Vidyard Named a Leader for Online Video Platforms for Sales and Marketing by Independent Research Firm

October 31, 2016

Matt Habermehl

Report finds “more firms see video as a way to address their top challenges of using engaging content to connect with customers and prospects”

KITCHENER,Ontario – October 31, 2016 – Vidyard,the video platform for business, has been named a leader in Online Video Platforms for Sales and Marketing by independent research firm Forrester Research, Inc. The recognition comes as part of The Forrester Wave™: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing, Q4 2016, which analyzed the most significant providers in the space.

Vidyard achieved the highest score for current offerings among all participants in the report, landing highest possible score for 23 of the 39 criteria, including administration, syndication and distribution features, sales enablement workflows, enterprise application integrations, reporting and analytics, global support and security. Vidyard was the only vendor to receive the highest possible scores in the player features; marketing and lead generation tools; and targeting, personalization and discovery criteria.

“Vidyard has a clear vision of video’s future that resonates with its customers and Forrester alike,” wrote analyst Nick Barber in The Forrester Wave™: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing, Q4 2016. “It understands how important user-generated content (UGC) will be for brands and businesses, and it plans to roll out further support for UGC and analysis of it. Its roadmap follows up in-video personalization with support for real-time rendering of dynamically personalized video content, which will increase viewer engagement.”

The Forrester Wave methodology included a rigorous process of vendor surveys, scenario-based product demos, executive strategy briefings and customer reference calls to validate each vendor’s products and qualifications. Forrester analyzed nine vendors’ video platforms across 39 criteria.

“I believe that this research shows that video has become a core component of modern marketing and sales with businesses looking for more advanced distribution, personalization, interactivity and analytics to help them turn viewers into customers,” said Michael Litt, Vidyard CEO and co-founder. “In my view, Forrester’s work proves there’s been a massive shift in the video technology market beyond publishing and advertising. Now the conversation is about how to use video to better connect, engage and convert customers and support the entire buying journey even after the deal closes.”

In addition to analyzing vendor offerings, Forrester noted the rise of online video and its growing importance for business. “The sales-and-marketing-focused OVP market is growing because more firms see video as a way to address their top challenges of using engaging content to connect with customers and prospects,” according to the report. U.S. adults spend nearly two hours a day consuming video, more than any other online activity, and online video has become a must-have for businesses. Video conveys emotion much better than the written word, and the human brain processes it 60,000 times faster than text, according to the report.

Businesses that want to capitalize on video need to harness their own video channels and can’t simply rely on YouTube for distribution, largely because it lacks the rich analytics and integrations that come with platforms such as Vidyard. Integrations with CRM and marketing automation platforms enable marketing and sales teams to easily create and share videos with customers, track their true engagement in the content and measure its impact on revenue.

“Vidyard is an excellent fit for companies that want more than just a video repository but want to deploy and measure videos with specific integrations into CRM systems and MAPs,” Barber wrote.

About Vidyard

Vidyard (Twitter: @Vidyard) is the video intelligence platform that helps businesses drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Honeywell, McKesson, Lenovo, LinkedIn, Cision, Citibank, MongoDB and Sharp rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewers into customers.