Technology Offers Valuable Predictive Tools

August 5, 2026

Musa Kalenga, CEO of Brave, writes that companies whose marketing and finance chiefs genuinely trust one another grow revenue nearly twice as fast as those where the CMO and CFO are at odds. That finding, from a new survey of almost 1,400 senior executives by Bain & Company and Google, recasts adversarial relationships between CMOs and CFOs as one of the most underrated growth levers a company has.

Yes, the divide between marketing and finance is real. But it was never a clash of values, or about creativity versus rigour. It is, and always has been, about proof of performance.

The same survey reveals that the two functions are far more aligned than the antagonistic stereotype allows. More than half of both marketers and finance leaders named demonstrating direct revenue impact as the single most important thing marketing can do to strengthen its standing with finance. Both groups pointed to return on marketing investment and revenue impact as the ones that matter most.

About 70 per cent of both groups, the research found, expect performance investments to pay back within months or quarters. Roughly 40 per cent of each accept that brand investment needs a year or more to work.

Financial Folk Are Rational Sceptics, They Want Proof

Finance is not uniquely hostile to the long term. The Bain and Google researchers write that finance leaders scrutinise marketing the way they scrutinise every line in the business. They do this because they are trained to challenge assumptions and pressure-test the evidence. That is the job.

So if we agree on the goal, the metrics and even the time horizons, why does the relationship so often feel like a standoff?

Because the friction was never about priorities; instead, it lies in data quality and in how results are communicated and validated. Marketing’s problem, bluntly put, is that finance does not always believe the numbers we bring to the table. This is not a fresh wound.

Marketing Needs To Earn Trust From The C-Suite

As long ago as 2011, the Fournaise Marketing Group reported that 80 per cent of chief executives said they did not really trust, or were unimpressed by, the work of their marketers. The same research revealed that 90 per cent said they trusted the judgement of their finance and technology chiefs.

Over a decade on, the credibility gap has proved stubborn. The CMO Survey, run twice a year by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, has logged the same quiet frustration for years. A large share of senior marketers concede they cannot demonstrate the impact of their spending in hard, quantitative terms.

The Bain and Google work sharpens the point. Only 41 per cent of marketers, it found, feel they have the right data, tools and measurement capability to tie their performance to business outcomes.

When you cannot prove it, you are left to assert it. And assertion, in a room full of people paid to be sceptical, is the quickest way to lose an argument, and a budget with it.

Integration Is Rewarded By Financial Benefit, Which Starts With Alignment

Now let’s return to the good news. The massive benefit when CMOs and CFOs work together. Alongside the near-doubling of revenue growth, companies with a strong relationship between their marketing and finance chiefs are almost 1.5 times more likely to lead their sectors, Bain and Google found.

The researchers defined leaders as those growing market share by at least 7 per cent in the previous year, or growing share by at least 4 per cent alongside revenue growth of 11 per cent or more. Trust between these two functions is a growth driver in its own right.

The mechanism is intuitive. When finance believes marketing’s numbers, capital flows to marketing faster and stays there longer. When it does not, every campaign is disputed, every horizon is shortened, and the organisation retreats to the safest, most measurable, most short-term spending it can find. Spending that, perversely, is often the least effective.

Peter Field, whose effectiveness studies for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising have shaped the field, warned in 2019 of a ‘crisis in creative effectiveness’ as brands chased quarterly proof points and starved the long-term brand building that actually compounds. A finance team that distrusts marketing does not merely withhold money; it quietly tilts the whole enterprise towards short-termism.

Transparency, Alignment And Unity Create Competitive Advantage

Three habits, each borne out by the Bain and Google research, separate the partnerships that work from those that do not.

1. The first is radical transparency with the data. The strongest marketing–finance relationships, the study found, are 2.5 times more likely to rest on credible data. This credibility comes from showing the numbers plainly, refusing to cherry-pick, and reporting the failures alongside the wins. This is counter-intuitive for an industry trained to sell. Yet nothing buys standing with a finance chief faster than volunteering that a campaign underperformed, and explaining exactly why. Be candid, too, about what cannot yet be measured cleanly. Finance can live with honest uncertainty; it will not forgive a number dressed up as more certain than it is.

2. The second is to lock the metrics before the campaign launches, not after. The leaders in the study agree on a shared measurement framework that is owned jointly by marketing and finance well before budgets are committed.

