New Market Research by Redshift Concludes That Major UK Brands are Failing to Monetise Digital Media Strategies

New market research by industry analyst, Redshift Research, on behalf of Oxygen8 Communications, has found that major UK brands are still failing to monetise their digital media strategies, and campaigns are often in direct competition with traditional print or TV advertising campaigns.

Key findings:
- Digital media now accounts for almost 50% of daily media consumption and is the preferred medium for receiving marketing messages
- 41% of consumers chose the Internet as the medium they could not live without
- Only 62% of TV is now watched in real-time
- 75% of the UK population rarely watch TV adverts when viewing recorded programmes

The research finds that whilst consumers are interested in accessing more services from organisations on their mobile phones, corporates and media companies are failing to make the most of digital opportunities. Two thirds of organisations recognise that consumers are less receptive to traditional advertising, 76 per cent of corporates feel that internet advertising is more effective than both TV and print. This sentiment is echoed by media companies, where 83 per cent felt that SMS and email is more effective than the traditional channels. In fact, only 13 per cent of media companies and 23 per cent of corporates believe that traditional media is still more important than digital media.

Budget (40%) and lack of skill and experience (28%) are quoted as the main barriers to using digital media more frequently. Furthermore, whilst 60 per cent of companies think it would be very or extremely useful to have one single CRM system/database combining traditional and digital media campaigns, 65 per cent collect and analyze campaign data in separate systems, thus rendering them unable to gain a full view into any cross media campaigns' performance.

Shane Leahy, Group Chief Executive Officer of Oxygen8 Communications, says, "The digital marketplace is undoubtedly the future. However, UK brands need to become attuned to selling new media advertising, from mobile to 3G and IPTV, in a way that complements, not undermines, traditional products and reflects the expectations of the consumer. This shift in approach requires not only an investment in technology, resources and understanding but also a significant corporate restructuring to deliver an integrated cross-media strategy."

Oxygen8 Communications is a new interactive communications company that has been formed following a management buy-out to respond to fundamental changes in the interactive communications market. The company's mission is to help both media companies and corporates to realize the revenue potential of new digital media technologies such as mobile, video, 3G and IPTV.

At the heart of Oxygen8's offering is its Oxygen platform which provides UK brands with a 'one-stop-shop' solution, enabling them to create fully integrated interactive communications services utilizing a variety of different technologies, including WAP, Web, Voice, Video, SMS and MMS.