Fourth Brainstorm to highlight winning ways in tough times

Each speaker has been briefed to come up with practical, hands-on advice:

• Keynote speaker Andy Rice, founder of Yellowwood Future Architects which last week announced it had been acquired by TBWA\South Africa, will be looking at the question of how to market your brands through recession: whether to maintain or even increase adspend for long-term gain; how to defend yourself against consumer negativity; and what to do about tight credit conditions.

• International acclaimed award-winning TV commercials director Peter Carr of Velocity Films will focus on how to make TV commercials that work in the marketplace. While South Africa has a proud reputation as a producer of great advertising, television is one genre that needs attention. Carr will address the weaknesses in this area, focusing again not on winning awards, but on winning customers.

• Dick Buschman, founder of Achtung! Europe's Interactive Agency of the Year for 2008, is the international speaker. He will be talking on marketing effectively on the Internet, and his brief is to pitch the talk to the intelligent layman, using plain language free of jargon and “geek-speak.” It's during times of crisis that major tipping points are often reached, and this may be the tipping point for the use of digital marketing, which is both cheaper and more responsive than conventional channels.

• Draftfcb's newly appointed CEO, John Dixon, will be addressing the subject of winning advertising in a speech entitled “Make your advertising pay off.” It will be about effectiveness, and also about the relationship between creative advertising and results.

• Mike Schalit, South Africa's top-rated creative adman, will be examining how marketers can be good citizens, doing well by doing good. Increasingly, consumers demand that their brands, clients, customers and suppliers are good citizens. It has become an essential ingredient of success. Schalit, who is involved in several initiatives of this nature, will be talking on, “Green is the new Black.”

• Derek Carstens, probably the country's top brand practitioner, has recently been appointed by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee to market the event. His topic is “How to win at the World Cup,” and this doesn't mean winning the championship. It means turning the event into a marketing triumph. Carstens, who is on secondment from First National Bank, where he is director of brands, is also one of the most popular speakers from previous Brainstorms.

The intensive one-day conference will be held on 12 November 2008 at the Balalaika Hotel in Sandton. The event is being held in collaboration with the Online Publishers' Association's will be part of its three-day programme of workshops and the Bookmark Awards.

Prices are being held at last year's rates: R1980 for a single delegate, with special rates for groups of three or more. To book, email your request to Terry Barker at .