• by Wayne Friedman , March 9, 2011

Austin, Texas -- Youth-targeted grassroots marketing can be a difficult job -- but not impossible.

Speaking at the 4As Transformation event, Coltrane Curtis, managing partner of influencer/youth-targeted entertainment marketing company Team Epiphany, and ex-VJ of MTV, says marketers need to figure out the strength and direction of influencers and covert that into big brand results.

"How do you engage influencers? You have to talk about the flow of information," says Coltrane, whose clients include Nike, Pepsi, Diageo, Gillette, and Range Rover, among others. The good news, he says, is that influencers "are people who are bursting with the seams of information."

But peer influencers are only part of the equation. "Do we need celebrities?" he asks. "Yes, we need them to validate the interest of influencers."

Coltrane says Chris Julian, a second-half clothing owner in Las Vegas, is just this kind of influencer. That's why celebrities like singer Kanye West shop there. Influencers are important because "They aren't given to pie in the sky stuff; they are given to actionable stuff."