We hope your shortened work week is off to a good start. It's certainly been a busy one for us, with last week's release of PWC's entertainment and media outlook 2017 to 2021. With this edition's focus on the African perspective, it foresees content and distribution moving aside as user experience takes centre stage. Customer experience was also front and centre at the inaugural South African Mastercard SpendingPulse Report, with Danette Breitenbach reporting that world's spending trends have changed dramatically as a result of the recession. Marketers and brands alike would do well to read her overview to guide their decision-making processes going forward. Switching tack to creativity, Jessica Tennant chatted to M&C Saatchi Joburg Group chairman Jerry Mpufane, on his new role as jury president for the IAB Bookmark Awards. Now celebrating their 10th year of 'rewarding excellence in digital', Mpufane lets us in on how the digital landscape has evolved since the Bookmarks inception a decade ago, as well as what to look forward to in 2018. Then, tying back to our #InnovationMonth theme, Tennant also found out more about what went into the personalised video bot functionality rolled out by digital agency Liquorice for new client Avon, using Facebook Messenger to launch the beauty brand's Mark Liquid Lip Matte product range. Angie White also provides part two of her three-part interview with Tonya Khoury of ROI Africa into the media monitoring industry. This week Khoury explains the algorithms she uses, as well as live sentiment tracking and big content. She says the so called 'Trump Train' was a good example of this, where Trump's electioneering was based on the perceptions of American voters as aggregated by social media. Rounding things out, I spoke to Angelika Kempe, executive consultant at AdOps Value, about the impact of the American Newspaper Association's recent report that advertising agencies and their holding companies are less-than transparent regarding production costs and the risk associated with it, as many inflate bids from independent production houses so they can route jobs to their in-house production shops. While the report is American, Kempe says South African marketers should definitely take note. The 2017 Financial Mail AdFocus Awards finalists have also been revealed. Special awards and overall winners will only be announced at the event, which takes place on 22 November. Keep an eye out for updates on all this and more!
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