• by Karl Greenberg , December 3, 2009

"Fast Forward 2011," the Promotion Marketing Association's second annual Digital Marketing Summit, was held at Google's New York offices, but much of the conversation was about Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Clara Shih, a former Google marketer who started her own Facebook marketing firm and wrote a book about that social medium, says there are now some 350 million active Facebook users, and people spend some 8 million minutes a day on Facebook.

While she does not say email is dead exactly, she says that over 96% of the students she interviewed for her book don't use email at all, but use texting and Facebook messages and wall posts. "We need to communicate through the channels they favor, and for more and more cohorts, this is becoming Facebook."

She said the fastest-growing group on Facebook comprises 35- to-49-year-olds. "And the second-fastest is women over 65 years of age," she said. "These are not early adopters, traditionally, but it is the group that in large part is leading the adoption of social media."

Seth Kaufman, director of media strategy for PepsiCo North America, says he is driven by an effort to engage consumers, not just talk to them. "Today into the future, it's about 'elective consumerism'," he said. "Consumers will remain discriminating even after the recession. They are beginning to value experiences much more than material possessions. And now the deer have guns; it's no longer about brands controlling the conversation. The old world of marketing was about badge value, and agency creative. Now it's about deep emotional connection."

Kaufman says PepsiCo is trying to be a "creator" brand in the market, versus "observer," "sponsor" or "curator." An observer brand, he said, reflects back what consumers know -- e.g., an ad on "Saturday Night Live" that uses talent from the show itself and similar humorous tone. "Sponsoring is what Mountain Dew has done with action sports, or concert tours," he said. "And we still do this, but you don't get nearly as much credit for it from consumers as you once did. You really get credit when you go from sponsor to curator. You gain cultural credibility by filtering out what consumers don't want."

The ultimate is becoming a creator brand, per Kaufman. "This is very, very hard to do," he said. Mountain Dew is in the second phase of such a program, "DEWmocracy," which launched centers on a social media program to let consumers choose the flavors, colors, names and advertising for new additions to the Mountain Dew lineup. In this phase, Mountain Dew sent flavors in numbered canisters to influencers along with Flip cameras, per Kaufman. "We let them record their choice on Flip cameras." Those got uploaded on Mountain Dew's social media site, and "consumers started to lobby and get friends and their social network to make sure their formula choice won." By Dec. 13, consumers can vote on their final choices by looking at the Flip videos and other content.