[Edward Fisher] Nando's has always been agile and, as technology enhances the turnarounds on production time, it has become even better at flighting ads in the immediate wake of the people and events that it satirises. But here comes the real rub... (pun unintentional...) Santam, on Tuesday, 24 April 2012, has responded to Nando's parody with its own [video].
24 Apr 2012 14:49
[Anton Crone] Have you seen any good motorcycle or bicycle advertising lately? If the golden pencil is your carrot and you want to be a part of something significant, here's an opportunity. Instead of begging insignificant corner shops to let you do "award-winning" advertising for them, go after the many motorcycle and bicycle brands out there and effect real change through great advertising.
24 Apr 2012 13:54
[Herman Manson] Zando, a new online fashion ecommerce play funded by Germany-based Rocket Internet, launched three months ago and is literally aiming to rocket through the online retail market to be in the same league like services such as Kalahari.net and Takelot.com.
24 Apr 2012 10:35
[Tiffany Markman] Let's say you're new to Twitter. Okay - no-one who reads Bizcommunity is new to Twitter. Let's say you've been on Twitter a while and you mostly love it, but you have minor reservations about a) its time-wasting potential, b) its actual value to your brand, or c) when and whether to distance yourself from your fellow tweeps.
23 Apr 2012 14:02
[Herman Manson] One year on and
140 BBDO, the agency formerly known as
Net#work BBDO Cape Town, has found that its identity change and internal organisational behaviour shift is paying dividends. Of the three pitches it undertook in 2011, it won the two in which it was the incumbent and then scored one of the biggest accounts in Cape Town when it bagged the third in Metropolitan.
20 Apr 2012 13:10
[Eugene Yiga] 2011 was the year of the protester. But instead of discussing the bored trustafarians who 'occupied' the world lest they be denied something for the first time in their lives, I'd like to focus on the
Arab Spring. How did it happen? And what can we as marketers learn?
13 Apr 2012 09:39
[Herman Manson] Cell C has put its
new agency appointments, which was formally announced to the media and industry on 10 February 2012, under review. Cell C had announced the appointment of FoxP2, King James, Prima Plus and Trigger/Isobar as its ad agencies.
13 Apr 2012 09:31
[Chris Moerdyk] I always find it amusing when a national furore is created by a sporting body's decision to source clothing and equipment overseas. Like our official sports confederation and Olympic Games body, SASCOC, did a few weeks ago when it announced that our Olympic Games kit would be supplied from China.
11 Apr 2012 12:31
[Naseem Javed] Why is Facebook on its way to become a US$100 billion dollar enterprise? Because the corporate world is very comfortable with 'predictability-driven marketing' surrounded by 'search-based social media', expects 'click-based' returns on investments and believes in 247/365 multidirectional expansion while rest of the world loves the freedom to engage online.
11 Apr 2012 12:06
[Sarah Britten] "Great ideas don't keep office hours," as the ad for Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank used to say. It flighted at around the time I arrived at Hunts some time in the Precambrian, but the insight is just as valid today. Great ideas really don't keep office hours, which causes havoc with timesheets.
10 Apr 2012 12:14[Chris Moerdyk] A few years ago I calculated that, every year in South Africa, roughly R50 billion was wasted on ill-conceived or just plain bad marketing. So, have things improved? Is marketing still efficient or continuing to shed money as though there was no tomorrow?
5 Apr 2012 11:33 
[Tebogo Koena] Being in the brand-building business myself and often hearing artists refer to themselves as "brands", it makes me wonder if we truly grasp the subject matter of brands and how branding works. Being inspired by a track or an artist is one thing; using international tracks twice in a row to raise awareness and influence change in behaviour on local issues for local benefit is another. [video]
4 Apr 2012 12:14
[Mandy de Waal] The
Sunday Times is getting fat and dominates the Sunday print market, but that doesn't mean it can become complacent. Media24 knows a thing or two about the online space, and it has the resources to give Avusa a wake-up call.
3 Apr 2012 09:56
[Gillian Rightford] Much has been written about the relationship between Michael Jackson and his doctor, Conrad Murray. And haven't we also been wondering whether Whitney Houston's doctor will go under the same microscope? This got me thinking about the sometimes-dysfunctional relationship that exists between marketers and ad agencies.
30 Mar 2012 13:54
[Herman Manson] Trying to see the upside, Claire Cobbledick, MD of
The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town), says the loss of the
Woolworths business has presented the agency with an opportunity, and will hopefully allow it to more liberty and freedom in its offering and in how the business is managed. "It's our year for living dangerously," says Cobbledick. She hopes the result will reinvigorate the agency.
29 Mar 2012 15:02
[Matt Rose] Considering the amount of texting we do today, emoticons have 'exploded' and, whether used in Skype, BBM, SMS or WhatsApp, they have become a distinct style of expression and form a vital part of casual/digital vernacular punctuation. But what are the implications of these obscure little visages for marketers?
