[TrendTalk] The Pope, The Donald and memes

[Louise Burgers] In societal terms, memes are a cultural construct for the transmission of ideas. Social media has distilled memes down to a way of slaughtering holy cows and popularising a central theme or ideas...

Fun with a glittering capital F

[Daniel Dercksen] Dragging 30 is a fabulous fresh burst of energy for theatre goers at the new Kalk Bay Theatre, where women are women, and men frock up.

The township talk: getting to know your consumers

[Leigh Andrews] With its founder going so far as to state the LSM isn't being used correctly, how do you get to know your consumers based in the townships? By holding daily, meaningful conversations with them, says Brands Laduma CEO Peter du Toit...

Marooned on Mars

[Daniel Dercksen] Extreme solitude tests human endurance in The Martian, with Matt Damon as an astronaut who becomes a spaced-out Robinson Crusoe on Mars when his crew leaves him behind for dead.

How to save your business from difficult customers

[Aki Kalliatakis] No business has the right to brazenly and publicly offend customers just because of their religion, nationality, or skin colour. There are always consequences to your business with this extreme behaviour...

The right way to deal with teenage pregnancies

[Catherine van Schoor] A recent article decried the dilemma of teenage pregnancy in South Africa. The article apportioned blame to the fact that schools don't teach the Bible...

Proper English theatre at its finest

[Daniel Dercksen] The National Theatre's raucous Restoration Comedy The Beaux' Stratagem gives cinema-goers a wonderful opportunity of experiencing the best of English theatre at Cinema Nouveau cinemas...

Traditional brand building in the modern times

[Musa Msane] Growing up in the 80s, both in the rural and later in the township environment, Unilever used to treat us to free bioskop sessions at local shops where we watched the brilliant washing performances of Omo or Surf washing powder...

'Smooothing' into the new Tropika tagline

[Leigh Andrews] "When I eat a pie I'm Gloria, when I eat a pie with Tropika I'm Glorioussss!" You either love it or hate it - whatever the case, the new Tropika ads are certainly being noticed...

Strong brands, discounted remuneration

[Johnny Johnson] In the preface of his book, 4D Branding, Thomas Gad, founder of Futurebrands.com makes the following claim: Today, brands are not the preserve of the marketing department...

Bittereinder till the death

[Ruth Cooper] Today sees the release of Bittereinder's latest album, 'Dans Tot Die Dood'. We swung a few questions to vocalist and one-third of the band Jaco van der Merwe to find out more.

Simplifying the cost of complexity in manufacturing

[Nadia Rawjee] I attended a great session recently on the cost of complexity in manufacturing, hosted by GIBBS and presented by Andre de Ruyter, the CEO of Nampak...

The rise of the chief data officer

[Sumash Singh] The new digital landscape is reshaping IT roles. With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), a sea of potential social network information...

12 tips for landing a job in digital

[Jana Krige] Working in digital offers creative minds the best possible balance of work and play - not only because of the innovative nature of the industry, but also because of the laid back culture that surrounds it...

Social media marketing and the multicultural audience

[Ian Henderson] Our increasing reliance on digital media has eradicated geographical boundaries, allowing millions of people to communicate, share ideas and access a wealth of information...

Energy efficiency wins for hospitality industry

[Neil Cameron] In the hospitality industry where room occupancy rates directly correlate with profitability, it's hard to put a cap on energy use...