We have some exciting company news this week! Our very own editor-in-chief: Marketing & Media SA, Leigh Andrews is in the running for the Women in Marketing (WIM) Journalist of the Year Award. She's the first and only South African to be shortlisted for the Awards, so we are incredibly proud!

Last week's top headlines:

• The 2017 Pendoring Awards took place on Friday night, rewarding work with local insights that showcase the richness and versatility of our mother tongues. View our winners release here. Prior to the Awards, Andrews interviewed Carl Willoughby, ECD at OpenCo, who let us in on the essence of this year's Pendoring campaign.
  
• The MMA EMEA Smarties 2017 winners were announced. We're attending the South African finals this week, so keep an eye out for our coverage.
  
• Andrews covered the "egg-and-chicken race" of the #GalliovaAwards2017.
  
• And Danette Breitenbach attended Ask Afrika's Orange Index Awards, which highlighted the need for increased focus on building real relationships with customers.

In case you missed it...

• I interviewed the founders of Kingdom, Donna Mathews and Herman Wallis, on the agency startup that applies a triple-win philosophy and adopts a results-only work environment (ROWE) strategy, saving costs for both company and client, and believing that flexibility and productivity go hand in hand.
  
• Last week's #Newsmakers were Sarah Buitendach and Vuyo Singiswa of Tiso Blackstar Group, who recently won a Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Award in the Presentation category for the 2016 Financial Mail covers they worked on together.
  
• And Andrews got #BehindtheSelfie with Bailey Schneider - radio presenter at Smile 90.4 FM, TV presenter, voice-over artist, MC and blogger.
  
• Andrews also chatted to Mxolisi Evan Tyawa, co-founder of O'Brian, who lets us in on the agency's highlights over the last 20 years.
  
• As well as Tessa van Staden, programming manager at CapeTalk, who talks us through the first two decades on air for the only talk radio station on the AM frequency and how they're moving with the digital times.
  
• Juanita Pienaar and Wimpy's managing executive Molla Bonnet reminisce about the brand's past campaigns as it celebrates its 50th birthday.
  
• Pienaar also chatted to Nick Grubb, Kagiso Media Radio CE, on Kagiso Media's SoundBar about what differentiates it from similar apps on the market.
  
• Continuing with our Business of Design coverage, I shared Lauren Woolf aka Mrs Woolf's career experiences that led her ask, 'Are advertising agencies the cobbler's children?'. She endeavoured to answer this in her MBA thesis, the key findings, problems and implications of which I'll share in part two of the series later this week.

That's October for you. For an overview of our Entrepreneurship Month articles, go to the special section, and keep up to date on the latest #LoeriesRankings. Also click through to our annual Focus on Shopper Marketing trend report, curated by Louise Marsland and published last week.

Phew, what a month! Here's to November!

Jessica Tennant
Editor: Marketing & Media SA

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