3. The third is to agree realistic payback horizons, and then defend them together. This is where marketing must teach finance something, and where the evidence is firmly on our side. The landmark studies by Les Binet and Peter Field for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising established the now-famous benchmark that a roughly 60/40 split between long-term brand building and short-term activation delivers the strongest results over time. And as the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s research, popularised by LinkedIn’s B2B Institute as the ’95-5 rule’, has shown, at any given moment only about 5 per cent of buyers in a category are actually in the market to buy. Brand investment is not a leap of faith; it is the rational way to stay remembered by the 95 per cent who will buy later. Bring your finance chief inside that logic before you ask them to fund it, and a brand campaign stops looking like self-indulgence and starts looking like a bet with a known, if longer, payback curve.

None of this works if the effort travels in one direction only. The most productive partnerships I have seen involve finance chiefs who have deliberately built a marketing mindset of their own.

Technology Offers Valuable Predictive Tools

The good news? Artificial intelligence is beginning to close the data gap that has dogged this relationship for a generation, sharpening real-time information and forecasting. The marketers furthest ahead are using it precisely to raise the quality of what they can prove to finance. Transparency, as it happens, is becoming easier to deliver just as it becomes more valuable.

The reward for getting this right is not merely a quieter budget meeting. It is freedom. When marketers consistently hit the targets they have set jointly with finance, they earn the licence to make longer-horizon bets without having to justify the timeline afresh every quarter.

That is the reframe the best organisations have already made. They have stopped treating marketing and finance as a transaction to be endured and started running it as a growth alliance.

The proof is in the profit. CMOs and CFOs that make this work do better. Two and a half times better than anyone else.

BRAVE GROUP
www.bravegroup.co.za

Human Signal Is The New Distinctiveness

Modern Marketing

August 5, 2026

Lauren Pybus, Euphoria Telecom.

In a B2B landscape flooded with AI-generated content and feature-heavy spec sheets, competing on product alone is a losing strategy. Lauren Pybus, Marketing Manager & Creative Director, Euphoria Telecom said one can ask any enterprise buyer to name three vendors in their category, and will get the same shortlist every time.

Not because those companies have unbeatable features, but because they’re the ones who have earned a place in the buyer’s mind. That holds true whether you sell telecoms, CRM, cybersecurity, logistics, cloud communications or HR software. Features get you in the room. They don’t win it.

For decades, B2B marketing operated on the assumption that business buyers are colder and more rational than the average consumer: they are all spec sheets and no sentiment.

The data doesn’t support that. Research behind 2024’s The JOLT Effect found that 40–60% of B2B deals are lost not to a competitor, but to ‘no decision’. Buyers get frozen by the fear of getting it wrong. It’s not just individual fear either.

The 2025 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report took it a step further and found that more than 40% of B2B deals stall due to disagreement within the buying group itself.

And here’s the brutal truth: both are rational. The personal stakes of a bad enterprise purchase are far higher than any consumer product regret. Brand Finance’s research on B2B buying groups found that 81% of purchases went to a brand every stakeholder already recognised before the process began. Only 4% went to a brand known solely by whoever recommended it.

This boils down to a great product will convince one champion, but a strong brand gives the whole buying committee the shared confidence to say yes.

Most Of Your Market Is Not Buying, Yet

Right now, only about 5% of your target market is actively shopping for a solution in your category. The other 95%? They won’t switch for months, maybe even years. LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, working with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, calls this the 95-5 rule.

If you chase only today’s in-market buyers, you’ll miss something crucial. You won’t build the familiarity that gets you shortlisted when the other 95% eventually enter the market.

This is why brand spend shouldn’t be the first line cut when budgets tighten. Recognition is what makes tomorrow’s demand generation faster and cheaper. By the time the buying process starts, the buyer already knows your name.

Different Beats Better

Compete on features alone, and you’re stuck in a race nobody wins for long. Compete on being unmistakably you, in tone, in visual identity, in the story you tell, and you become far harder to forget.

Take Notion’s Faces campaign, which went viral on LinkedIn in early 2025: it didn’t pitch a single feature. The productivity app turned its custom employee portraits, an internal quirk, into a community moment. Real people shared their own portraits and their own stories about why they use the product.

Its team said it plainly: personal stories and emotional connection were what set them apart from every other productivity app running feature ads. That’s a brand position, not a spec sheet. And it worked without a single screenshot.

It’s the same with distinctive brand assets: a mascot, a colour, or a way of talking. STFO’s 2026 audit of 100 B2B SaaS companies found these assets do more to earn attention than paid ads ever will. A brand’s job is not to persuade; it is to be instantly, unmistakably recognised.

