# IMC Institute

> The Integrated Marketing Communications community: one message, every channel.

For marketers and business people. Independent, every fact sourced. Pick a path to start.

## Editorial position

IMC Institute is an independent, vendor-neutral, team-moderated community for marketers and business people about integrated marketing communications (IMC). It owns no listed product and has no partners, no affiliate links and no paid placement, ranking or reviews. Martech platforms are researched by the team from their own documentation; agencies, consultancies and freelancers are listed only through moderated community submissions and claims, and nothing about them is invented. Every listing is classified and assessed against the same published criteria, and the ranking in Find your stack reads only the marketer's brief and each listing's facts, never relationships or experiences. Details at /en/independence and /en/how-listings-work.

Claims that matter are cited with links to primary sources. Where published figures disagree — market sizes especially — the disagreement is stated rather than resolved.

## Conventions

- Every article is available as plain markdown by appending `.md` to its URL.
- Articles carry a depth: foundation, applied or advanced.
- Content is published in English (`/en/…`), Arabic (`/ar/…`) and French (`/fr/…`); a page not translated yet shows the English. This index in another language: http://localhost:3000/llms.txt?locale=ar, http://localhost:3000/llms.txt?locale=fr.

## explainer

- [Which mix for which objective: sixteen objectives and the disciplines that serve them](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/which-mix-for-which-objective.md): A practical chooser for the sixteen objectives marketers plan for: which disciplines usually lead, which support and what to measure, with the balance between brand and activation, the caveats that change the answer, and links to every primer and objective hub.
- [Internal comms 101: employees are the first audience](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/internal-comms-101.md): Internal communication keeps the people who deliver the brand informed, involved and able to speak for it. It belongs in IMC because customers meet the brand through employees, and it runs on leaders, line managers and a few well-run channels more than on any single tool.
- [Community 101: a brand people belong to, not just follow](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/community-101.md): A brand community is a group of customers and fans who talk to each other, not only to the brand, in a space the brand helps run. It turns word of mouth into a programme: owned forums and groups, ambassadors and user-generated content, with moderation and disclosure duties that come with them.
- [Affiliate 101: paying partners for the results they bring](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/affiliate-101.md): Affiliate marketing pays publishers, from review sites to cashback apps and creators, a commission when the people they send buy or sign up. It looks risk-free because you pay only for results, but the rules of tracking, credit and disclosure decide whether those results are real.
- [CRM and loyalty 101: customer data, lifecycles, programmes and retention](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/crm-loyalty-101.md): How companies use what they know about their customers to keep them: segmentation by recency, frequency and value, lifecycle marketing, loyalty programmes from points and tiers to paid memberships and coalitions, how retention and the Net Promoter Score are measured, and the rules on profiling and loyalty data.
- [Sales promotion 101: discounts, coupons, sampling, prize draws and trade deals](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/sales-promotion-101.md): How sales promotions give people a reason to buy now, from price cuts and coupons to sampling, prize draws and deals with retailers; what the evidence says about what they do and do not achieve; and the rules that govern them in the UK, the US, the EU and France, and the Gulf.
- [Direct marketing 101: mail, door drops, calls and response, tested](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/direct-marketing-101.md): How direct marketing reaches one named person or household and asks for a reply, how its response rates and tests work, what lists and preference services allow, and how the rules on calls changed in 2026, from the UK's TPS and the US Do Not Call Registry to France's move to prior consent.
- [Sponsorship 101: borrowing meaning from what people already love](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/sponsorship-101.md): Sponsorship buys the right to be associated with a team, an event, a cultural institution or a cause. The rights fee is only the entry ticket: value comes from activating those rights across the plan, protecting them from ambush marketing within the law, and measuring their effect with the same rigour as any other investment.
- [Events 101: bringing people to the brand, in person and online](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/events-101.md): Events and experiential marketing put a brand and its audience in the same place: trade shows, conferences, brand experiences and their hybrid and virtual forms. They are costly per person but rich in conversation and first-party data, and they are judged by objectives set in advance, a published sustainability standard and growing accessibility duties.
- [Public relations 101: earning trust you cannot buy](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/public-relations-101.md): Public relations earns attention through journalists, experts and an organisation's own voice instead of buying space. It covers media relations, crisis and corporate communications, reputation and public affairs, is bound by professional ethics codes, and is now measured by outcomes under the Barcelona Principles, not by the advertising value of clippings.
- [Messaging 101: marketing in the chat, from SMS to WhatsApp](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/messaging-101.md): Messaging marketing reaches people in the apps they use to talk to friends: SMS, WhatsApp, RCS, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram and LINE. It works when people have opted in, when the first message follows each platform's template and window rules, and when the conversation leads somewhere useful: an answer, a booking, a purchase.
- [Email 101: permission, the inbox and the rules that guard it](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/email-101.md): Email marketing reaches people who chose to hear from you, on a list you own. Whether it works depends on three things: consent that meets each country's law, authentication that Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now require from bulk senders, and messages relevant enough that readers stay subscribed.
