Highlights from this week's Billboard and Adweek Music & Advertising Conference:

Live [Tweets] At Music & Advertising

Cottrill [converse cmo]: "done a lot of research to see if a 50 yr old wearing [chuck taylors] offends a 16 yr old wearing them. It just doesn't."

Converse "flipping our marketing model. Less big campaigns. More local stuff, stuff that gets closer to the artists," says Cottrill.

Music & Advertising Keynote: Translation's Steve Stoute

"We just signed Lady GaGa, and we're treating her like a brand. We're treating her exactly like we treat Samsung, like we treat Target. We're treating her exactly the same way, building her brand story, finding the right partnerships, etc. So we're turning the model around differently. We always represent the brands, but now we're actually going to represent the artist as brand, which is new and exciting for the company."

Secrets of Agency Music Producers & Supervisors

Against the backdrop of a decline in advertising dollars, creative content firms are just one casualty among many. "We've never been busier and never made less money," Marc Altshuler, managing partner, Human, says about the company's ability to function in the current economic climate. The idea is to be the last man standing when the money starts coming in again. All panelists agreed that it is just a matter of maintaining relationships while weathering the storm.

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