A Strong Brand Is Not Just Remembered, It Is Paid For

A landmark Google, CEB and Motista study looked at 3 000 B2B buyers across 36 brands, and found that when buyers feel personal value in a supplier relationship, be it pride, confidence in the supplier, or lower risk to their own reputation, they’re far more likely to pay a premium over a functionally identical competitor.

Eight times more likely. That one figure alone should reframe how finance teams view the marketing budget. Forget ‘brand’ being a cost centre, it actually sets your price.

In A Flood Of AI-Generated Sameness, Human Signal Is The New Distinctiveness

Generative AI has made competent product content nearly free to produce. Landing pages, comparison pages, feature explainers: every competitor now has access to the same tools.

The result is what one Forbes analysis calls the ‘algorithmic middle’: every brand drawing on the same models, converging on the same safe, templated answer.

So What Cuts Through?

An opinion nobody else in the category is willing to state. A stance that risks disagreement instead of chasing consensus. That kind of clarity can’t be prompted into existence, because it requires deciding something, not generating something.

None of this means the product stops mattering, it earns you the right to a second conversation.

But across B2B, from software to services to telecoms, the best product on paper doesn’t always win the deal.

That’s won earlier, by the brand the buyer already trusts, already remembers and already believes in.

EUPHORIA TELECOM
https://euphoria.co.za/

Consider The Environment Into Which AI Has Arrived

Modern Marketing

August 5, 2026

Consider The Environment Into Which AI Has Arrived. — Daniel Munslow, Absa Group.

Daniel Munslow, Managing Executive: Group Communications, Absa Group, describes how the AI boom is creating a trust premium in communications. It was around the turn of the century that students in the fields of public relations and communications would have started encountering new curricula centred on what was then referred to as ‘new media’: an examination of the mainstreaming of the internet and the information platforms it enabled, and what all of this might mean for the more traditional practices the industry had become so attached to in the decades preceding.

Many would argue that the landscape has since undergone a profound and persistent rate of change, spurred forward largely by digital technologies and social media, which fundamentally altered who controls information and how it moves.

Yet with the growing ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence, perhaps the most consequential development since those early debates around new media, attention is being drawn back to a much older question: trust. To fully appreciate the correlation, it is worth considering the environment into which AI has arrived.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report for 2026 points to the emergence of a contested multipolar landscape in which confrontation is increasingly displacing collaboration, and trust is steadily losing value. The latest Edelman Trust Barometer paints a similar picture at a societal level, finding that seven in ten people globally exhibit what it describes as an insular mindset, characterised by an unwillingness or hesitation to trust those with different values, views, approaches to solving problems, or cultural backgrounds.

The role AI will ultimately play within this environment remains to be seen, but from a communications risk perspective, its implications are already becoming apparent in two areas: credibility and visibility.

For the first time, the cost and effort associated with producing content, whether written, visual, or audio, is falling dramatically, raising the prospect of a communications environment in which that content becomes almost limitless. That may be good news for productivity. It may even prove beneficial for creativity. But it also presents a challenge, because as content becomes easier to produce, communication may have to work harder to prove that it is worth believing.

The credibility question becomes particularly relevant when viewed against the growth of organised disinformation across the continent, with the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies reporting that the 189 documented disinformation campaigns active in Africa today represent almost four times the number recorded in 2022, a figure it still regards as an undercount. The Centre notes that these campaigns have helped drive violence, validate military coups, silence civil society voices and obscure corruption, developments that many analysts have linked, at least in part, to the proliferation of AI, which has become a boon for content farms and misinformation networks.

This means that as audiences become more discerning and the volume of synthetic content continues to grow, organisations may find themselves having to work harder to establish the authenticity of their messages and the reliability of the information upon which they are based. It also means there is far more competition for attention, a reality that places emphasis on visibility, believability and an organisation’s ability to cut through.

Precisely how much content now being generated by AI is difficult to determine, although some early studies estimate that anywhere between 30% and 75% of the text appearing on active web pages may originate from AI-generated sources. Whether the true figure sits at the lower or upper end of that range is almost beside the point, what matters is that the proliferation of AI-generated content is already well underway and shows little sign of slowing.

Audiences may not always be able to determine whether a piece of content was produced by a person or a machine, but they are often remarkably adept at recognising authenticity, expertise, lived experience, and genuine accountability when they encounter it. These qualities may become some of the most important differentiators available to organisations in the years ahead. In a world where content is abundant, trust in the institution behind the content may matter more than ever.

