• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, August 5, 2015

Demand-side platform (DSP) MediaMath on Wednesday announced it has partnered with Industry Index, a company that rates marketing technology platforms.

As a result of the partnership, Industry Index’s ad tech platform ratings will be visible through MediaMath’s “Open Partner Marketplace,” a hub that shows all the MediaMath’s partners clients can work with.

"Consumer reviews are a critical part of the buying cycle and have tremendous potential to influence purchase decisions," stated Katie Casteel, senior director, open operations, MediaMath. "The digital tech space is crowded and complex and every marketer has unique business needs.”

The idea is to bring more transparency to the ad tech platform-choosing process. It comes at a time when marketers -- especially agencies -- are having difficultly keeping pace with the swelling sea of tech options.

At a recent OMMA LA event, Stephanie Spero, director of media strategy and business director of Tribal Worldwide, said that the agency looks weekly at programmatic technology and vets those platforms against client goals. 

“I can’t tell you how many programmatic companies call,” added Kirsten Atkinson, VP of media and branded integration at Walton Isaacson, during the same panel at the OMMA LA event, “so there’s certainly not enough resources to do it all.”

Another marketing tech ratings platform -- G2 Crowd -- recently received a $7 investment in the form of a Series A round of funding.

Other similar companies have sprung up as well, including Hard Stop Central an “online video directory out in the market for agencies to browse ad tech explainer videos, download one-pagers and schedule meetings to keep up vendor offerings,” explained Hard Stop Central’s Eric Schwartz.