In the hope that they will one day evolve into something of substance, I have recently been scribbling down notes on some of the ideas I have around marketing, advertising and communication in general. Bear in mind I share these thoughts purely in my capacity as a consumer – I am no marketing, branding or [...]
One of the more interesting people (and public speakers) I met at SXSW earlier this year was a chap by the name of Lane Becker (website and Twitter). Lane is one of the co-founders of Get Satisfaction – there’s plenty cool info on what Get Satisfaction does here. His presentation included a reference to a [...]
The Mother City’s very rad blogging community has rallied around the Cape Town City Ballet in it’s moment of dire need. Sue Rutherford and friends have put together a website and campaign to encourage people like you and I to give a little bit towards saving the arts in Cape Town. We are appealing to [...]
Not only has Dion Chang forged an enviable reputation as one of South Africa’s leading fashion authorities but since breaking away from that industry and into trend forecasting and commentary a few years back, he and the brilliant team at Flux have set the benchmark in strategic thinking for the future of and in South [...]
Earlier this year I wrote about how impressed I was with the RAMP foundation and their efforts regarding the 2009 Net Prophet conference. Considering that, and how blown away I was with the second annual Bookmark Awards evening held last night at Movida in Jozi, it’s clear that digital in South Africa is definitely growing [...]
Last night marked the 44th iteration of the 27dinner social networking movement, held at FTV in Village Walk. With the dinners reaching unparalleled popularity (numbers peaking at 170+ on the attendance list at 27dinner.com), it is becoming increasingly challenging to organise and execute an event that now has some pretty high expectations around it in [...]
Over the past three years I have spent a great deal of time presenting to schools, church groups, NGO’s, government and more on the subjects of social and mobile media. Public speaking is a wonderful privilege and a fine art. I am not nearly the speaker I could be, but I have some thoughts I’d [...]
Matthew Dawes is organising Mobile Web Africa 2009 on the 13 and 14 October at the Michelangelo, and has kindly offered a range of freebies and discounts for me to promote to you, the cream of South Africa’s technology crop! I will certainly be making an effort to attend – the speaker line-up and agenda [...]
I recently raved about the NetProphet conference I was privileged enough to be invited to speak at, and now the video is up for your perusal, comments and random abuse :) I realise, watching this, that I have a dangerously dry sense of humour that may not always serve my best interests… hmmm. Oh well, [...]
If you’ve spent any time at all reading anything I’ve published on this blog you’ll know SA conferences companies are my own personal bugbear. They suck. Typically they pick up on a popular trend, and with little to no knowledge of that space, whether it be opencast mining or social media, strive to make as [...]
Justin is, as I write this, launching Afrigator‘s newest innovation to our fellow African geeks at BarCamp Nigeria in Lagos. Gatorpeeps is a micro-blogging platform, not unlike Twitter or Pownce (which died), that makes it really easy for existing Afrigator users to connect with other Afrigator users in 140 characters or less, and with all [...]
In July 2008 UK-based retailer Aldi launched a campaign with the tagline “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket”. Sweet. Here’s a vid of one of the campaign ads: At the same time last year, here in sunny SA, ex-creative director of BBDO Cape Town, Andrew Brand, and founding partner of Berry Bush, Lewin de [...]
I’ve really enjoyed opportunities over the last few weeks to connect more regularly with the local Young & Rubicam team and their Wunderman cousins about social media and it’s impact on local markets and individual consumers. I’ve also been invited to a few book launches and more recently, to meet with Simon Silverster, EVP Head [...]
I had hoped to blog a lot more about my experience at SXSW Interactive this year but barely had time to breathe, let alone document all that happened in Austin. I will say this though, it lived up to (high) expectations and more – I’ll definitely be going back next year. Since getting back life [...]
About a month ago I had a brainfart and nearly didn’t come to Austin to attend SXSW. Thank heavens I came to my senses – the trip has already been worth it on so many levels. In the short time Allan Kent and I have been here we’ve met some amazing people, seen some rather [...]
So my first interview (first for my sexy little Flip Mino HD camera and first at SXSW) is with my old friend Erik Hersman of WhiteAfrican.com and Jon Gosier of Appfrica.net. The sound isn’t great but we were in the middle of a packed diner (called IHOP), where Erik forced pancakes drenched in butter and [...]
The dudes in Cape Town updated me with this news release today – more good news for our baby, Afrigator! Taken directly from the news release: Afrigator shoots up the ranks to take the ninth spot on the Online Publishers Association according to latest stats by Nielsen Online. Cape Town, February 5, 2009: Afrigator Internet [...]
I knew last night’s 27dinner in Jozi could only have had one of two outcomes. Being the first dinner to enjoy full brand sponsorship (more on that later) there was a risk of it being too commercial and boring, even prescriptive. I knew I didn’t want that. On the other hand, it had the potential [...]
Dave Duarte has grown the Nomadic Marketing brand into the definitive local social and mobile media education programme – nothing else comes close. The combination of excellent content, the backing of the UCT GSB and professional facilitation mean that it ranks among the best of it’s kind worldwide. And now Dave is bringing Nomadic Marketing [...]