There is a certain irony in all of this. Many of the tools contributing to the proliferation of content are also proving useful in helping organisations navigate it.

Communications and public relations teams are using AI to adapt campaigns across different markets and cultural contexts with greater speed and precision; during live events like product launches and major announcements, audience sentiment can be analysed in real time, allowing messaging to evolve as conversations unfold; some organisations are using AI to run thousands of simulated crisis scenarios based on their operating environment, helping identify potential vulnerabilities and prepare response strategies before issues materialise; others are applying it to media engagement, analysing journalists’ reporting histories and areas of interest to develop more relevant and personalised outreach.

The same technologies are also beginning to redefine how organisations communicate directly with customers. At Absa, for example, the Abby virtual assistant helps clients access information, navigate products and services, and complete a range of banking activities through a chatbot platform. It is a demonstration of how AI is increasingly being deployed across the full spectrum of stakeholder engagement.

Those that benefit most from AI may not be those that automate everything, but those that understand which parts of communication should remain human. There is, however, a catch. Governance.

Surveys show that 59% of public relations practitioners expect AI and automation to grow in importance over the next five years, but at the same time, Africa has been found to have the lowest rate of governance-backed AI adoption at 24.8%, while only 20.5% of organisations report having responsible AI guidelines or policies in place.

There is an urgent need to invest in AI literacy and responsible AI training, ensuring employees engage with these tools critically and understand both their capabilities and limitations. Equally important is the development of clear governance mechanisms that guide how AI is used in practice, promoting greater accountability and transparency as these technologies become more deeply embedded in everyday communications activities.

At Absa, for example, the introduction of a Responsible Use of AI Policy has sought to establish clearer principles around transparency, human oversight and accountability, while complementary standards governing machine learning and AI models help guide how these technologies are developed and applied across the organisation.

The objective is not to constrain innovation, but to ensure that its adoption takes place within a framework that recognises both the opportunities and responsibilities that accompany it.

In many respects, that brings the profession full circle. For all the technological change communications has experienced over the past two decades, trust is the constant. The responsibility now is to ensure that it remains so.

ABSA
www.absa.co.za

Moving From Media Efficiency To Media Effectiveness

Modern Marketing

August 5, 2026

Moving Fromm Media Efficiency To Media Effectiveness — Natascha Torres, iqbusiness.

According to Natascha Torres, Head of Digital Media Strategy at iqbusiness, campaign dashboards often look fantastic with high reach, excellent click-through rates (CTRs) and efficient costs per thousand impressions (CPM). But the question that many marketers and agencies are not asking is whether these metrics reflect real impact for the brand.

Programmatic advertising remains one of the most powerful ways for brands to reach audiences at scale, but campaign success can sometimes appear easier to prove than it really is. What matters among those metrics is how many people really paid attention.

An impression does not necessarily mean a real person saw and took notice of your ad. A click does not prove that a user landed on your site, it could be a frustrated finger accidentally clicking through rather than closing the ad. And without the right monitoring and placement controls in place, some ads may be served below the fold, skipped in seconds or exposed to low-quality traffic rather than attentive audiences.

This is why advertisers need to look beyond campaigns that look good on paper and ask whether they deliver measurable brand impact or business outcomes. Forward-thinking advertisers and agencies are moving away from volume-based metrics towards measurements that consider whether users are paying attention.

In a fragmented media landscape where users are constantly scrolling, skipping, swiping and multitasking, attention is scarce. But it is one of the most valuable commodities on the internet. Research shows that attention correlates more strongly with outcomes like brand recall, consideration and conversion than traditional metrics like impressions or clicks.

Measuring attention is not as easy as measuring CTRs or CPMs, but it paints a more accurate picture of business impact. When you are looking at attention, you are not just measuring whether users were exposed to an ad, but also whether they engaged with it. This is not just about whether the ad was served, but whether it was noticed, processed, and remembered.

To measure attention, you need to use a combination of platform tools, third-party solutions and behavioural signals:

Platform-based brand lift studies: Programmatic platforms like Meta and YouTube offer brand lift studies that measure shifts in awareness, recall and intent after exposure to ads. These studies help connect media activity to real changes in perception.

