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It's a world of changing consumer dynamics - one in which companies' ability to flow with trends has become key... | DION CHANG In many ways 2017 was the watershed year for being 'woke': politically, economically, socially and culturally. Technology has for many years been the primary disruptor of business, but a socio-cultural wave will hit businesses in 2018. Brace yourselves for a year of dual disruption... |
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 | SHEILA MCGILLIVRAY I love this time of the year as big brands pull out all the stops to reach into consumers hearts and tug on their purse strings. These are my top festive season adverts so far... read |
|  | REGINE LE ROUX Steinhoff faces the threat of becoming the biggest bankruptcy in South African corporate history. How does this happen? Regine le Roux reckons it all boils down to lack of internal governance... read |
|  | LEIGH ANDREWS King James Group CEO James Barty explains the agency's commitment to creativity off the back of their recent accolades at Scopen AgencyScope 2017 and lets us in on their strategy for 2018... read |
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| The Lead Creative |
 | NUNU NTSHINGILA By 2020, more people will have mobile phones than running water or electricity at home. And for the first time in history, more people will be connected to the internet than not... Read |
 | GUSTAV GOOSEN Truly understanding your customer... and other complexities we can expect in 2018... Read |
 | DIANE GANTZ, ISSUED BY KANTAR The insights industry is transforming in order to remain relevant in a new fast-moving world where consumers have easy access to endless choices... Read |
 | DAVE NEMETH In order for businesses to strive and even survive in many instances, it is vital that they take on a 'human-centered' approach to every aspect of their business and invest more time and effort on truly trying to understand their customers... Read |
 | AILSA WINGFIELD Africa has become a continent of catchphrases, be it 'Africa rising', 'untapped middle class', 'e-commerce explosion', 'leapfrogging technology' or 'brand loyalists', the list is endless... but what do they mean in a real-world context...? Read |
 | GRAHAM DENEYS Going into 2018, we need to give the word disruption the respect it deserves... Read |
| Loeries |
 | LEIGH ANDREWS Just when you thought the Loeries buzz was over, the Loeries' rankings are in! I chatted to some of this year's top-ranked creatives post-celebrations. We continue the local insights with Publicis Machine... Read |
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| |  | Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018's lineup of artists and performers is the immersive experience of the year!... Read |  | EMILE UYS This New York-based design guru will appear on stage at Design Indaba Festival 2018... Read |
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| Advertising |
 | LEIGH ANDREWS With six successful years under its belt, House of Brave co-founder and ECD Vanessa Pearson shares what makes them a top-five SA agency with first-rate strategic planning and digital effectiveness, as per Scopen's AgencyScope 2017/18... Read |
 | MOHAU BOSIU Can advertising really influence people's lives? Mohau Bosiu thinks it can... Read |
 | Unilever South Africa has voluntarily withdrawn a television commercial that promotes soap as a germ-fighting product that can be used to treat a sick person. Read |
 | The Midas Awards announced 2017 shortlist with US agencies leading with 101 shortlisted entries, followed by South Africa with 40 and the United Kingdom with 24... Read |
 | New York Festivals (NYF) International Advertising Awards has announced the first 21 members of the 2018 executive jury, which includes South African, Mick Blore... Read |
 | New York Festivals added a new competition to its Advertising Awards competition roster: sports... Read |
 | Why did you splurge on that new pair of shoes? Or that pricey smartphone? More and more advertisers are trying to tap into the unconscious to divine the invisible forces that drive those spending decisions... Read |
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| Branding |
 | LAUREN HARTZENBERG As one of the oldest orange-flavoured liqueurs in the world, the Cointreau brand has a lot of history behind it... Read |
 | TASHALENE REID Even the most successful brands require a makeover now and then. Tashalene Reid, brand marketing manager for Hungry Lion, draws out lessons learnt from the company's "Good to Great" journey... Read |
 | RICHARD BENSTED Redefining how customers engage with a brand from the first point of online contact... Read |
| CRM, CX, UX |
 | MARELI SMIT Mareli Smit writes about how we should stop dreaming about great CX and start doing great CX... Read |
 | STUART MCDOUGALL The success of a product or service is rooted in user experience. It's this simple, yet powerful premise that has made human-centered design (HCD) gain traction across all major business sectors around the world, writes Stuart McDougall... Read |
 | Developed by South African entrepreneurs, iBleat is a recently released app that privately connects customers with any business, brand or outlet in an effort to simplify customer service... Read |
| Digital |
 | DESERÉ ORRILL Effective causal communications using the digital ecosystem can be powerful instruments for systemic change and brand longevity, not just in times of giving like the festive season... Read |
 | JUANITA PIENAAR Linda Mertens from The Next Web (TNW) on having an open, educated and inclusive conversation about mental health, the role of creatives in this ever-evolving technological world and top trends for 2018... Read |
