Wooing the market

[John Roberts] There can be few people who doubt the residential property market currently favours buyers and that sellers, faced with extensive competition from alternative options, must do everything possible to present their homes in the most appealing fashion.

Is tech good or bad for work-life balance?

[Joanne Bushell] The number of mobile internet devices is set to outnumber humans by the end of this year.¹ There'll be more smartphones and internet-connected tablets and monitors than there are people on the planet.

Put comfort and gratification into your event

Selling solutions at the BOP: Does marketing matter?

[Danielle Jaffit] Marketers are sometimes deemed as superficial and non-essential, value-adds to a business. Maybe its time to evaluate what marketing is at its core, designed to achieve, specifically when looking at selling solutions at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP).

The future of category management

The practical implementation of real PR measurement... - Ornico

[Francois van Dyk] A global public relations measurement survey done in March 2013 by US-based Ragan Communications and NASDAQ OMX showed an industry that was serious about tackling the problem of accurately measuring the value of public relations.

Passing the bus

[Chris Barry] In respect of the Johannesburg bus rapid transit (BRT) system, could someone please inform the public as to what is actually going on?

When it comes to security, size doesn't matter

[Doros Hadjizenonos] IT security has no respect for size. A hacking group can have hundreds or thousands of members globally, like anonymous, or just a handful, like the group that mounted the successful Eurograbber attacks against banks in 2012 - but in either case, the disruption to the target organisations is equally severe.

Would the real copywriter please stand up?

[Dylan Balkind] In a world of SEO (dead or not) and the immediacy of content-to-consumer needed, there seems to be more copy needed than copywriters out there. Never fear, for an article titled How to get high-performance sales copy without hiring a copywriter hit the blogosphere recently.

Confessions of a privileged lawyer

[Prof Owen Dean] I have a confession to make. I plead guilty as charged. I admit that I am a white male establishment lawyer. I practised for 35 years as a partner of a prominent attorneys firm specialising in the field of intellectual property law (IP). Thereafter, upon retirement, I became a professor of IP Law.

What does the law say about traditional healers?

[Lia Marus] For many years, traditional healers have been looked at very sceptically by many of those who do not visit these practitioners for health-related ailments. However, recent cases which have passed through our courts have left many employers wondering if they now need to accept sick notes from traditional healers.

Aligning paid, earned and owned media for better returns

[Chanel MacKay] Once-discrete marketing disciplines are rapidly converging. That means agencies, media planners and marketers need to reassess the way they think about their digital media strategies if they are to achieve a superior return on investment from their spending.

[BizCareers] Dealing with a glass ceiling and a curriculum mess

[Juliette Attwell] These are the two questions we've brought to light this week. Both are important aspects to take into consideration should you decide to leave your current role and explore greener pastures. Is your CV a complete masterpiece or a complete mess?

Killing Them Softly

How Gmail's new inbox is changing the game for marketers

[Gerhard Jacobs] Email is unlike other forms of mass media in the sense that, even with the privacy settings we have on social media, email remains yours and yours alone.

Mobile social video - the 'next big thing'?

[Desiree Gullan] Everyone's constantly on the lookout for the 'next big thing' in social media, and Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo believes the micro-blogging site has found it in the form of social video sharing - and he may be right on the money.

The really real reasons Omnicom and Publicis are merging

[Justin McCarthy] Advertising dollars follow attention, always have, always will, irrespective of which channels the audiences can be found in.

A sense of belonging - bite-size lessons from the Big Apple - Off the Shelf marketing

Brooklyn bridge information signboard

You need to create to be the best

[Katlego Ledimo] Working life steps in and everything is about creating, adding value and originality, things that school did not really glorify.

There's a Disconnect