Third-party verification and attention tools: Solutions like DoubleVerify, IAS, and Adelaide provide deeper insights into viewability, time-in-view, screen share and predictive attention scores. These tools filter out invalid traffic and assess whether ads had the opportunity to be seen. They are also easy to integrate into Meta, Google and programmatic demand-side platforms (DSPs) like DV360.

Engagement-based metrics: On social platforms, engagement signals such as video completion rates, watch time, saves and shares are ways to measure attention. A ‘like’ is easy, whereas a full video view or share indicates deeper engagement.

On-site behavioural signals: Beyond-the-click metrics like session duration, pages per session, scroll depth and bounce rate show whether users are genuinely engaging with your content after arriving on your site.

Moving From Media Efficiency To Media Effectiveness

Moving from volume-based metrics towards measuring attention is about optimising for quality of outcomes rather than scale. Attention encourages a mindset shift from buying the cheapest media to buying the most effective media. This means using the controls available within programmatic and other digital channels to prioritise placements that are viewable and uncluttered. Spending should be targeted at quality placements and environments where users are more engaged and more likely to pay attention.

Perhaps even more importantly, brands need to invest in high-quality creative that captures and holds attention. Even the best placement will not perform if the ad itself does not resonate. Creative is often the single biggest driver of attention. Given that brands need to compete for attention and not just CTRs and CPMs, we need to start looking at ad performance as a creative problem and not just as a media challenge.

Strong Attention-Driven Creative:

– Hooks the viewer within the first 2–3 seconds.
– Is tailored to platform behaviour (e.g., vertical video for mobile).
– Uses storytelling or emotion to sustain interest.
– Communicates value quickly and clearly.

Brands that test and iterate creative based on attention signals tend to see significantly better performance over time.

A More Holistic Measurement Framework

Embracing attention signals is not about throwing the volume-related metrics out the window. It means moving towards a more layered approach that connects delivery (impressions and reach), attention (viewability, time-in-view, engagement), and outcomes (brand lift, conversions, revenue). This enables marketers to understand not just what happened, but why, and to optimise creative and placement to get better business outcomes.

IQBUSINESS
www.iqbusiness.net

Change 1 Woman Joburg Networking Events Featuring SA’s Entrepreneur Of The Year And More

Meggan McCarthy, Modern Marketing

August 4, 2026

Change 1 Woman Joburg Networking Events Featuring SAs Entrepreneur Of The Year And More

The 2026 Change 1 Woman (C1W) networking events promise to be even bigger and more valuable. Not only will the events feature speakers who will give you impactful advice on resilience and business success, this is also an opportunity to make meaningful connections with women in branding, print and signage.

The C1W events are taking place from 8-10 September at Gallagher Convention Centre on the balcony in Hall 3. Thank you to our sponsors: NUtec Digital Ink, Midcomp, Avery Dennison, Kolok Graphic Supplies, KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa, and Graphix Supply World.

The event is being held alongside the Modern Marketing, Sign Africa, FESPA Africa, Africa Print and Graphics, Print and Sign expos. So C1W attendees will not only have opportunities to network, but they can also see the latest technologies and business solutions all at one venue.

Our inspiring C1W speakers include:

Talitha Oosthuizen, 1st Princess Mrs South Africa

Topic: Conquering Mount Everest: Living Life To Your Full Potential And Making Your Dreams A Reality

Oosthuizen is a South African entrepreneur, philanthropist, adventurer, speaker, and Mrs South Africa 1st Princess. Guided by faith, resilience, and purpose, she is passionate about using her journey and platforms to create meaningful impact and inspire hope. Her adventurous spirit has taken her to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and to Everest Base Camp, journeys that reflect her belief in courage, discipline, faith, and perseverance. Warm, grounded, and purpose-driven, Oosthuizen believes that influence carries responsibility. Whether through business, philanthropy, pageantry, adventure, or public speaking, her mission remains to use her voice to uplift others, create awareness, and leave a lasting impact.

Date and time: Tuesday, 8 September at 11:30am. Book your free slot here.

Liezle Barrie, National Sales Manager, Consumables, at Intamarket Graphics

Topic: Growth Through Reinvention

Growth rarely happens inside our comfort zone. In this presentation, Barrie shares her personal journey of reinvention, exploring how challenges, setbacks, and change can become powerful catalysts for growth. Using stories from both her personal life and leadership career, she encourages attendees to embrace curiosity, step beyond self-imposed limitations, and recognise that becoming the best version of yourself is not about perfection, it is about choosing progress every day. Delegates will leave inspired to unlock their own potential and lead with greater confidence, purpose, and authenticity.

