In the past couple of years, the media, particularly in South Africa since we're a little restricted by a lack of broadband, have been debating online media, new media, digital media and now social media and how to capitalise on it. And through all this, we, particularly in the online media, have been trying to persuade marketers, ad agencies and media buyers to invest in online, create campaigns for brands online and basically just get online. So it's great to be asked to media partner a conference on Digital Branding, hosted by Knowledge Resources www.kr.co.za, this week in Johannesburg. The aptly entitled 'Your brand is already there... are you?' covers marketing in the Web 2.0 era, thinking viral, guidelines for joining in on the social media conversation and the future of ideas and the new consumer. As important this week is the annual conference for retailers and marketers in the consumer goods market: ECR, email: ecr@precisionconferences.co.za, in Sandton. ECR is very well-attended, usually 700 - 900 key marketers and FMCG retailers, one of the best audiences in this industry annually. This year it will focus on 'Partnering for Growth', including future retail scenarios and trends in South Africa. Bizcommunity will also have a stand there to publicise our partnership with ActivRetail which will be providing a secure interface for brands advertising directly to retailers on our retail portal: https://www.bizcommunity.com (see our headlines for more).
Enjoy! Louise Marsland, editor@bizcommunity.co. Marketing news: marketingnews@bizcommunity.co. Responses to this column welcomed on our blog.