Email is 50 years old this year. Its resilience is so familiar that we don't even bother joking about the many "Email is Dead" eulogies.

General Mills CMO Ivan Pollard brought us back a century to the invention of the Betty Crocker persona to illustrate how the company is trying to reassert the basics of consumer engagement by digital means. He demonstrated how a social interaction with a Saudi Arabian boy led to a massively successful Ramadan campaign that promoted men trying their hand at baking.