- [Content 101: earning attention with things worth reading, watching and hearing](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/content-101.md): Content marketing publishes useful articles, videos, podcasts and newsletters so that people come to the brand rather than the other way round. It needs an editorial strategy, a production line that people and AI share, distribution across owned, earned, shared and paid channels, clear labels when content is paid for or machine-made, and measures beyond page views.
- [Influencer marketing 101: borrowing trust, and saying so](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/influencer-101.md): Influencer and creator marketing pays or equips people with their own audiences to talk about a brand. How the work runs from brief to contract to post, what it costs, the disclosure rules from the FTC to the UAE and Saudi licences, and how to measure it and spot fraud.
- [Social media 101: earning a place in feeds that algorithms run](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/social-101.md): Social media is where most people online spend part of every day, and where brands both talk with communities for free and buy attention in auctions. How feeds and ad auctions decide what people see, what businesses use social for, how platforms and rules differ by region, and when it should lead the plan.
- [Search 101: being found at the moment people ask](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/search-101.md): Search marketing has two halves that answer the same question: SEO earns a place in the free results, paid search buys one in an auction where quality lowers the price. In 2026 AI answers sit above both, so the job is to be the source those answers trust and to measure what clicks are left.
- [Digital advertising 101: display, video, CTV, retail media and programmatic](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/digital-advertising-101.md): How paid advertising on websites, apps, streaming TV and retailers' sites is bought and sold, what happens between a DSP and an SSP in the instant a page loads, how verification and viewability work, what the market spends, and how cookies, consent and the DSA are changing it.
- [Out-of-home 101: billboards, transit, street furniture and digital screens](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/out-of-home-101.md): How advertising in public places works, from paper posters to screens bought programmatically, how its audiences are estimated by Geopath and Route, what the market spends, and the planning and environmental rules that shape where a sign can stand.
- [Advertising 101: television, radio, print and cinema](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/advertising-101.md): How paid brand advertising in the traditional media works, who does what between the creative and the media side, how it is bought and measured, what it costs, and the rules that apply before an advert goes on air.
- [Organising for IMC: agency models, in-housing, roles and AI in 2026](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/organising-for-imc.md): Integration is decided by how people and agencies are organised: lead agency, holding-company team, roster, in-house or hybrid. What the ANA's in-house research shows, which roles hold a plan together, the three shared processes that matter most, and what the evidence says about AI in 2026.
- [Measuring effectiveness: models, attribution, experiments and triangulation](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/measuring-effectiveness.md): What brand and activation effects are, and how marketing mix modelling, attribution, experiments, brand lift and the Barcelona Principles each measure part of them. No single method is enough; the answer is to use them together, each for the question it can answer.
- [Planning frameworks: SOSTAC, RACE, the brief and the plan on a page](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/planning-frameworks.md): The planning models marketers use most (PR Smith's SOSTAC, Smart Insights' RACE, account planning), the documents that turn a plan into work (campaign brief, creative brief, media plan, the integrated plan on a page), and how to choose between them.
- [Budgeting for IMC: setting the total and splitting it](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/budgeting-for-imc.md): How marketers set a communication budget (objective and task, percentage of sales, competitive parity, share of voice), what the evidence says about splitting it between brand and activation, and why the working versus non-working ratio is a poor guide.
- [Objectives and KPIs: from business goals to what communication must change](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/objectives-and-kpis.md): Integrated communication needs three linked layers of objectives (business, marketing, communication) and a short chain of KPIs for each. How the classic models help, where they mislead, and how AMEC's framework carries the same logic into PR and earned media.
- [Consistency and adaptation: one idea across channels, languages and cultures](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/consistency-and-adaptation.md): What to keep the same everywhere and what to adapt: the standardisation debate in international marketing, distinctive brand assets as the mechanism of consistency, and what changes for Arabic- and French-speaking markets.
- [The brand platform and the message house: one source for every discipline](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/brand-platform-and-message-house.md): What a brand platform holds (positioning, proposition, proof, voice), how to build a message house on top of it, and how one platform keeps advertising, PR, social, sales and service saying the same thing in their own words.
- [Touchpoints and the customer journey: from the funnel to the messy middle](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/touchpoints-and-journey.md): Every contact with a brand is a message. How the consumer decision journey replaced the funnel, what Google's messy middle adds, how business buying groups decide, and how to map touchpoints to objectives.
- [The IMC models: relationships, pillars, PESO and the stages of integration](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/imc-models.md): Four models that shape how integration is planned: Duncan and Moriarty's relationship model, Kliatchko's four pillars, Gini Dietrich's PESO model and Schultz's stages. What each asks, how they differ, and when to reach for which.
- [What integrated marketing communications is, and what it is not](http://localhost:3000/en/learn/what-is-imc.md): Where the idea came from, how its definition moved from consistent tools to a managed business process, how it differs from multichannel and omnichannel, and the misreadings that keep it shallow.

