When the airwaves go digital, the media world as we know it will change forever. Is your brand ready?

On Feb. 16, 2009, the switch will flip, and TV's conversion from an analog to a digital signal will usher in a brave new consumer-centric media world. The already-fading concept of appointment media will give way to a future in which on-demand media is king.

"The final vestige of analog is about to die," said Mark Kvamme, general partner at Sequoia Capital. And when the airwaves go digital, the $165 billion advertising spend will splinter in ways never before seen.

During the Tuesday keynote session at iMedia's Brand Summit in Coronado, Calif., Kvamme provided a glimpse into 10 ways this phenomenon is already happening today. In doing so, he highlighted the technologies and techniques that marketers must embrace in order to deliver content and messages in the ways that newly empowered consumers will demand.

1. The information generation versus the attention generation

In short, Kvamme said, the future of media is no longer about delivering information when and where people want it. It's about getting their attention. And as new media players continue to proliferate, audiences are growing increasingly fragmented.

"The average person is going to go to five to seven websites on a regular basis, and you need to make sure you are one of those," he said. But even then, it's not that simple. Where content comes from and where consumers access it is changing rapidly.

2. Individual media versus the cloud

The server is in the sky. "All these different web services are going into the cloud," Kvamme said. "In the very near future, we will not describe media by how it is displayed or consumed or created." Media will no longer be defined by technology, but rather, by the consumer.

"You cannot say you are placing media in a newspaper," he said. "Instead, you create content, it goes out, and consumers decide how they will consume it." Kvamme provided Kindle, Amazon's wireless reading device, as a prime example of how content created for print media is being transformed and delivered to consumers in entirely new ways. 

3. Appointment media versus on-demand

In the future, only major sporting, awards and political events will be able to aggregate an audience at a specific time and date. Soon, marketers will lose control over the time, place and format of content consumption.

"I don't know what we're going to do around water coolers anymore," Kvamme said, noting that people will be consuming their favorite shows at the times most convenient for them rather than at the same time as everyone else. He provided online video service Hulu as a prime example of high-quality content that has been freed from the constraints of schedules.

4. Selling a product vs. selling an experience

"The experience is more important than the product itself," Kvamme said. And those who can create an enjoyable experience for their audiences will be rewarded with fierce loyalty and high levels of engagement.

As an example, Kvamme referenced Stardoll, a social network for pre-teen girls. As a part of the fashion-focused site, users can purchase digital clothes from their favorite brands, dress up the digital equivalent of a paper doll and share their outfits with their friends. As Kvamme pointed out, the value isn't in the digital clothes themselves -- it's in the brands' efforts to create an experience for members of this young customer base.

5. Price versus lifetime value
 
It's not about how much customers spend the first time they engage your brand. It's about how much they will spend as they continue to engage your brand, Kvamme said. And again, it all goes back to the experience that a brand creates for their customers. It only takes one bad online shopping experience for a brand to lose the entire lifetime value of a customer.

6. Intruders with taglines versus stewards of a conversation

The days of creating gargantuan marketing campaigns and then blasting them out to as many consumers as possible are over, Kvamme said. Instead, marketers must rely on consumers themselves to spread the word. And although marketers can't always dictate what consumers will be saying, they can facilitate the conversations. As an example, Kvamme cited social network Imeem, a site that enables friends to share music, videos and photos with each other. 

7. Renting content versus owning content

Although it can be challenging, marketers need to invest in creating or co-creating the content that their customers demand. As an example of a company that is getting it right, Kvamme pointed to Mahalo, which partnered with a guitar company to create content that provides fundamental how-to lessons for playing the guitar. "No matter where the content goes or how it is discovered, their brand is connected with it," he said. 

8. Programming guides versus search for programming

Search is changing, and consumers are demanding a more visually rich experience in their search results. Kvamme noted that new search engines, such as Searchme.com, are capitalizing on this demand by providing site views and enabling users to play videos within their search results pages. In addition, new visually rich search engines enable compelling brand advertisements to be presented within the search experience.

9. Standard ad units versus permission ad units

Consumers aren't just watching ads any more, Kvamme said. They're helping to create them. Brands stand to benefit when they engage their audiences and encourage them to participate in the process of creating content.

10. Old math versus new media

It's not just reach and frequency, it's also engagement. Marketers need to take a holistic view of their consumer interactions and strive to understand where their content is going and how people are interacting with it.

"We're in a brave new world, and you guys are the ones setting the pace," Kvamme said.

Lori Luechtefeld is editor of iMedia Connection.