The importance of listening to your audience - 2 May 2017

As we enter the fifth month of the year, join me in extending a warm welcome to our new editorial assistant Juanita Pienaar, who has settled into the role with feedback on the Amasa Speaker Series, which kicked off with a talk by BrandsEye's chief marketing officer, Nic Ray. Click through for insight into the importance of mining content from online conversations for sentiment and the topics driven by this sentiment.

Keeping things focused on listening to your audience, I chatted to Pierre Branco, vice president and general manager of Southern Europe and Africa for Turner to find out just how Cartoon Network is cornering kids' TV on any device. He explained children's evolving TV viewing habits, how Cartoon Network's offering has extended into the digital realm as a result of this ‘total consumption' trend, and its impact on advertisers.

In our latest #Newsmaker segment, Jessica Tennant pinned down Nicole Reitz-Chidrawi and Samantha Ferguson on Flint & Tinder's first year of event planning, organising and executing, as well as how their name signifies the soul of the business and their belief that there's never just one element responsible for making magic happen.

We also have insights from Added Value's Marilyn Dutlow Munga, Lyndsay Kelly and Alice Clapp on how health brands are using Instagram to become part of new cultural conversations, with seven examples of brands getting this right.

There hasn't been a better time to become more relevant to your audience!