No need for year-end pessimism

“We’re doomed, we’re all doomed” (with apologies to Private Fraser from the classic BBC-TV comedy series Dad’s Army).  December is SA’s annual pessimism month. Industry pundits traditionally predict the next year will be miserable, in the wake of clients’ budget cutbacks. Not that it matters, because the holiday road toll will be so huge that none of us expects to make it back alive for the new year anyway. Read more »

MARKETING LEVIES Murky pool

There has been wrangling for some time in the marketing community over which organisation should collect media and advertising levies and what the rate of contributions should be. Read more »

Soldiering on

McCann Erickson SA has hit the ground running in 2012 and hopes to introduce several important changes as it moves to grow its client base. Read more »

The bigger picture

The SA Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf) has a new method of researching television viewing. Read more »

Last call for Apex 2012 entries

The Association for Communication and Advertising’s annual APEX Awards represent the synergetic relationship between creative communication and business strategy. 

Winning an APEX is the ultimate testament to the vital role that effective advertising and marketing communications play in business success – so if you have met your target, prove it and avoid becoming one! Read more »

PRISM Awards 2012

Open to all public relations practitioners, consultants, corporations and government departments, the deadline for entries for this year’s PRISMs is Friday, January 20. Read more »

ORM helps marketers turn crises into opportunities

By Gordon Geldenhuys, Online Reputation Management Product Manager at Acceleration Media

Many marketing managers barely pay attention to social media until a real crisis hits their brands. At that point, they’ll rush into action with no real plan or strategy behind the frantic tweets and Facebook posts they send out in response to the rapid spread of untrue rumours or angry complaints across social networks. Read more »

Brand Trends 2012

By Janice Spark, Managing Partner at Idea Engineers

2011 was the year of rebellions and revolutions, from the Arab Spring to the abstract destruction of the London riots through to the Occupy Wall Street movement. But the structure of nation states was only one half of a tumultuous equation equally influenced by a buckling Eurozone economy. Read more »