 Acceleration's second Digital Ignition Symposium kicked off last week in Franshhoek on 4 and 5 June. The event, hosted at Le Franschhoek Hotel and Spa near Cape Town, brought together a range of quality speakers and delegates, both local and international. 13 Jun 2013 Read more >>
Acceleration has confirmed a strong final line-up of local and international speakers for its second Digital Ignition Symposium, to be hosted at Le Franschhoek Hotel and Spa near Cape Town from 4 to 5 June. The event is backed by sponsors Adobe and ExactTarget. 28 May 2013 Read more >>
Time is running out to secure your place at Acceleration's second Digital Ignition Symposium, one of the top conferences on the digital marketing calendar. 17 May 2013 Read more >>
Who would have thought something as small as tagging web sites would grow so quickly into one of the biggest headaches digital marketers face today? Tag management has emerged as a major operational issue for nearly any company with a large web presence over the past couple of years. 9 Apr 2013 Read more >>
If there's one word that will be the key for the year in marketing, it is "data". The reason for this is simple: budgets are tight, competition is fierce, and companies will want to use accurate information to benchmark return on investment (ROI) and value for money in their marketing spend. Here are five trends I expect to shape the market in 2013. 9 Jan 2013 Read more >>
For the past decade, publishers have been under siege. The Web has fragmented their traditional markets, broken their traditional business models and made their landscape even more competitive than it was before. 12 Dec 2012 Read more >>
Email is still one of the most important and widely-used communications channels that marketers have at their disposal, but the way that many organisations use it is still surprisingly unrefined. Nowhere is this clearer than in the lack of attention many marketers pay to the mobile device as a channel for email marketing. 15 Nov 2012 Read more >>
Companies that want to position themselves to drive business value from digital marketing must start working towards mastering the discipline of remarketing or risk getting left behind by nimbler rivals. 30 Oct 2012 Read more >>
Remarketing has emerged as one of the most important disciplines for marketers to master if they are to optimise their digital marketing spent. This tactic allows marketers to focus much of their energy and budgets on customers who are more likely to convert by serving them with content that is relevant to their interests and behaviour. 19 Oct 2012 Read more >>
Marketers are starting to drown in data, from a range of customer databases and touch points. Not only are they able to tap into their own marketing systems (including CRM, email, Web analytics, and more) for data but they can also leverage data from a range of third-party sources for insight into their customers. 4 Oct 2012 Read more >>
Companies that want to invest in mobile marketing and advertising face a range of complicated trade-offs as they try to define their strategies and decide where to allocate their limited budgets in a market that is fragmented and still fairly immature. 29 Aug 2012 Read more >>
Marketers are increasingly moving away from buying digital ad placements but rather moving towards buying opportunities to engage against a specific audience in real time. 8 Aug 2012 Read more >>
WPP Digital announced that they have secured a majority stake in Acceleration, the leading marketing technology services and solutions company. Founded in 1999, Acceleration has offices in London, New York, Dubai, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires and Cape Town and employs over 150 marketing technologists. Acceleration will operate as a standalone business within WPP Digital. 26 Jul 2012 Read more >>
Your customers today seamlessly move between a range of electronic channels, engaging with your business through social media, display ads, search, email and many other points of contact as they go. If your business can't keep up with them, you are by no means alone. 29 May 2012 Read more >>
Data about customers is perhaps one of the most fiercely contested and important resources in today's marketing environment. Everyone wants it, customers are wary of sharing it, and yet few marketers are really using it to its full potential. 16 May 2012 Read more >>
Companies need to tie social media measurement to business metrics that really matter to their organisations rather than getting caught up in buzzwords such as 'engagement', 'sentiment' and 'reach'. That's the word from Richard Mullins, director at Acceleration. 30 Mar 2012 Read more >>
Facebook's upcoming initial public offering has generated massive buzz, with the social networking company expected to raise billions of dollars in its Wall Street debut. The real value of Facebook does not lie in its intellectual property or technology infrastructure or brand - impressive as those are - but in the reams of rich data it has collected about users over the past few years. 15 Mar 2012 Read more >>
Most publishers are struggling to monetise their online operations in a world where advertising revenues are under pressure and audiences remain reluctant to pay for content. 28 Feb 2012 Read more >>
With the availability of Adobe SocialAnalytics, powered by Omniture, marketers finally have a simple and powerful way to measure the impact of social media on their business performance. 16 Feb 2012 Read more >>
Nearly any organisation can integrate social media into its business in a way that engages the audience and delivers measurable value. But to do so, you need to have a clear roadmap that will help you navigate the technical and business issues you will face as well as to make the most of the resources you have available. Here is an eight-step plan that will help you on the journey. 8 Feb 2012 Read more >>