 | For decades the Rohingya have been denied recognition in Myanmar but the persecuted minority is close to securing a crucial symbol of their identity - their own unique digital alphabet... Read |
 | YouTube said on Tuesday that it had sealed a licensing agreement with the world's largest music label conglomerate Universal as the video behemoth explores creating a new streaming service... Read |
 | ISSUED BY SO INTERACTIVE In its tenth year of creative digital landscaping, So Interactive is still doing big things - and the big boys are taking notice... Read |
| Events & Conferencing |
 | DAVID LIMBERT Creativity. Intangible but immensely powerful within the events sector. But despite its power, it's tough to gauge, difficult to define and sometimes hard to find. And few realise how important creativity is in pulling off unreal events that deliver real results... Read |
| Exhibitions |
 | TRALONE KHOZA If participating as an exhibitor in one or various exhibitions is part of your organisation's below the line advertising (BTL) strategy then that part of your marketing budget should not be wasted but should be well spent and hopefully with some ROI... Read |
| Film & Cinematography |
 | From the migration of purple butterflies to the crafting of bamboo steam baskets, Taiwan's leading 3D film director has spent a decade painstakingly capturing the island's beauty. Read |
| Marketing |
 | PIERRE CASSUTO Pierre Cassuto explains why being asked for a 'content' strategy irks him and how companies can 'swim' on their own in the digital pool... Read |
| Media |
 | JESSICA BEZUIDENHOUT & REBECCA DAVIS In 2017, the horrifying extent of State Capture finally became clearer to the South African public. And we would still be languishing in the dark were it not for the whistle-blowers: the handful of courageous South African men and women who did not remain silent in the face of wrongdoing, but stood up and spoke out... Read |
 | Drawn from a selection of 15 global and regional journalism awards, a report curated by the Open Society Foundations Program's (OSF) Independent Journalism Programme provides an inspiring selection of storytelling, investigative techniques, collaborative enterprises and fearless reporting against all odds... Read |
 | The blockbuster deal between Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox could likely put US antitrust enforcers in an awkward position following the government's challenge to another media-entertainment mega-deal... Read |
 | At a time when the media is being accused of peddling "fake news," Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are bringing Hollywood star power to a movie celebrating journalism and the virtues of a free press... Read |
| Media Freedom |
 | A Ugandan court has released eight editors and directors of one of the country's most popular newspapers, who were charged with treason last month, effectively stalling the tabloid's operations... Read |
 | Kazakhstan on Thursday pushed through a raft of controversial amendments to a media law despite concern that the new legislation will further limit freedom of speech in the tightly-controlled nation... Read |
 | This year, 81 journalists lost their lives around the globe " a drop from 120 last year, the International Press Institute said... Read |
 | Ahmed Abba to be freed after Cameroonian Court reduces sentence on appeal... Read |
| Mobile |
 | GRAHAM DU PLESSIS According to the latest November stats from Effective Measure, 'South Africa Online', a whopping 67.38% of unique browsers came from mobile itself... Read |
 | A significant amount of spectrum, or radio waves, in rural areas could be unlocked by amending licensing models, according to Kalpak Gude, the president of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance... Read |
 | Seee In, a soon-to-be-released app, aims to change the game with dual benefits that cater to both consumers and businesses... Read |
| Online Media |
 | French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans on Wednesday for legislation to stop fake news spreading online in the run-up to elections, in a veiled reference to Moscow-backed RT and Sputnik... Read |
| PR & Communications |
 | CLAUDIA FERGUSON Claudia Ferguson looks back on 2017 and lists three key insights the year has provided for the PR industry... Read |
| Publishing |
 | Questions are being asked about how the confidentiality provisions of the Tax Administration Act are aligned with legislation providing for whistle-blowers and freedom of expression... Read |
 | The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has followed through on threats to take legal action against the author of The President's Keepers, Jacques Pauw... Read |
| Radio |
 | A new community radio station, Ingwane FM, is to be launched next month for those living in the former Transkei and surrounding areas... Read |
| Research |
 | A CMO roundtable article features marketing perspectives on the challenges to executing omnichannel experiences... Read |
| Retail |
 | CHANTEL TROSKIE As the holiday shopping rush gets into full swing, South African retailers are increasingly looking to technology that they can use to improve their operations... Read |
 | KYLE MURRAY We tend to think that innovation is driven by new discoveries or advances in technology. Yet the problem with new products is often not an engineering challenge, but a psychological one... Read |
 | MARIA BERRIOS-CARTER Maria Berrios-Carter writes about what she thinks is a golden marketing opportunity that businesses can implement to target parents shopping with tweens... Read |
