The Future of Agencies in Social Media A perpetual anxiety of media agency employees is that technology will somehow make them obsolete. It hasn’t happened yet and isn’t likely to, according to the panelists discussing social media and media buying and planning at OMMA Global on Wednesday morning -- however, what it always happening is change, which means their brief is always evolving. With social media moving from the first, exploratory phase to long-term strategies, Ekaterina Walter, a strategist for Intel, said clients are moving beyond “asking agencies, ‘fish for me,’ to ‘teach me how to fish,’â€� meaning they want …

A perpetual anxiety of media agency employees is that technology will somehow make them obsolete. It hasn’t happened yet and isn’t likely to, according to the panelists discussing social media and media buying and planning at OMMA Global on Wednesday morning -- however, what it always happening is change, which means their brief is always evolving. With social media moving from the first, exploratory phase to long-term strategies, Ekaterina Walter, a strategist for Intel, said clients are moving beyond “asking agencies, ‘fish for me,’ to ‘teach me how to fish,’â€� meaning they want to have more direct control over their …

The Pepsi refresh campaign turns the adversarial relationship between brand and consumers to a partnership. Concept of determining social return on investment is fantastic. Become respectful of your audience. This is not an advertising campaign. It goes way beyond that. Support the non-winners after someone commented that for every competition there are more winners than losers, so are you getting people saying they are not refreshed? The CRM database has more than seven million subscribers.

With no broadcast media in December, Pepsi closed the submission period for ideas in 72 hours. In March, Pepsi closed submissions in less than 12 hours. There have been millions of votes, more than 1 billion media impressions and 300,000 new Facebook Fans.

Billions of dollars can be made by content providers. Can this balance be shifted to the carriers. "They are done," says Min. They are the dumb pipe and they just need to realize it." The days of all you can eat are gone. They can't allow a small group of users to take down their networks so that other users can't make a call as has happened in New York and San Francisco. "It's simple economics," he says.

Hands down, it goes to Pepsi's Andrew Katz, who was introduced at OMMA Global as senior manager, Pepsi-Cola Marketing, but who immediately corrected that. "I'm senior brand manager for refreshing the world," he said, adding, "I refresh the world every day." Global Chief Refreshing Officer Katz

Andrew Katz, senior brand manger that refreshes the world, Pepsi-Cola Marketing, told OMMA Global attendees in San Francisco that it's no longer about pop culture. With the decentralization of information having a Britney Spears commercial isn't important any more because you can get information on her 24/7. In 2010 it's about activating brand behavior through Pepsi's campaign the Refresh Project. People submit ideas online. It's about crowdsourcing. Pepsi gives away $1.3 million monthly for these ideas. But it's not about the money, Katz says, it's about impact of the social return on investment. The effectiveness and success of campaign will …

Yeah, that’s the same way the folks at OMMA Global reacted when Aaron Shapiro, a partner of Pepsi Web shop HUGE asked them that question. “Heard four [advertisers mentioned]. That’s pretty bad since there were about 68 spots on the Super Bowl,” Shapiro quipped, noting that the two most recalled advertisers in this year’s Super Bowl were Focus on the Family and Pepsi, “which is pretty weird since Pepsi didn’t advertise in the Super Bowl.”

That was the best line so far today at OMMA Global in San Francisco, and it was delivered by Montgomery & Co.’s James Min to describe the real promise of mobile phones. A moment later, Sequoia’s Mark Kvamme made an even more visceral connection, holding his phone up and saying, “I kiss this more than I kiss my wife.”

So that’s how iPhone apps get developed, eh? “Let’s be honest,” said Montgomery & Co.’s James Min, describing the burgeoning app developer marketplace as stoners who “want to write for the iPhone.” Min's Killer App