Study: Marketers uncomfortable with emerging interative channels

Forrester analyst Brian Haven’s study found that search and email remained the most-used marketing channels, but that social media was being increasingly integrated. Mobile and gaming marketing, however, remain relatively ignored.

According to a recent report on AdAge.com, the past twelve months has seen a rapid rise in social media with 40 percent of marketers trying RSS, 34 percent using blogs and just 20 percent developing social networks. However, Haven postulates that businesses are in a “Catch 22”, each waiting until another uses the medium for proof that it is effective

Mobile and gaming channels were the least used channels. Of the two, mobile was perhaps the best channel to pursue for those whose audiences didn’t comprise the niche demographics of gamers.

Haven’s advice? Not to hold back and to explore emerging interactive mediums sooner rather than later. He told AdAge.com “…consumers are leaving marketers behind and the advice now is this is not a fluke behavior -- it's the way things are going and it's time for marketers to take decent strides into social computing technologies."

Tags: blogs, Forrester Research, gaming, mobile marketing, podcast, RSS, social media, social networks