According to new report from Bluestreak, "Emerging Digital Channels: Consumer Adoption, Attitudes & Behavior," which surveyed consumer behavior and attitudes toward emerging technologies — including podcasts, text messages (SMS), RSS, blogs and message boards as well as e-mail — users are not only feeling positive about the new channels, they are increasingly using them.
It's no surprise that 100% of respondents currently use e-mail and 88% use text messaging. But the other channels are active, too, with 71% using message boards, 63% using blogs, 36% using podcasts and 28% using RSS.
"Emerging technologies are offering marketers and consumers an increasing number of channels through which to communicate," said Doug Anderson, president of Bluestreak, "although marketers are allocating budgets for multi-channel communication without a clear understanding of the effectiveness and desirability of each channel."
The survey found some demographic differences between who uses the new channels, with heavier users leaning younger and male.
But the best news in the survey, from a marketer's point of view, is that new channel users do not hate ads.
There is a clear acceptance among consumers of advertising as a trade-off for good content and a further willingness to accept advertising and "sponsored" content as long as the information is relevant, high-quality and not overdone. Only text message advertising seems to engender a strong negative reaction among consumers.
That attitude is backed up by behavior. Only 14% of respondents said a purchase had ever came about as a result of a text message promotion, vs. 81% who had never made a purchase.
