Emojis and PR – the good, the bad and the ugly - 17 Jul 2017

It's World Emoji Day ☺ Yes, those little smiley face emoticons are everywhere and a great way to make your marketing more Millennial-friendly. But beware, if not included in the Unicode Standard, there's no guarantee they will show up in all the communications you send out, writes Selina Sutton. Find out why she says decisions on emoji design should be made more inclusive and how you can have a say in the design of future emojis.

Off the back of the headline-dominating Bell Pottinger PR saga, Daniel Munslow questions whether it's time for Prisa to regulate the PR industry. An interesting point as the role of ethics in public relations has come into question, especially as regulation goes beyond ethics. Listen in to his interview with Hein Kaiser on MixFM 93.8 tomorrow at 7:15pm.

Sticking to the topic of PR, Dharmesh Nagar shares tips on weathering a #GuptaLeaks fallout. At the end of the day it's transparency, communication and a genuine effort to rectify any wrongs that prove themselves time and again as the most effective way to weather bad publicity.

Switching focus to the all-important market research industry, I chatted to Elna Pretorius, co-founder and director of Columinate. One of the most popular speakers at Samra 2017, Pretorius shares Columinate's plans to establish a multi-country digital research panel for Multichoice, especially important as Africa is increasingly seen as the ‘mobile-first' continent. Find out why she asks, “Who said surveys should be boring?”

On the event front it's another busy week with Mediatech Africa 2017 taking place later this week, and our Cannes Lions 2017 feedback sessions presented by our roving reporter Ann Nurock and a selection of this year's SA jurors, to be held in Johannesburg this week in conjunction with Cinemark - the sessions were sold out, but don't fret, as due to the huge demand, Ster-Kinekor has kindly moved these presentations to a larger cinema. This means there are now a few extra seats for both the 19th and 20th, so book now to avoid disappointment!