According to a new survey by CRM agency Merkle, mobile and social platforms are making a significant impact on consumers' brand engagement. The study showed that email remains the major tool of commercial communications and is preferred by 75% of study participants for commercial purposes over direct mail almost five to one.

Although Facebook is now used by two-thirds of all adults surveyed, and increasingly for commercial use, email is still the preferred method for viewing brands. Another interesting find was the symbiotic relationship between Facebook users and mobile use, with mobile being described as a gateway for consumers to read emails, surf the web and participate in social networking, particularly Facebook.The study identified a significant proportion of'hyper-email' users (43% of study participants) who checked their email more than four times a day, a trend driven in part by increasing penetration of smartphones.