Date and time: Wednesday, 9 September 2026 at 14:00pm. Book your free slot here.

Taryn Hunter Sharman, SA’s Entrepreneur of the Year

Topic: Navigating The Entrepreneurship Journey And Tips For Business Success

Sharman is the CEO and co-founder of Faith & Fear, an award-winning, women-owned creative consultancy redefining the traditional agency model through insight-led, impact-driven work. She is also co-founder of The Brave Collective, a women’s empowerment platform focused on leadership, financial literacy, and personal growth. With over 20 years’ experience across leading brands and agencies, Sharman is known for her fearless strategy, commercial results, and commitment to building businesses that drive both profit and purpose.

Date and time: Thursday, 10 September at 10:00am. Book your free slot here.

Change 1 Woman
https://www.c1w.co.za/

Brands Should Recognise Gaming As A Complete Marketing And Entertainment Ecosystem

Meggan McCarthy, Modern Marketing

August 4, 2026

Brands Should Recognise Gaming As A Complete Marketing And Entertainment Ecosystem — Barry Louzada, Mettlestate.

Barry Louzada, founder and MD of Mettlestate, says gaming is one of the largest attention ecosystems, yet many marketers are still only scratching the surface of what is possible. He discusses how gaming can support awareness, participation, community building, content creation, data capture and long-term loyalty. Mettlestate is a brand sponsor of this year’s WesBank New Generation Awards. Modern Marketing is a proud media partner of the awards.

Why did Mettlestate sign on as a brand sponsor for this year’s WesBank New Generation Awards?

Mettlestate has always been focused on creating opportunities for the next generation. Whether they are players, creators, students or professionals entering the industry, we have always believed in backing emerging talent and helping people reach their potential.

The future of marketing is no different. It is being built by a new generation of marketers, creators and innovators who are challenging established thinking and finding better ways to connect with audiences.

That is exactly what the WesBank New Generation Awards celebrate. They recognise the people shaping the future of South African marketing, and we are proud to support an initiative that champions innovation, rewards exceptional work and invests in the next generation of industry talent.

For us, it is more than a sponsorship. It is an opportunity to recognise the people shaping what is next.

What value will Mettlestate bring to the awards?

Gaming has become one of the largest entertainment industries in the world, but more importantly, it is one of the largest attention ecosystems. Yet many marketers are still only scratching the surface of what is possible.

Over the past decade, Mettlestate has worked with brands to turn gaming audiences into measurable business outcomes through creators, live events, digital platforms, tournaments and community-led experiences. That has given us a unique perspective on how participation, authenticity and community can create stronger commercial results than traditional awareness campaigns alone.

I hope to bring that perspective to the awards. Not just recognising great creative work, but also recognising ideas that genuinely understand audiences, solve business challenges and push our industry forward.

As an official judge for the WesBank New Generation Awards, what do you think makes an award-winning campaign?

The best campaigns solve a business challenge while creating genuine, authentic value for the audience.

Creative execution is important, but creativity should always serve a strategic objective. The strongest campaigns understand the people they are trying to reach and give them a reason to engage beyond simply seeing an ad.

I will be looking for work that combines strategic thinking, creative excellence and measurable results, but also demonstrates how brands have empowered, enabled or improved the experience of the audience they are trying to serve.

Ultimately, the campaigns that stand out are the ones that create value for both the business and the consumer.

Most marketing strategies are missing the participation layer. How do gaming campaigns fill that gap, and what are the benefits for brands?

Most marketing is designed around exposure. Gaming is designed around participation. That distinction changes the relationship between a brand and its audience. Rather than asking people to consume content, gaming gives them opportunities to participate directly with the brand, engage, compete, collaborate, unlock rewards and become part of the experience.

For brands, that participation often leads to longer engagement, stronger recall, more meaningful first-party data and communities that continue engaging long after the campaign has ended.

How can brands authentically connect with gaming communities?

The first step is recognising that gaming is not a channel. It is a culture.

The brands that earn credibility are the ones that improve the gaming experience rather than interrupt it. That could be through creators, tournaments, community initiatives, rewards or experiences that genuinely matter to players.

Authenticity is not something you communicate. It is something the community decides after you have consistently added value.

What are the top three trends in the South African gaming and esports space that brands can capitalise on?

The first is that gaming has become mainstream. The audience now spans almost every demographic, making gaming one of the broadest entertainment audiences available.

