Top Brands Conference with Jeremy Maggs sold out!

Innovation and design are strategically important to brand development and sustainability, and at this conference leading speakers will share the secrets to their branding success. The line up is fantastic: Gurus in marketing and branding like Justine Nurse of Laugh it Off, Robert Brozin of Nandos, Chris Moerdyk, Jeremy Sampson of Interbrand, Anthony Swart of Enterprise IG, Thebe Ikalafeng of Brand Leadership, Deline Beukes of the ASA and Gidon Novik of Kulula.com will all bring their blend of brand focus versus innovation to the two-day event - to enlighten, entertain, debunk and explore creative possibility.

Master of ceremonies and one of South Africa's most experienced all round journalists, Jeremy Maggs, will encourage creative flow, facilitating what promises to be a lively, engaging event - no small task with this calibre of speaker and delegate.

Products date, brands are timeless. The Top Brands Conference explores what it takes to take your brand out of time and space, and remain in the minds of the consumer, and what it takes to keep your customers and new customers loyal to your brand time and time again. Companies are increasingly aware of the value of their brand, and learning to see themselves not only as product or service providers, but brand builders: Top Companies Publishing and Events through the Top Brands Conference provides the ideal forum for companies to engage creatively with other brand builders and dramatically enhance their brand offering.

Says Dick Fletcher, Chairman of Top Companies Publishing and Events: "To have a cross section of our country's marketing and advertising fraternity represented at a hard hitting innovative event such as this will allow for dynamic and vibrant brands to be created, rejuvenated and reinvented."

Top Companies is paying tribute to exceptional brands, encouraging consistent engaging of brands to optimise brand value and business growth. During this interactive two-day event different innovative aspects of branding will be highlighted. The Conference looks at emerging opportunities for brands; effective brand building through outdoor advertising; brand stewardship: from strategy to accountability; leveraging brands to generate value; deep branding: reflecting responsibility through branding; building your brand through loyalty programmes; how to build a new brand in a cluttered marketplace; building great African brands: evolving SA brands into African brands; teaching social skills to brands: discursive brand building in a post generation X economy; taking a brand international; and the ethical responsibility of marketers in building their brands.

Says Fletcher, "Top Companies is facilitating a gathering of like-minded business people to explore elements of branding such as fresh ways to leverage lean branding budgets for greater impact, what strategies you can use to rebuild equity for a damaged brand and how brands establish a legitimate and credible emotional connection with today's increasingly sophisticated and sceptical customer."

The Top Brands Conference would like to welcome Maverick, "a business magazine for people with brains and money", as our media partner at the event. This great team has kindly sponsored the copies of the launch edition of Maverick for all the conference delegates. A special thanks goes to Clarins for donating exquisite Eau Dynamist gift sets to the speakers. The Eau Dynamist is a unisex, uplifting treatment fragrance for which Clarins is very well known. We are also pleased to announce a great competition: the IMM Graduate School of Marketing is offering four IMM GSM training courses valued at R4000 each, to be won at the event.

This event will not only present delegates with insight into the greatest branding minds in South Africa, it also includes attendance to a Fast Track Networking session. In today's business environment, networking is becoming an increasingly important business development tool. Successful networking puts faces to names, presents you with exciting new business opportunities and generates buzz. And Fast Track Networking is an innovative Top Companies product offering a unique and dynamic way to meet fellow industry professionals.

The Fast Track Networking website www.fasttracknetworking.co.za will be launched on 1 December 2005, giving all who attended the opportunity to be among the first members of South Africa's latest and most exciting B2B product offering. Each attendant is assured of complete privacy via an exclusive password and login name.

The website will be of tremendous value to all attendants, and each delegate who attends any one of the conferences and events organised by Top Companies will be loaded to the system and have innumerable prospects available to them. Each member will be able to load their picture, company logo and a company profile to entice other companies to do business with them and be presented with added exposure for both individuals and corporate business.

By attending the Annual Top Brands Conference delegates will have the opportunity to network with professionals accross all sectors that manage Advertising; Brand Management; Corporate, Event and Online Marketing; Market Research; Marketing; Product Development; Promotions: Retail; Sponsorships; Strategic Planning.

Where else can you build you brand while building relationships with brand builders than at the Top Brands Conference?