debut in the 2025 Matrix as a Leader. Its Marketing Hub now combines campaign orchestration, inbound content operations, and CRM‑native customer data within a single UI. The Data Hub centralizes structured and unstructured data with AI-driven quality checks, and Breeze AI Agents act as hybrid teammates to generate content, build prospect lists, and automate journey steps directly from CRM context. Enhanced Journey Automation and multi-brand management, coupled with tiered packaging that scales from SMB to enterprise, helped elevate HubSpot to leader status.
- Insider – Insider, a strong contender in 2024, moved into the Leaders’ quadrant in 2025. The company’s Insider One platform unifies CDP, predictive analytics, and journey orchestration. Its Agent One™ autonomous agent, launched in 2025, pairs with Sirius AI™ to automate segmentation and campaign design while ensuring context and emotional resonance. It also offers native support for web, mobile, email, push, SMS, WhatsApp, and social advertising, combined with localized teams and real-time behavioral intelligence.
- Creatio – Creatio was positioned as a Leader in the 2025 SPARK Matrix. Its Marketing Creatio platform is AI‑native and no-code, unifying campaign orchestration, data management, and predictive personalization. A built-in Customer 360 data model and role-based AI agents reduce manual effort, while drag-and-drop workflows accelerate time to market.
Strong Contenders
Several vendors remained in the Strong Contender quadrant, demonstrating solid technology excellence and market impact. Others entered this segment for the first time in 2025.
Steady Performers
Oracle
Oracle continued as a strong contender with its Oracle Marketing suite. Responsys and Eloqua provide robust campaign management across B2C and B2B, while generative AI embedded in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure produces multilingual email copy and subject lines. It also offers high‑volume execution, RCS-based conversational marketing, and integration with the broader Oracle CX ecosystem.
SAS
SAS maintained its position through a unified multichannel hub that combines an embedded CDP, predictive analytics, and real-time orchestration. Its hybrid deployment options (on‑premise, cloud, federated) appeal to regulated industries, and GenAI assists marketers in audience creation and journey design.
Pegasystems
The Pega Customer Decision Hub’s real-time Next‑Best‑Action engine and predictive models deliver one-to-one personalization, while visual journey mapping and workflow design tools simplify orchestration. Extensive integration via APIs and native connectors supports omnichannel campaigns.
Bloomreach
Bloomreach remained a strong contender owing to its composable, AI-powered platform that unifies customer and product data. Loomi AI provides autonomous agents and transformer-based recommendation models. On the other hand, modular packaging across email, mobile, web, and ad optimization offers flexibility.
CleverTap
CleverTap retained its strong contender status with its unified engagement platform combining CDP, predictive RFM segmentation, and AI-powered automation. TesseractDB™ ensures real-time execution at scale. IntelliNODE allows users to compare and experiment with multiple journey variations, which helps them determine the best way to reach the user.
MoEngage
MoEngage was also positioned as a strong contender in both 2024 and 2025. Its Sherpa and Merlin AI agents enable natural‑language journey design and event-triggered campaigns. Furthermore, support for channels such as WhatsApp, RCS, and Live Activities expands engagement options.
Netcore Cloud
Netcore sustained its position through a unified platform integrating email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, and voice into one canvas. AI agents (Raman and the Agentic AI Collective) provide recommendations and predictive segmentation. The platform’s e-commerce focus, especially on Shopify, enhances appeal.
New Entrants
- Klaviyo – A new entrant in 2025, Klaviyo was positioned as a strong contender owing to its e-commerce-first design. The Klaviyo Data Platform eliminates the need for a separate CDP by unifying real-time signals into unified profiles. Its Channel Affinity AI predicts the best channel for each customer. Deep integrations with Shopify and BigCommerce, and AI-driven personalization make Klaviyo ideal for direct-to-consumer brands.
- Zoho – Another 2025 newcomer, Zoho offers a unified Marketing Plus suite tightly integrated with Zoho CRM. Furthermore, Marketing Automation 2.0 introduced smarter lead scoring, behavior-driven journeys, and native WhatsApp marketing. Its multichannel approach (email, social, web, SMS, e-commerce) and affordable tiered pricing appeal to mid-market buyers.
Aspirants and Emerging Innovators
- Iterable – Iterable remained an aspirant in 2025, showing strong multichannel orchestration and AI-enabled personalization but lagging in scalability and advanced analytics. Its strengths include real-time audience activation, frequency optimization, and visual journey design.
- Marigold – Marigold, a relationship‑marketing platform, was placed in the Strong Contender quadrant in 2024. It was created through the consolidation of Campaign Monitor, Cheetah Digital, Sailthru, Emma, and other brands. Marigold’s unified suite offers zero-party data capture, loyalty programs, and AI-driven decisioning. It was likely positioned as an Aspirant in 2025 owing to its limited depth outside email and opaque pricing. In November 2025, Zeta Global acquired Marigold’s enterprise software business. Zeta emphasizes that existing Marigold products will continue to deliver reliable performance and be enhanced by Zeta’s AI, identity-based data, and advanced marketing technology. The addition of Marigold’s technologies, customer base, and team expands Zeta’s global footprint and strengthens its capabilities across loyalty, omnichannel engagement, and personalization.
Featured in 2024
Redpoint Global was placed in the Leader quadrant in 2024 owing to its advanced data management and customer-centric platform. Its exclusion from the 2025 Matrix is likely owing to shifts in QKS Group’s evaluation criteria or the vendor’s strategic focus. Redpoint Global continues to offer robust data management and personalization solutions, underscoring how dynamic the MMH landscape has become.
Final Take and What to Watch for in 2026
The comparison of 2024 and 2025 SPARK Matrix underscores a few themes. First, unified data and AI‑native orchestration are non-negotiable. Vendors that maintained leadership did so by investing in real-time profiles, generative AI, and unified decision engines that optimize who, what, when, and where across channels. Second, the bar for autonomy is rising. Agentic systems must interpret live signals, enforce policies, and manage multi-step workflows while maintaining traceability and cost controls. Third, governance and consent management are now execution‑time requirements. Platforms must enforce purpose limitations and audit log denials at send‑time to comply with global privacy laws.
In 2026, MMHs may combine deeper integration with real-time CDPs, no-code composability, and AI co-pilots that operate within strict policy guardrails. Mid-market acceleration would also be a priority, as simplified platforms democratize advanced marketing for smaller teams. Ultimately, the vendors that balance innovation with trust, observability, and sustainable economics will define the next generation of leaders in multichannel marketing.