## The directory

Every public listing, alphabetically. Full profiles at /en/ecosystem/{slug}; machine-readable data at /api/v1/listings; every listing in one attribute matrix (same fields, same rules, cells marked value, unknown or not applicable) at /api/v1/matrix (add ?format=csv); every source we cite at /api/v1/sources and /en/sources; plain-language terms at /en/learn/glossary; the ranking method at /en/methodology.

- [AB Tasty](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/ab-tasty) (platform, listed): A/B, split-URL and multivariate testing with personalisation for websites and apps, sold on custom quotes.
- [ActiveCampaign](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/activecampaign) (platform, listed): Email marketing and marketing automation with a built-in sales CRM, priced by contacts.
- [Adjust](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/adjust) (platform, listed): Mobile app attribution and measurement, with plans priced by install volume and features.
- [Adobe Analytics](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/adobe-analytics) (platform, listed): Enterprise web and mobile analytics in Adobe Experience Cloud, with Customer Journey Analytics for cross-channel data.
- [Adobe Experience Manager](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/adobe-experience-manager) (platform, listed): Adobe's enterprise content management system for websites, with headless delivery of structured content fragments.
- [Adobe Marketo Engage](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/adobe-marketo-engage) (platform, listed): Adobe's marketing automation product for lead management, email and campaign measurement.
- [Ahrefs](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/ahrefs) (platform, listed): Backlink, keyword and rank data for search, sold as published monthly plans with an API.
- [Amazon Ads](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/amazon-ads) (platform, listed): Sells sponsored ads on Amazon's store and programmatic display, video, audio and streaming-TV ads, now managed in Amazon Ads Agent.
- [Antavo](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/antavo) (platform, listed): A loyalty platform for running points, tiers, rewards and promotions programmes.
- [AppsFlyer](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/appsflyer) (platform, listed): Measures which campaigns and channels bring app installs and in-app actions, with a free plan and per-conversion pricing.
- [Asana](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/asana) (platform, listed): A work management platform for planning projects, assigning tasks and tracking team goals.
- [Awin](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/awin) (platform, listed): An affiliate marketing network that connects advertisers with publishers and pays them for the sales they drive.
- [Bizzabo](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/bizzabo) (platform, listed): Registration, event websites, apps and data for in-person, virtual and hybrid events.
- [Bloomreach](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/bloomreach) (platform, listed): Commerce-focused platform with a CDP and marketing automation (Engagement), product search (Discovery) and a headless CMS (Content).
- [Brandwatch](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/brandwatch) (platform, listed): Listens to online conversation and manages social media and influencer programmes.
- [Braze](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/braze) (platform, listed): Customer engagement platform for cross-channel messaging: email, push, SMS, WhatsApp and in-app.
- [Brevo](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/brevo) (platform, listed): Email and marketing platform with a free plan, transactional email API and customer data tools.
- [Bynder](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/bynder) (platform, listed): A digital asset management platform for storing, finding and sharing brand files.
- [Canva](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/canva) (platform, listed): An online design platform for creating visuals and documents from templates.
- [Cision](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/cision) (platform, listed): Media monitoring, a journalist database and outreach, and press release distribution.
- [CleverTap](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/clevertap) (platform, listed): Customer engagement and retention platform for apps and websites, priced by monthly active users.
- [Contentful](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/contentful) (platform, listed): A headless content platform that stores structured content and delivers it to any channel through APIs.
- [CreatorIQ](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/creatoriq) (platform, listed): Runs creator and influencer programmes, from finding creators to paying them.
- [Cvent](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/cvent) (platform, listed): Event registration, venue sourcing, webinars and event marketing for in-person and online events.
- [Eventbrite](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/eventbrite) (platform, listed): Self-service ticketing, registration and promotion for events of any size.
- [Figma](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/figma) (platform, listed): A collaborative, browser-based design tool for interfaces, brand assets and whiteboarding.
- [Google Ads](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/google-ads) (platform, listed): Buys ads on Google Search and Google's other properties through an auction, with campaigns run by the advertiser.
- [Google Analytics 4](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/google-analytics-4) (platform, listed): Event-based analytics for websites and apps, in a standard edition and a paid Analytics 360 edition.
- [Hootsuite](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/hootsuite) (platform, listed): Schedules posts, handles social messages and reports on social accounts from one place.
