Baby boomers led the U.S. out of a downturn in the last two recessions, but this time around, it will be Gen Xers and millennials paving the way to economic recovery, according to a new report issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers today.

via Gen X and Y Pave the Way to Economic Recovery.

Chevrolet is attempting to maximize its sponsorship of the South by Southwest conference later this month by announcing the integration of three social media technologies.

Chevy has partnered with Gowalla, a location-based social networking service, to allow attendees at the show check in and let friends and followers know where they are at any given moment.

via Chevy Goes Social for SXSW.

Four agencies have emerged as contenders in the CVS media review. In the hunt are two WPP entries: Mindshare and MediaCom; Omnicom’s OMD; and Interpublic Group’s Universal McCann, according to sources.

CVS spent more than $90 million in domestic measured media in each of the past two years, per Nielsen.

via CVS Eyes 4 Shops for $90 Mil. Media.

Jeff Dachis may have been ahead of his time. Back in February 2000, the then-Razorfish CEO sat down with 60 Minutes II and, in a moment he’d live to regret, struggled to answer correspondent Bob Simon’s simple question about what Razorfish actually did. “We’ve asked our clients to recontextualize their business,” he stammered.

via Digital Agencies Get Back to Business.

Ford is looking to ramp up brand consideration for the upcoming launch of its Fiesta 2011 small car with the second phase of a social media campaign launching this month.

The automaker has sent out 40 “agents” — each in teams of two — to spread the word about the Fiesta in major markets such as Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco and Dallas. Those agents — selected via a nomination process that drew more than 1,000 applicants — are tasked with tweeting and promoting the Fiesta virally via a series of online and local challenges assigned by Ford.

via Ford ‘Agents’ Hit the Road.

Cathay Pacific Airways is making a major effort to expand its global brand.

The push, unveiled this week by Cathay Pacific Central Team, housed within McCann Erickson, was more than six months in the making and marks some of the client’s most integrated work to date.

via Cathay Pacific Launches Integrated Push.

Microsoft found a potent way to make friends on Facebook: offer users of hyper-popular social game FarmVille virtual currency. The in-game offer on Tuesday resulted in Microsoft’s Bing page gaining 425,000 fans in a single day, more than tripling the 117,000 fans it had. The program, created by digital agency Deep Focus and brand engagement network Social Vibe, shows the potency of the exploding world of social gaming, fueled by currency that lets players buy virtual items. Zynga’s FarmVille is a runaway smash on Facebook, boasting over 82 million players who tend crops and raise livestock on virtual farms.

via Bing’s Virtual Bling Buys Facebook Fans.

Chris Anderson has seen the future of magazines — and it’s on a tablet.

In an address at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Transformation Conference in San Francisco today, Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, extolled the possibilities for the magazine industry via Apple’s iPad and other future tablet-computer platforms.

Wired staffers have been working to create a tablet version of the title for six months, with the goal of having it ready in May.

via 4A’s: ‘Wired’ Chief Says iPad Will Rescue Magazines.

Webtrends Analytics for FacebookWebtrends Analytics for FacebookThis morning we announced a totally revolutionary Facebook tool that uses Analytics 9 to peer inside Facebook to make comprehensive measurement of social media marketing efforts on the world’s most visited Internet site!

With Webtrends’ Facebook tracking, marketers can now view detailed Facebook engagement data alongside the other digital marketing investments that can be tracked in Analytics 9. Combined with built-in RSS overlay capabilities, the impact of promotional efforts in every channel is easily discoverable. This makes Analytics 9 the most complete measurement of Facebook available.

via Revolutionary New Facebook Tab Measurement from Webtrends | Official Webtrends Company Blog.

Along with the news of joining the Aarra roster, SilkTricky is also releasing their latest “transmedia” interactive experience called Bank Run.

Bank Run is the combination of a unique online interactive experience plus iPhone game.

There are two parts to Bank Run.

via SilkTricky : Bank Run iPhone Game + Interactive Movie | Aarra : Interactive.

We are very excited to announce that SilkTricky has signed with Aarra for U.S. interactive representation.

SilkTricky is a Portland, Oregon based agency specializing in Enteractivity: that sweet spot where interactive and entertainment meet. Their focus is integrated production, combining motion, live-action, flash, interactive design and development.

Those are not just idle words. They back it up with original productions like Bank Run, which is an iPhone game that is integrated with an interactive movie to form a whole new level of enteractivity. Bank Run was written, shot, designed and produced in-house. Prior to Bank Run, SilkTricky, wrote, directed and produced The Outbreak, a choose-your-own-adventure interactive horror film.

The company is guided by Lynn Lund, EP; Chris Lund, ECD; and Noah Costello, Interactive Director. They’ve worked with a myriad list of brands such as Nike, Old Spice, Coca-Cola, Lexus, New Castle, and Red Bull.

If Noah and Chris sound familiar, they should. They were the co-founders of Mindflood, which was the wildly successful interactive design company of yesteryear. The team shut down Mindflood in 2007 to pursue personal projects.

You can check out all the work via their site here and I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about them in coming months.

via SilkTricky signs with Aarra | Aarra : Interactive.

The Martin Agency has landed creative duties on Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol after a review, ending Deutsch’s six-plus years on the brand, sources said.

Tylenol’s major media spending totaled $145 million last year, according to Nielsen. That figure does not include online spending.

Tylenol Moves Creative to Martin Agency.

Yahoo and Twitter have inked a deal to have Twitter’s real-time updates embedded throughout the Yahoo portal, with feeds appearing on several Yahoo properties.

The agreement follows Twitter’s deals with Microsoft and Google to integrate tweets into their search engines. The Yahoo deal covers search but goes further to include embedding status updates in Yahoo verticals, including sports, news, entertainment and finance. Users visiting those pages will be able to update Twitter with their comments, see what others on Twitter are saying about the stories and even monitor comments being made in their networks.

via Yahoo Links With Twitter.