Bell Pottinger expelled, on sale - 11 Sep 2017

Shortly after the announcement of Bell Pottinger UK CEO James Henderson's resignation, the PR firm has since been expelled from the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) for at least five years. The regulator showed no mercy, imposing the harshest sanction in the industry's history. Rebecca Davis from the Daily Maverick fact-checked a number of assertions contained in the Herbert Smith Freehills review as commissioned by the firm into its work on the Gupta account, while Paula Keaveney from Edge Hill University, in her article on The Conversation, shares her views on how the PR giant made itself look bad and questions whether all publicity is still good publicity.

Juanita Pienaar wraps up our coverage of this year's Pamro Conference, by interviewing marketing research innovator Mike Broom, who explains why most quantitative research is based on questionable assumptions and practices and is resultantly inefficient and wasteful. In his paper, he proposes a new method of measurement that can help with evidence-based decision-making in the process of both creating and deploying advertising.

We also still have some post-Loeries articles feeding through, until the Loeries Official Rankings are released next month, when we'll find out who's who in the brand communications industry across Africa and the Middle East. Leigh Andrews interviewed Charbel Aouad, executive producer and co-founder at Stoked in Dubai, the production company behind the award-winning Camelpower campaign, as well as Thabang ‘TipiDang' Manyelo, the other recipient of this year's Young Creative Award, who shares his plans to 'Netflix the ad industry' and why winning this award is just the starter's gun, not the finish line.

For more of this sort of content, keep an eye on our #InnovationMonth special section throughout the month of September.

Here's to a disruptive week, in the positive sense of the word.