- [HubSpot Marketing Hub](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/hubspot-marketing-hub) (platform, listed): Marketing automation software built on the HubSpot CRM: email, forms, workflows and reporting.
- [impact.com](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/impact-com) (platform, listed): A partnership management platform for running affiliate, creator and referral programmes.
- [Insider One](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/insider-one) (platform, listed): Customer engagement platform combining a customer data platform, personalisation and cross-channel messaging.
- [Intercom](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/intercom) (platform, listed): A customer service platform with a help desk for human agents and Fin, an AI agent that answers customers.
- [Klaviyo](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/klaviyo) (platform, listed): Email, SMS and customer data platform for consumer brands, with a free plan.
- [LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (Campaign Manager)](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/linkedin-campaign-manager) (platform, listed): Runs ads on LinkedIn through Campaign Manager, bought by auction with a published minimum daily budget.
- [Lumen by Talkwalker](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/lumen-by-talkwalker) (platform, listed): Monitors social media, news and other online sources for brand and consumer insight.
- [Mailchimp](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/mailchimp) (platform, listed): Email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with a free plan and contact-based pricing.
- [Matomo](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/matomo) (platform, listed): Open-source web analytics you can host yourself for free, or use as Matomo Cloud priced by monthly hits.
- [Meltwater](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/meltwater) (platform, listed): Monitors news and social media, and supports media relations and influencer work.
- [Meta Ads Manager](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/meta-ads-manager) (platform, listed): Buys ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp through Meta's ad auction.
- [MoEngage](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/moengage) (platform, listed): Customer engagement platform for cross-channel campaigns and journeys, priced by monthly tracked users.
- [monday.com](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/monday-com) (platform, listed): A work management platform for planning and tracking projects, campaigns and team workflows on shared boards.
- [Muck Rack](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/muck-rack) (platform, listed): A journalist database, media monitoring and PR reporting for brands and agencies.
- [Optimizely](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/optimizely) (platform, listed): Web and feature experimentation and personalisation, sold on custom quotes.
- [Pipedrive](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/pipedrive) (platform, listed): Sales CRM organised around a visual deal pipeline, priced per seat.
- [Piwik PRO](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/piwik-pro) (platform, listed): Web analytics with built-in consent management and EU hosting, on Business and Enterprise plans.
- [Qualtrics](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/qualtrics) (platform, listed): Survey and experience-management software, from a free account to enterprise research.
- [Salesforce Marketing Cloud](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/salesforce-marketing-cloud) (platform, listed): Salesforce's family of marketing products for email, mobile messaging, journeys and B2B automation.
- [Semrush](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/semrush) (platform, listed): Keyword research, site audits, rank tracking and competitor data for search, sold as monthly or annual plans.
- [Sitecore](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/sitecore) (platform, listed): A digital experience platform whose SaaS edition, SitecoreAI, combines content management, customer data and personalisation.
- [Sprinklr](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/sprinklr) (platform, listed): An enterprise suite for social publishing, listening, customer service and marketing.
- [Sprout Social](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/sprout-social) (platform, listed): Publishes to social networks, gathers incoming messages and reports on social performance.
- [SurveyMonkey](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/surveymonkey) (platform, listed): Online surveys and forms, from a free plan to team and enterprise plans.
- [Talon.One](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/talon-one) (platform, listed): An incentives engine for running promotions, loyalty programmes and rule-based offers through APIs.
- [The Trade Desk](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/the-trade-desk) (platform, listed): A demand-side platform for buying programmatic media across the open internet; its current platform is called Kokai.
- [Twilio Segment](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/twilio-segment) (platform, listed): Customer data platform that collects events from sites and apps and sends them to other tools and warehouses.
- [Upfluence](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/upfluence) (platform, listed): Finds creators, runs influencer and affiliate campaigns, tracks results and pays creators.
- [Vimeo](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/vimeo) (platform, listed): A video hosting platform for uploading, sharing, embedding and reviewing video.
- [WordPress VIP](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/wordpress-vip) (platform, listed): Managed enterprise hosting and support for WordPress sites.
- [Zoho CRM](http://localhost:3000/en/ecosystem/zoho-crm) (platform, listed): Customer relationship management software with a free edition for three users and per-user paid editions.