Now that South African marketers have become more comfortable with digital marketing, they are beginning to ask themselves and their agency partners some important questions. What value am I getting for my spend? How do I get more, so that I can deliver more value, compete more effectively and improve conversion? 7 Nov 2011 Read more >>
Smartphone adoption is accelerating in South Africa and the rest of the world. This is good news for digital marketers since it will bring more of our customers online in the next few years and give us more ways to reach and interact with those who are already online with Internet-connected PCs. 10 Oct 2011 Read more >>
Publishers used to be the ones in the online space who controlled and understood data - perhaps the most important commodity they have to sell to their advertisers. This is no longer the case, a change which has profound implications for publishers as they try to monetise their content over the next few years. 19 Aug 2011 Read more >>
Many South African companies starting to come to grips with the realities of online and the opportunities it has to offer. The challenge is understanding the value that it can deliver for their businesses and how they can capitalise on the opportunities available. 11 Aug 2011 Read more >>
Marketers around the world are moving towards a better, more formal understanding of their marketing architecture - in other words, how marketing processes and technologies such as Web analytics, customer relationship management, ad-serving, email, search and electronic commerce all fit together. 23 Jun 2011 Read more >>
Adobe Omniture has awarded its first "Best Professional Services Award" for the EMEA region to South African-born digital marketing solutions firm Acceleration. 14 Jun 2011 Read more >>
Over past 10 years, marketers have seen the complexity of digital marketing technology grow exponentially. The toolset they use continues to expand constantly, with new technologies added in an ad-hoc manner as their business needs and the environment change. 27 May 2011 Read more >>
Behavioural targeting is set to take off in South Africa as companies look to the technology to help them drive better return on investment from their online marketing spend. 13 May 2011 Read more >>
Can there be any commodity more precious to an online marketer today than data? This resource is already valuable for those that know how to effectively exploit it and its value is set to grow even more over the next three years. 12 May 2011 Read more >>
Many marketers are obsessed with the content of their campaigns and their websites, and rightly so. A well-crafted message and intelligently structured information are essential to winning and retaining customers when you're advertising and trading online. 11 May 2011 Read more >>
Over the past few years, social media has ballooned from a small, emerging market into a major force in the online marketing and advertising space. However, those who lived through the dotcom boom-and-bust cycle can't help asking whether we are about to see another bubble burst. 10 May 2011 Read more >>
South Africa's online industry looks set for another year of healthy growth during 2011. The year is likely to be all about the continued maturing of the country's online industry as marketers and publishers refine their digital strategies and extend their use of existing technologies. 6 Jan 2011 Read more >>
We've all heard the big numbers: there are more than 4.6 billion mobile phones in the world, many countries have more cellphones than people and there will be more smartphones than PCs in most countries by 2013. 1 Nov 2010 Read more >>
Many marketers and agencies struggle to define rich media during an ad buy, simply describing it as any format that allows for interaction with the end-user. Or they'll simply think of an ad that makes use of streaming video or Flash to present a message to the user. 15 Oct 2010 Read more >>
Most marketers are content with the functionality offered by basic web analytics tools such as Google Analytics when they first start experimenting with the online medium. As their use of online advertising and marketing channels ramps up, they however begin to thirst for more and more data as well as for the tools to they need analyse it. 10 Aug 2010 Read more >>
Cloud computing is one of those IT buzz phrases that you may think means nothing to you as a marketer. In reality, cloud computing can help you to leverage marketing automation technology at a low cost, roll it out quickly and start experiencing its benefits within weeks. 21 Jul 2010 Read more >>
Too many marketers still think of digital marketing as a different world to offline marketing. Those that still treat the online world as a separate silo to their traditional marketing campaigns and strategies will not reap the full return on investment they should be getting from their marketing spending. 19 Jul 2010 Read more >>
Many South African advertising agencies are still struggling to bridge their own digital divide: a gap between their online skills and offerings and the changing needs of the market. 6 May 2010 Read more >>
Over the past few years, a number of new pricing models have come to the fore for online advertising as publishers and advertisers alike strive to take advantage of the medium's intrinsic measurability. 3 May 2010 Read more >>
Mobile marketing has been the subject of a great deal of hype for a number of years, but it has yet to really catch fire among South African marketers as a new channel for reaching their customers. 29 Mar 2010 Read more >>