| Sales |
 | BOGOSI MOTSHEGWA Bogosi Motshegwa writes about how you can use Facebook to generate leads or sales... Read |
| Social Media |
 | MARIANNA SIGALA Research shows that it is not age, but the dark triad of personality traits - narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy that push people to pursue selfie glory regardless of the result... Read |
 | Access to the popular photo sharing and messaging apps Instagram and Telegram was restricted on mobile phones, Iranian media reported on Sunday, after three days of protests in many cities... Read |
 | Table Mountain National Park has a problem, but Instagram can help... Read |
 | LEIGH ANDREWS Shh... Word on the stylish digital street is that The Stylista is the place to be. It's a user-generated social media space for those interested in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, with a distinctive SA flavour. MD Tami Ruschin explains the beauty of creating customised content to delight brands and consumers alike... Read |
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 | BARBARA ROMZEK AND ARAM SINNREICH Social media websites and online services, created to profit from connecting people and encouraging global conversations, have a deep and troubling dark side... Read |
 | JULIA BREAKEY This year has been a whirlwind of racist exposé after sexist exposé after: "How have they been running a business? Holy sh!t" exposé (part 1)... Read |
 | JULIA BREAKEY This year has been a whirlwind of racist exposé after sexist exposé after "How have they been running a business? Holy sh!t" exposé (part 2)... Read |
 | JULIA BREAKEY This year has been a whirlwind of racist scandal after sexist scandal after "How have they been running a business? Holy sh!t" scandal. (part 3)... Read |
 | SANParks is concerned about various groups impersonating it and some of the national parks on social media... Read |
 | BRADLEY ELLIOTT A growing army of YouTube stars is finding instant fame and wealth thanks to millions of subscribers to their pages and are fast becoming as influential, and in some case more so than mainstream actors and musicians... Read |
 | THANGO GOMBIZA 'Tis the season to be jolly, but while you're having a blast at Christmas and New Year parties, remember that professionals do not let their hair down online... Read |
 | Facebook on Tuesday added a way for people to know when their pictures are posted anywhere on the leading social network. Read |
 | Known for annual personal goals ranging from killing his own food to learning Mandarin, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg's stated mission for this year is to 'fix' the social network... Read |
| Streaming |
 | A music publisher is seeking at least $1.6bn from Spotify for alleged copyright violations, the latest lawsuit to hit the fast-growing streaming company... Read |
 | Now available to over one billion consumers across 24 territories throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa, iflix celebrates 10 million minutes streamed in 2017 with a new campaign... Read |
| The One Club of Creativity |
 | The One Club for Creativity announced the addition of Health, Wellness and Pharmaceutical as a separate and distinct discipline for The One Show 2018... Read |
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| TV |
 | US regulators announced a record $13.3m fine against a major television company for airing promotional content without telling viewers it had been paid to air it... Read |
 | JESSICA LEVITT 2018 has brought a fresh start in the once sour relationship between the SABC and radio personality Criselda Dudumashe... Read |
 | MultiChoice expects to complete an investigation into its contracts with news channel ANN7 within weeks, the Naspers subsidiary told Business Day on Tuesday... Read |
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| Behind the Selfie |
 | LEIGH ANDREWS This week, we go behind the selfie go behind the selfie with Ree Treweek, director at female-led animation studio Tulips and Chimneys, formerly Shy the Sun, celebrating their 10-year creative partnership this year... Read |
 | LEIGH ANDREWS This week, we go behind the selfie with Nthabiseng Lethoko, new associate creative director at Hellocomputer Cape Town... Read |
 | LEIGH ANDREWS This week, we go behind the selfie with technophobe chef and food stylist, Zola Nene. She's the resident chef on SABC3's Expresso and was a judge for the 2017 Galliova Awards for excellence in food and health writing, as well as the recently aired third season of Great SA Bake Off... Read |
| Africa |
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 | An online radio station catering for the LGBT community, believed to be the first of its kind in the Arab world, started broadcasting in Tunisia on Monday... Read |
| International |
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 | Themes for the Inma World Congress of News Media, taking place from 3-5 June 2018 in Washington, have been announced... Read |
 | Unilever, Beiersdorf, Coty, SC Johnson, Henkel, and Edgewell are some of the major brands set to attend Aerosol & Dispensing Forum and Packaging of Perfume, Cosmetics & Design Shanghai 2018... Read |
 | Reporter Mratt Kyaw Thu has won the 2017 Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize for his coverage of ethnic strife in his native Myanmar... Read |
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 | The Advertising Media Forum (AMF) is a collective of media agencies and individuals including media strategists, planners, buyers and consultants through whom 95% of all media expenditure in South Africa is bought. |
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