My last entry observed that, in an ironic twist, one of the benefits of niche marketing is that the niche becomes the marketers. It's a one-two punch: Marketers have better tools than ever before to reach and motivate very specific groups of consumers. But what's really big is that those consumers, then, actively extend the marketer's message. And they have a whole lot of ways to do it.

A vivid example is the emergence of self-made advertisers, first ignored, then shunned, now embraced by smart marketers.

We've all heard about (and probably seen) the Mentos/Diet Coke "spot" on Revver.com, which Mentos found hard to ignore with 5.5 million viewings. So they jumped on board, buying ads on the site and publicizing the video.

Sony takes the phenomenon a step further by inviting people to create ads for a new line of televisions. Those ads will live on the internet, and maybe outside it. They could be seen by millions.

I said at the outset that the niche markets the message. True, but it also makes its own. The critical truth is that marketers don't control the message anymore. They can only actively lead it. That's a huge shift in mindset and in reality that will define marketing from here forward.

And it's a shift that PR people should navigate easily: We have always recognized and leveraged dialogue with the consumer, and we are used to having less than 100 percent control over how messages are heard, communicated and understood.

Will we take the lead in counseling our clients on how to embrace this marketing shift, or will we wait for their other marketing partners to do it?