The rise of Afrofuturism - 26 Feb 2018[Louise Marsland] Africa's creative industries get together at Design Indaba in February in Cape Town every year to hear from the world's legendary creators and designers on how to design a new world and solve global problems. read more It’s South Africa’s turn for change - 19 Feb 2018[Louise Marsland] As the old adage goes, 'a week is a long time in politics', and it was South Africa's turn for change and transformation this past week as South African President Jacob Zuma finally resigned and President Cyril Ramaphosa took the reins of our beleaguered economy and battered political system, promising to root out the cancer of corruption that has taken hold over the last decade under Zuma. His masterful State of the Nation (SONA) address rallied South Africans to his call of #sendme to help rebuild and renew South Africa, all the while quoting one of Africa's legendary sons, musician Hugh Masekela, who passed away recently. read more How to produce beautiful marketing - 12 Feb 2018[Louise Marsland] In our latest #MeettheMarketer column, the global chief marketing officer for Patrón Spirits International, Lee Applbaum, urged marketers to still listen to their own intuition, and not be sidetracked by masses of data. Data sits at the core of much marketing and advertising decisions these days, but it is not only about the data - beautiful marketing is still driven by great ideas and the gutfeel of marketers who know their brands and their target market. And the growth in technology is enabling that beautiful marketing, as AR, social media and innovative technology amplify media and marketing. read more What’s your top trend for 2018? - 5 Feb 2018[Louise Marsland] BizTrends2018 comes to an end this week on Bizcommunity.com's B2B news portal, but will continue to be amplified by a continuing social media campaign wrapped around the expert contributors and sponsors who have given their time to share their top trends for 2018: follow the hashtag #BizTrends2018 or click through to the BizTrends2018 special section for all the expert contributors. In total there are 226 specialist trends contributors across Bizcommunity.com's 17 industry sectors, with 63 published on Bizcommunity.com's South Africa and Africa Media and Marketing portal. read more Social media lessons for Africa - 29 Jan 2018[Louise Marsland] The marketing team behind The Gondwana Collection tourism brand in Namibia really know their social media stuff. Their funny video short mocking US President Donald Trump for this rude comments about Africa and other developing nations, achieved over 670 million views globally and was mentioned in mainstream media all around the world. I hope they win an award. read more How do you talk to Africa in 2018? - 22 Jan 2018[Louise Marsland] Continuing with our Trends Month on Bizcommunity.com with #BizTrends2018, we have Mimi Kalinda, the MD of Africommunications Group, today, talking about how to balance communications strategies in Africa. She believes cultural identity will become more important as borders become more flexible to facilitate trade: "Communication that celebrates cultural nuances and sensibilities is going to be important to ensure that audiences still feel like brands understand that they have a cultural heritage which they deem paramount." Continuing with culture, six African films have made the shortlist for this year's Hollywood Academy Awards. read more Welcome to the Year of Artificial Intelligence - 8 Jan 2018[Louise Marsland] A very Happy New Year to all our readers of Bizcommunity.com's daily and weekly Africa newsletters! Today, 8 January 2018, also marks the annual launch of our industry trends: BizTrends2018. January is Trends Month on Bizcommunity.com, and we will be featuring trend predictions for 2018 from expert contributors in the media and marketing industries from around South Africa, Africa and abroad. Africa features strongly in trend predictions as the continent is experiencing a technological boom, which, coupled with its growing middle class and youth population, creates interesting dynamics for growth for global brands on the continent. Artificial intelligence is a recurring theme and disruption continues to be a key motivator for everyone involved in the creative industries. read more Happy holidays! - 18 Dec 2017[Louise Marsland] This is Bizcommunity.africa's last newsletter of the year. read more Inclusive growth on Africa’s agenda - 11 Dec 2017[Louise Marsland] Inclusive growth is a term being used more frequently when talking about sustainable and continued growth for the African continent. A particular focus across events is the youth and how to creates jobs for the next generation, as Africa's youth bubble grows. read more How to create jobs for Africa - 4 Dec 2017[Louise Marsland] Speaking at the Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators summit in Ghana this week, Amrote Abdella of Microsoft4Afrika urged the media to promote inclusive growth in Africa, encouraging female business leaders and STEM careers for young women; as well as educating the public about technological advances; and showcasing success stories to highlight areas where inclusive growth is driving the continent forward. The African Development Bank has launched a Youth Advisory Group to look at ways of creating 25 million jobs and impact 50 million youth across the continent in the next decade. read more A momentous week in Africa - 27 Nov 2017[Louise Marsland] Who would have thought Zimbabwe would have a new President in 2017 still? This year is full of surprises! We kept you updated through our #Newswatch and followed the developments on social media: #NEWSWATCH: Zimbabwe uncertainty as state TV remains under control of military; #NEWSWATCH: Singing and dancing on the streets of Zimbabwe and on social media. Our #AfricaAchiever for this month is Natasha Omokhodion-Banda, 99c managing director in Lusaka, Zambia, who is driving expansion on the continent. And in more good news,Facebook also announced plans to consolidate its investment in Nigeria, through high profile partnerships, training programmes and a physical space that will serve as a centre for learning and skills development. To subscribe yourself or colleagues to the daily or weekly Africa newsletters which focus on media and marketing and general business news from the continent, click here. Have a great week! Louise Marsland Africa Editor: Bizcommunity.com read more Dramatic rise of African consumer power - 20 Nov 2017[Louise Marsland] While Zimbabwe teeters on a knife edge with the refusal by President Robert Mugabe to resign by the 12 noon deadline today, Monday 20 November, after being recalled by his own party, ZaNU-PF, he may now face impeachment as President. Sunday night saw the speech in which he was expected to resign, beamed around the world via every major global television network. read more Is this the future of advertising? - 13 Nov 2017[Louise Marsland] We are launching our monthly #MeettheMarketer column on Bizcommunity.africa with an indepth interview with Anatoly Roytman, managing director of Accenture Interactive and Global lead for EALA (Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America), who believes that Accenture Interactive is building the "agency of the future" and that seismic shifts are shaking the advertising industry. The indepth and gigantic #AfricaCom conferences and expo dominated our media coverage and our days last week and all the content from the Bizcommunity.com team fielded to cover the relevant 18 conference streams can be found under the AfricaCom special section on the site. read more Rise of the African consumer - 6 Nov 2017[Louise Marsland] The African consumer is receiving a lot of attention from researchers as countries across Africa post growth and advertisers look at how they actually market to Africa's growing and aspirant consumer base. There is a [[http://www.bizcommunity.africa/Article/410/12/169613.html#topstory cultural shift]] happening from brands as they recognise that not all their communication is effective and they need to recognise and respect that the different target markets across the continent are evolving and they need to do more to connect. read more Become a storyteller - 30 Oct 2017[Louise Marsland] Our special Focus on Shopper Marketing went live last week, unpacking the latest trends in store and in the mall; looking at the future state of retail; how retailers and marketers need to evolve brand marketing to reach an experience-driven consumer. Have a look. read more |