29 Mar 2012 14:04
[Charisse Nel] I hate the word "advertising". Whenever I am at a social event and someone asks what I do, I mumble something about working in an advertising agency and hope I don't get the usual barrage of judging looks and comments about working for an evil team of brainwashers. Somewhere along the way, advertising lost its allure, its sense of glamour and its credibility as a service that solved business problems.
29 Mar 2012 12:41
[Sarah Britten] If Helen Zille is so marketing savvy, why is she making so many glaring tactical errors? The "refugee" tweet debacle is just the latest example. The DA's communications strategy team must surely be aware of where it's going wrong, but if it isn't, here are a few pointers.
27 Mar 2012 12:09
[Herman Manson] Young talent from disadvantaged backgrounds, given a hand up and gaining real commercial experience so as to make them attractive in a competitive job market. This is the aim of three old(er) hands in advertising with a new Cape-Town based commercial venture, Old Friends Young Talent (OFyt), that hopes to help transform the ad industry from the bottom up.
22 Mar 2012 10:20
[trigger/isobar goes to SxSW] Karin Botta: Digital marketing is a lot more than an entertaining Facebook tab, some cute tweets, or a campaign that relies solely on user-generated content. It's more dynamic, involves real people, but mostly needs to be as simple as possible. It was this, and the next five ideas, that had the biggest impact upon me during my time at
SxSW in Austin last week.
20 Mar 2012 14:54
[Mongezi Mtati] To date, there are two brands in particular, Absolut and Nike, which have hit the ground running when it comes to going beyond a social media presence and influencer engagement, making it difficult for challenger brands to catch up and maintain the pace. A third brand, Carling Black Label, did phenomenally last year by focusing less on social media and more on influencers [video].
20 Mar 2012 11:55
[Godfrey Parkin] Since a critical mass of senior executives were given iPads for Christmas, even the most previously technophobic of business leaders are demanding that digital marketing be taken seriously. This is a blessing and a curse - we see a lot of overnight app-happiness driving silly projects ahead of important initiatives. But at last the momentum is building and companies are striving to connect with customers in the digital places where they hang out.
16 Mar 2012 14:25[Naseem Javed] South African organisations must face the new emerging globalisation of domain names as ICANN gTLDs become a reality and equally balance with non-English language domains available for the local and regional markets. The issues of domain name management are now very complex, expensive and, at times, may dictate the future of the name brand.
14 Mar 2012 13:12 
[Maja Rode] Kony 2012 has undoubtedly become one of the most successful social media-driven marketing campaigns to date, primarily because the public doesn't seem to look at it as a marketing campaign at all. If brands and their causes really do want to compete with Kony 2012, they will have to bear a few important things in mind.
14 Mar 2012 11:12
[Nishan Singh] In light of the online shopping trend, intellectual property proprietors face new challenges with the enforcement of their rights against new forms of unauthorised use across millions of websites, in multiple languages and domains. Enforcement of rights is costly and difficult in the online environment, so companies are advised to implement methods of proactively deterring infringement before it occurs.
13 Mar 2012 14:05
[Lindsay Grubb] What you're putting out there gives us a window into your world and helps us form ideas and opinions about you. These might form differently if we were meeting with you in person, but when all we've got to go on is our potential "victims" last 10 tweets or likes or shares, it is this "first impression" that lasts.
13 Mar 2012 12:46
[Tiffany Markman] Oy vey. What a can of worms. In
part I, I raised the question of whether FNB's lofty promises, delivered via the chirpy 'Steve', were empty. I did so, as you know, publicly. And I learned two very important things. Here they are:
12 Mar 2012 10:14
[Wayne Naidoo] Significant milestones have been achieved in the past 10 years of working to transform the advertising profession, and these should be celebrated. However, it is agreed that South Africans now understand that transformation is a multidimensional process - getting the 'numbers' right in terms of equity is only but one step.
9 Mar 2012 13:50
[Mike Silver] In days gone by, the university student was viewed as a dreamer. Their jovial and carefree existence was juxtaposed with
real adult life of taxes, mortgages and in-laws. Until only recently, brands looked at them with a similar disdain. In recent times, though, businesses have been schooled that maybe it's time to take their studies into the student market a little more seriously.
8 Mar 2012 14:52[Sarah Britten] Do you have a favourite example of how marketing can have a positive impact on the world? I never hesitate when I'm asked that question: the Outsurance pointspeople. Social good meets brand awareness and affinity: it's a win-win situation.
7 Mar 2012 14:51 
Angola
Botswana
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Cote D'Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Kenya
Uganda
Tanzania
Mauritius
Seychelles
Algeria
Egypt
Morocco
Zambia
