US digital entertainment content distributor Red Touch Media to make Australia its Asia-Pac base

US digital entertainment content and location-based technology firm Red Touch Media has committed to establishing Australia as its Asia-Pacific hub to further expand its global footprint.

Headed by founder and CEO Wayne Scholes, Red Touch Media’s executive team has arrived in Australia to establish relationships with retailers, marketers, advertisers, content creators, producers and select media players.

Says Scholes: “Red Touch has grown seven-fold since we launched earlier this year and the Asia-Pacific area – and in particular Australia – is very important to continuing our growth. By the end of 2014 we expect to have up to 30 people employed in Australia.”

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company has also established major operations in Liverpool and Johannesburg.

Red Touch Media is initially focusing on expanding the distribution for its location-based,  digital content download businesses known as Connect and Express across Australia.

Connect is ideal for advertisers and marketers who want to promote their products or services to consumers on a personalised basis while Express focuses on enabling retailers to create a new revenue stream.

Red Touch’s Connect was launched at CES in the US earlier this year and is targeted towards advertisers and marketers who are looking for the ultimate in personalised consumer marketing.

Says Scholes: “Our analytics technology knows when a person watched or listened to a product, for how long and whether they forwarded it to anyone that also enjoyed it.   The analytics are a very powerful tool that studios have never had access to before and as a result is expected to have a profound impact on any content creator/owners business model.”

Red Touch’s Express service is focused on serving retailers who are constantly looking for new ways to bring consumers into their physical and web-based retail environments and to keep their customers coming back for more.

Says Scholes: “Retailers have been losing money from CD, DVD and book sales for years with many exiting the category. Our Express platform presents a new and significant additional revenue stream with the introduction of its white-label solution that can be branded under their name. One of our primary goals is to assist retailers to become more relevant in the digital content world without the need for massive software development costs. It is a win-win.”

With Red Touch Express, retailers are also able to leverage premium digital content to create offers and incentives for consumers.

Both kiosk-based digital download platforms offer a huge volume of music and video products that enable consumers to get the entertainment content they want wherever they go and on any device they choose. Consumers can expect to easily and quickly download their favourite entertainment content at airports, supermarkets and shopping centres.

Red Touch’s content partners that benefit from the current two billion downloads monthly include NBC Universal, Disney, Warner Music Group, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, EMI and HDNet.

Says Scholes: “Red Touch Media may be a new name to many people but our executive team has been doing this for more than a decade. We have proven our technology – and the economic benefits it yields for media and entertainment companies – over and over again. We’re looking forward to introducing our offerings to new audiences across Australia and using this as a base for expanding into the rest of Asia.”