At a time when marketing budgets are under more scrutiny than ever, it's good to know that your existing assets can make more money for your company. One of these is the relatively untapped resource of integrated digital marketing data. 10 Mar 2010 Read more >>
The data integration tools and technologies available for digital marketing applications have advanced at such a rapid rate that marketers can no longer afford to ignore their potential, writes Richard Mullins, Managing Director at Acceleration. 16 Feb 2010 Read more >>
Advertisers and publishers should be adopting rich media more aggressively to get the best returns from their online investments. 3 Dec 2009 Read more >>
The recent launch of the Seacom undersea telecom cable signals the start of a fundamental shift in the South African Internet market that will bring along with it a wealth of new opportunities for online advertisers and publishers. 30 Oct 2009 Read more >>
Marketers are fighting to find balance between their digital marketing campaigns, developing content and managing their customers. Richard Mullins, director at Acceleration, looks at some of the obstacles and opportunities that marketers face as well as looking at simple ways to ensure their emails and campaigns reach their customers. 7 Oct 2009 Read more >>
With the launch of its rebranded search engine, Bing, Microsoft has signalled that it is going to keep fighting Google for a larger share of the global search market. Just a few short weeks after the launch of Bing, Microsoft already appears to be making some inroads against Google. 20 Aug 2009 Read more >>
Acceleration, a global provider of consulting, outsourcing, on-demand marketing technology and services, has completed the roll-out of a new strategic plan ensuring the company is in a position to take full advantage of current client and partner demand. Whilst keeping abreast of changes in the digital marketing arena, the transition will see Acceleration increase its focus on consulting and services, add new offices around the world and make key senior appointments to support the new strategy. 12 Aug 2009 Read more >>
South African companies that want to drive the best results from their email marketing campaigns should strongly consider outsourcing delivery, list management and other technical aspects of their campaigns to specialist service providers. 27 Jul 2009 Read more >>
If 2008 marked the year that social media burst into the mainstream, this is the year that the concept must prove its value to skeptical marketers against the backdrop of a worldwide economic downturn. 29 May 2009 Read more >>
Over the past 10 years, the rise of the Internet has brought about a dramatic change in consumer behaviour. Today, context is king in a world that is increasingly shifting from a mass marketing broadcast model to one-to-one marketing. 18 May 2009 Read more >>
Marketers have a broad range of metrics to choose from as benchmarks for the success of their digital campaigns and marketing strategies. All too often, we religiously track and report on the ones that have the least significance while ignoring other metrics that might be more important. 8 May 2009 Read more >>
The growth of search engine marketing is defying an economic slump that has seen marketers cut budgets across the board, writes Richard Mullins, Director at Acceleration. 30 Mar 2009 Read more >>
Even though the big numbers are there and the big strategies are being talked about, mobile advertising is in its infancy. It is held back by disparate technologies and an inability to effectively track marketing return on investment. 5 Mar 2009 Read more >>
Consumers around the world are sitting at the edge of a revolution in the worlds of marketing, advertising and publishing. Ubiquitous connectivity is transforming the way that people consume information, in turn demanding that publishers and advertisers rethink the way that they interact with their audiences. 9 Feb 2009 Read more >>
Omniture has announced that it has certified Acceleration, a leading online marketing consultancy, as a Platinum Professional Services Partner. Omniture's highest partner endorsement for a professional services partner recognises Acceleration's ability to help clients optimise their online marketing through Omniture's suite of products. 9 Feb 2009 Read more >>
Companies that specialise in providing online marketing technology services are climbing up the value chain as agencies and marketers start to count on them for more of their online marketing needs. 27 Nov 2008 Read more >>
It's hard to avoid social networks these days. If you're in marketing, wherever you turn, you are bound to encounter some kind of discussion about them and the promise they hold for advertisers. 8 Oct 2008 Read more >>
One of the most powerful benefits that online marketing offers companies is the ability to track and measure the success of their marketing campaigns and strategies. Email marketing, online advertising and search engine marketing all offer marketers a set of objective metrics that they can use to understand whether they're driving the returns from their marketing investments that they hope to. 11 Jun 2008 Read more >>
South African marketers need to look towards packaged applications and specialist service and solutions providers to help them make the most of the new opportunities emerging from digital marketing. 27 May 2008 Read more >>
Ongoing training is at the heart of any effective organisation's success. This is especially true in the fast-moving world of online marketing, where technology is constantly changing and where people are staying in their jobs for shorter periods of time. 13 May 2008 Read more >>
Richard Mullins, Director at Acceleration, looks at how companies can make sure online marketing technology integration projects deliver on their promise. 17 Apr 2008 Read more >>