The second is participation. Audiences increasingly want to engage with brands through engaging campaigns, competitions, live experiences, creator communities and interactive campaigns rather than traditional advertising.

The third is the continued growth of creator and audience-led communities. Trust has become one of marketing’s most valuable assets, and both the gaming audience and gaming creators exist and thrive in engaged communities where recommendations carry genuine influence.

Together, these trends create significant opportunities for brands prepared to think beyond traditional media.

Are South African brands embracing the marketing opportunities in games, or is there still room for growth? What do you think the barriers are?

We have seen significant progress over the past few years, but I still believe we are at the beginning.

The biggest barrier is not the audience. South Africa has millions of gamers. The challenge is that many organisations still view gaming through the lens of esports or sponsorship rather than recognising it as a complete marketing and entertainment ecosystem.

Gaming can support awareness, participation, community building, content creation, data capture and long-term loyalty. As brands become more familiar with that broader opportunity, I think we will see gaming become a standard part of mainstream marketing rather than a specialist discipline.

Anything else you would like to add?

Marketing has always followed audience attention. Today, a significant portion of that attention exists within gaming.

The opportunity for brands is not simply to advertise to gamers. It is to become part of experiences that audiences actively choose to engage with.

That’s why we are excited to support the New Generation Awards. They recognise the people pushing our industry forward, and I believe gaming will continue playing an increasingly important role in how brands build relationships with consumers over the next decade.

WesBank New Generation Awards

The WesBank New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards are South Africa’s premier independent and performance-based digital accolades, and have become the definitive benchmark for digital excellence in the South African corporate and agency sectors. Mark your calendars for September 23rd, the night Johannesburg witnesses the pinnacle of South African digital achievement.

WESBANK NEW GENERATION AWARDS
www.newgenawards.co.za

Supercharge Your Marketing At The Modern Marketing Power Hour

Meggan McCarthy, Modern Marketing

August 4, 2026

Supercharge Your Marketing At The Modern Marketing Power Hour

Industry leaders will share their expertise and insights in the ever-evolving field of marketing at the free-to-attend Modern Marketing Power Hour, taking place at the Modern Marketing Expo. The sessions will be held on the Balcony in Hall 3 at Gallagher Convention Centre.

Get the latest insights from these industry leaders:

Anisa Fielding, Head of Marketing, IMM Graduate School

Topic: The African Consumer Decoded
Tuesday, 8 September 2026, 12:30-13:30

There is no single ‘African consumer’, and treating more than a billion people as one market is one of the fastest ways for a brand to get Africa wrong. The African Consumer Decoded uses compelling data, surprising marketing facts and real brand examples to unpack the cultural, economic, digital and generational forces shaping consumer behaviour across the continent.

From mobile-first commerce and informal retail to language, identity and community influence, the session reveals why consumers may use the same products very differently across markets. Entertaining, practical and evidence-based, the talk will examine campaigns that connected, campaigns that missed the mark and the lessons marketers can use to build more relevant, credible and effective African marketing strategies. Book your free slot here.

Camagu Sam, Senior Sales Manager, Mall Ads

Topic: Rethinking Retail Spaces and Retail Marketing
Wednesday, 9 September 2026, 12:30-13:30

As foot traffic patterns shift and e-commerce continues to place pressure on physical retail, malls are having to reinvent their value proposition. This talk explores how treating physical retail space as a structured media network, rather than simply a leasing asset, is reshaping the economics of shopping centres, with implications for retail marketing, and shopper engagement. Book your free slot here.

Tendai Rukwava, Founder and CEO, Coral Communications

Topic: Responsible AI in Marketing: The Governance Framework Every Brand and Agency Needs
Thursday, 10 September 2026, 12:30-13:30

While AI is a powerful tool, PR and marketing should still be human-led. Building a human-led, AI-supported business requires an AI usage policy to set up clear rules and terms of engagement up front. Learn about the frameworks your company should have in place to protect client data, prevent plagiarism, ensure responsible use, and more. Book your free slot here.

Please register online for free attendance to the Modern Marketing Expo, taking place 8-10 September, 9am-5pm at Gallagher Convention Centre. The event is co-located with: Sign Africa, FESPA Africa, Africa Print and Graphics, Print and Sign expos.

MODERN MARKETING EXPO
+27 11 568 1894
https://modernmarketingexpo.co.za

What Keeps A Brand Relevant And Successful Today?

Modern Marketing

July 29, 2026

Domaine Rautenbach, Jacobs Coffee.

