Digital Music Promotion Poll Results Announced by Promo Magazine and Hip Digital...

Digital Music Promotion Poll Results Announced by Promo Magazine and Hip Digital Media

Industrywide Survey Sets Bar for Digital Media Usage
NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--A recent industry survey on digital music and promotions reveals
brand industry executives' outlook on the rise of Digital Music. The
2007 Digital Music Promotion Poll was recently commissioned to take an
in-depth look at the state of digital music and how it impacts
promotions, incentives and loyalty programs for brands and
advertisers. This nationwide survey commissioned over 300 senior brand
marketers and agencies to contribute thoughts & opinions on new
digital opportunities for brands to attract customers. The survey also
focused on tackling market issues such as fierce competition within
the brand space, fighting for market share, digital media scrutiny and
consumer loyalty.

Promo Magazine and Hip Digital Media conducted the online poll,
which was supported by The Orchard and GMR, a global entertainment
marketing agency and division of Omnicom. Results revealed a majority
of brand marketers are already using or considering digital media to
attract new customers and retain existing market share. In today's
market of over-saturated incentives & promotions, brands and agencies
are turning to digital media as a non-traditional way to reach their
consumers.

The results of the survey showed that 57% of respondents feel they
are not leveraging "new" digital media effectively when promoting
their brand. In addition, 52% reported, they were not sure how mobile
campaigns can be effective when driving loyalty, incentive and
promotion programs. With digital downloads playing an important part
in brand marketing, 49% of brand marketers polled are stating that
they are unsure how music or ring tones could help promote their
products. In addition, 21% stated they don't offer digital music
because they don't have access to licensing & clearance rights to
music. These staggering results question whether or not the digital
and mobile industries fully understand what it takes to reach
consumers.

Key findings of the Digital Music Distribution poll revealed that:

-- 57% of brand marketers don't feel they are leveraging digital
media as effectively as they should be.

-- A surprising 56% of brand executives already offer some type
of loyalty or incentive programs to consumers.

-- Almost 44% offer music downloads to customers as part of their
brand campaigns.

-- 51% of respondents offer pin-code redemption to redeem
incentives. 38% of those surveyed offered the ability to
download online music and only 19% gave access to incentives
via mobile phones.

-- When participants were asked if they have ever leveraged
digital music downloads and/or ring tones in any sort of
campaign, 40% responded yes.

-- Of those who participated in the survey, almost 50% said that
they are unsure of how music or ring tones could help promote
their products; 17% don't have the technology to implement a
program of this type. 31% don't have access to music,
licensing & clearances to offer music as an incentive.

-- When asked to rank the effectiveness of online redemption of
digital services, 27% said they would be interested in
pursuing more options of this nature, with 28% stating they
had a good experience with it and will pursue it again. 21%
were interested in possibly pursuing more mobile campaigns,
while only 9% stated they would pursue again.

-- Almost 50% are looking for easier integration with their
existing programs to pursue digital media. Whilst 38% are
actively looking for a digital media partner and 45% are
looking for more digital media choices to offer customers.

-- Among incentive/loyalty programs, 60.9% said they're
considering mobile campaigns (SMS, store front, text to win)
compared with 53.2% willing to try online pin-code redemption
for downloads.

-- A little more than a third said they don't have the budget for
implementing digital downloads.

Without question, consumer demand for digital media is tremendous.
The ease of consumption is the most important element to a successful
campaign with little or no barriers on redemption. There are numerous
tools in the market today to distribute digital media and more brands
are realizing they now have access to these tools.

Due to lack of education, access to content partners and
distribution rights, there are a large number of brands closely
following the digital content revolution, but still struggling with
the right method of distribution. Digital media and mobile agencies
need to do a better job of educating brands on how to utilize digital
media and to bring awareness to the multitude of options in the market
today.

As the digital market evolves, so will new opportunities for
integrating digital media into brand campaigns. When it comes to
reaching consumers, content is still king.

For more information on the results of the survey or to receive
the entire report, please contact Axis Marketing & Public Relations at
310-276-2220 or email surveys@axismarketingpr.com.

For Hip Digital Media
Sarah Miller, 310-697-2766

Copyright Business Wire 2008