Leading empowerment media group, Kagiso Media, and Lagardère Active Radio International (LARI), a division of French holding company Lagardère, have acquired Acceleration Media from its former owner, Acceleration, for an undisclosed amount. 26 Feb 2008 Read more >>
Spam, phishing, dropping open rates, deliverability issues and inbox overload: these are all terms you'll know if you are involved in the business of email marketing. For many cynics, they're all reasons to support the contention that email marketing is dead, especially in the business-to-business (B2B) marketing space. 22 Jan 2008 Read more >>
Marketers today have more communication channels available to them than ever before, with technology constantly adding new ones to the mix. Just over a decade ago, email and websites were added to the traditional communication mechanisms such as snail mail, fax and telephone. 6 Dec 2007 Read more >>
Companies that want to maximise their returns from email marketing should, in most cases, build up their own email databases rather than buy lists of email addresses from third-party vendors. 5 Nov 2007 Read more >>
Acceleration, a South African online marketing services and solutions provider, has announced that its US business has achieved an impressive ranking in Inc. Magazine's first-ever 5,000 list of America's fastest growing private companies. 25 Sep 2007 Read more >>
 Email marketing programmes must be built around the current real needs of customers and prospects if they are to be truly effective. 12 Sep 2007 Read more >>
Web 2.0 is all about a mindset change, for consumers, publishers, and of course, marketers. Web 2.0 pioneer, Tim O'Reilly, describes it as a set of principles and practices that puts the individual consumer in control of the Web experience. It’s about faster, better use of all the disparate data sources that the web and related technologies produce each and every time we click online. 27 Feb 2007 Read more >>
South African companies that are enjoying the highest possible returns from their investments into online marketing have adopted holistic strategies that embrace the full customer lifecycle across a range of channels and technologies. Unfortunately, there aren't many of these. 18 Oct 2006 Read more >>
 Di Charton has been appointed General Manager of Acceleration Media, part of the Acceleration Group, a specialist online marketing services company and a key player in the global online advertising and marketing sector. 3 Oct 2006 Read more >>
A recent study commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), reports that Internet advertising grew by 30 percent in the USA during 2005. 12 Sep 2006 Read more >>
Companies that want to remain aligned with the law and international best practice in their email marketing strategies should follow an opt-in (or permission-based) approach to sending commercial email to their customers. 10 Nov 2005 Read more >>
 In the world of online media and marketing, one name dominates the headlines - Google. Users love them for their clean, easy-to-use service. Advertisers adore them for their Cost Per Click (CPC) and low wastage advertising model. With rivals like Yahoo, MSN and Miva all offering similar CPC models, online marketers can't get enough of paid search advertising. 20 Oct 2005 Read more >>
Expect to see trends that have already become evident in the US and Europe to gain traction in the local market as South Africa's online marketing world continues to mature. 9 Oct 2005 Read more >>
When an online search engine campaign fails to deliver the desired results, the first step that a marketer usually takes to improve performance is to change bids. However, that is a tactical approach to optimising search campaigns that often fails to address the underlying reasons for disappointing performance. 25 Aug 2005 Read more >>
 Just like a child, your customer goes through life-stages with his or her tastes, moods and expectations constantly evolving. For that reason, you should treat him or her with the same amount of understanding, care and patience as you would your offspring. How well do you know your child? You should know your customer and subscriber just as closely. 27 Jul 2005 Read more >>
 "Refer-a-Friend" (RAF) campaigning is still sometimes seen as email marketing's pyramid scheme, but it is a powerful tool if used wisely as part of a sound marketing strategy. RAF, also known as viral marketing, can very quickly reach your target audience, increase brand awareness and leads, and ultimately deliver a high return on a relatively small investment. 7 Jul 2005 Read more >>
Online advertising is carving out a strong niche for itself in the South African media landscape as local advertisers begin to use it to reach the country's middle and high-income consumers. 28 Jun 2005 Read more >>
Marketing professionals should not forget the basics of online marketing in their haste to implement advanced eMarketing tools and strategies. 13 Jun 2005 Read more >>
South African marketers are waking up to the potential of e-mail as a marketing tool. In the past, it was regarded primarily as a channel to reach a mass of customers with bulk newsletters and other company information. 26 May 2005 Read more >>
Bandwidth targeting allows online advertisers to serve rich media ads to broadband users and lighter ads to the bandwidth-starved. 17 May 2005 Read more >>
Delivering marketing e-mails to a customer database is no longer a simple matter of hitting the 'send' button. 15 Mar 2005 Read more >>
Two years have passed since government introduced email regulations in the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act, but signs are that the level of unwanted commercial e-mail in South African inboxes has yet to subside. 14 Sep 2004 Read more >>
| 
