MMA SA's Impact Forum 2019: 16 top speakers debate 'Adapting to the New Normal'

23 Oct 2019

There's no doubt that technology has fundamentally changed marketing; today's marketers need to think like data scientists, understand the fragmented customer buying cycle and deliver better returns to the business than ever before. This while managing a plethora of new digital channels and the challenge of bridging the digital skills gap. Adaption to the 'Third Connected Age' - the shift from search and e-commerce and mobile and social to AI, IOT, Voice Interfaces and 5G - has become undoubtedly key.

This ‘new normal’ is the theme for this year’s Impact Forum and it takes place on October 30th at Monte Casino between 9am and 4.30pm.

Speakers include: Lana Strydom, Executive Head of Online and Self Service at Vodacom; Dudu Mokholo, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung Africa; Sagren Pather, CoE Media, Marketing and Analytics, Standard Bank; Heidi Brauer, Chief Marketing Officer, Hollard; Luisa Mazinter, Chief Marketing Officer, TymeBank and MMA SA Chair.

Talks will address common challenges that marketers face on a day to day basis such as:

Marketers’ response to the rise of “phygital”, the merging of physical and digital - from products, through to buying environments and the impact this has on purchasing behaviours - taking the best aspects from each space to create a much more complete and satisfying customer experience
What does customer engagement mean?
How has marketing changed?
How would you construct a marketing team in today’s world?
Transforming Culture and investing in People: What are the skills needed?
How are budgets shaped and what is dominating decisions on spend?
What is the market landscape and what conversations are happening within departments?
Who are their new allies in the business (T-Shaping)
How consumers’ increased reliance on their mobiles is driving change and business transformation

Industry experts will take a closer look at ‘skilling for the new normal’. They will debate what it takes to transform culture and which digital skills are needed to take the South African economy forward, digitise and progress industries. Debates will be had on what the digital agency of the future will look like and what its impact on the CMO of the Future will be.

Chris Babayode, MD, MMA EMEA will also share the MMA’s new model for the organisation of marketing, where work is centered on the development of value stacks, the creation of organisational links, and the design of the learning loop, called MOSTT (Marketing Organisation Structure Think Tank).

To close the day, the SMARTIES Jury panel will showcase winning campaigns in mobile for 2019. The annual SMARTIES Awards is a celebration of the market’s most innovative work, and that which tackles ROI of creative in mobile, the measurability of creative and the judges’ favourites, where best practices have been used to full effect.

“This year’s Impact Forum is jam-packed with top-notch speakers, each addressing issues that everyone in the industry is experiencing in one way or another. The landscape has fundamentally changed and marketers need to understand what the ‘new normal’ means, and how it will affect their and their teams’ skillsets and day-to-day work,” comments MMA SA Country Chair, Sarah Utermark.