According to Domaine Rautenbach, Senior Brand Manager at Jacobs Coffee, for global brands operating in South Africa and across the African continent, relevance has become one of the most important currencies in modern brand leadership.

One of the biggest questions facing brand leaders today is not simply how to grow a brand, but how to keep it relevant in a world where consumer behaviour, technology and culture are evolving faster than ever before.

Consumers are no longer looking only for products or services. They are looking for brands that understand their lifestyles, reflect their aspirations, and fit naturally into their everyday moments.

We have seen this shift firsthand. Coffee is no longer simply about routine consumption. It has evolved into an experience-led category shaped by convenience, indulgence, seasonality, personalisation, and social connection.

Consumers are increasingly seeking café-style experiences at home, while also expecting brands to evolve alongside their changing preferences. This is where modern brand leadership becomes critical.

Strong brands are not built through big campaigns alone. They are built through consistent presence in people’s daily lives. For Jacobs, this means showing up in real, relatable moments from busy morning routines to shared moments of connection between friends, families, and colleagues.

In a disruptive environment, relevance matters more than reach. If a brand no longer fits naturally into consumers’ lives, it risks losing long-term relevance regardless of its legacy or scale.

At the same time, disruption has become the default operating environment for brands. Economic pressure, digital acceleration, shifting consumer expectations, cultural change and the rapid pace of trend cycles are forcing businesses to adapt faster than ever before. For leaders, the challenge is balancing agility with consistency.

Consumers want innovation, but they also want familiarity and trust. This means innovation cannot feel disconnected from the brand people already know. It needs to feel like a natural evolution of what consumers already value.

Our recent launches were informed by deeper consumer insights around indulgence, versatility, and the growing desire for premium coffee experiences at home. Importantly, these innovations still remained rooted in the core values consumers associate with Jacobs: warmth, quality, and familiarity.

This is one of the most important lessons in modern brand leadership: innovation should strengthen brand identity, not distract from it.

Another major shift shaping brand leadership is the role of data and technology. While data gives brands access to more information than ever before, leadership today still requires human judgement, emotional intelligence, and instinct. Data can tell you what consumers are doing. Real insight comes from understanding why they are doing it.

The brands that succeed in the future will not necessarily be those with the most data, but those that can translate information into meaningful human experiences. Technology and AI will continue reshaping how brands engage consumers, personalise communication and predict trends, but authentic connection and trust will remain irreplaceable.

Trust itself has become one of the defining measures of successful leadership. Consumers increasingly expect brands to act with transparency, accountability, and purpose, not only in moments of celebration, but also during times of uncertainty or societal tension.

Purpose can no longer exist only in marketing campaigns or corporate messaging. It must be visible in products, decisions, partnerships, and priorities. This is especially important in the FMCG sector, where brands form part of consumers’ daily lives and purchasing habits.

In crowded and highly competitive categories, brand leadership is ultimately about becoming the default choice in consumers’ minds while continuing to evolve alongside them. Looking ahead, the future will belong to adaptive brands and leaders who embrace continuous learning, experimentation, and reinvention without losing sight of what makes their brands meaningful in the first place.

The next generation of brand leaders will need to balance creativity with commercial understanding, data with empathy, and innovation with consistency. They will need to move quickly without losing clarity on what their brands stand for.

Because ultimately, the challenge is not simply keeping up with change. It is staying grounded in what makes your brand matter while evolving how you show up in the world.

JACOBS
https://www.jacobscoffee.co.za

Global Consumer Research Illustrates Future Trends In AI

Modern Marketing

July 29, 2026

Global Consumer Research Illustrates Future Trends — Rohan Tambyrajah, PHD.

A study by PHD in partnership with WARC finds that total agent-facilitated consumer spending will triple from $944 billion this year to $3.35 trillion in 2030. While consumers will still make most purchase decisions on their own in the next few years, AI agents will increasingly shape what gets seen, shortlisted and bought, and will increasingly mediate the boring, complex or repetitive tasks along the way.

Marketing is operating in an age of abundance. Today’s consumers face more content and choices than they have the attention or means to manage. AI agents are emerging as fundamental tools to help consumers cut through the noise and make decisions faster. The research reveals how quickly they are reshaping the customer journey.

As decision-making increasingly evolves from human consumers to machine intermediaries, this study explores the scale, timeline and implications for brands, agencies and the wider marketing ecosystem.

Rohan Tambyrajah, Worldwide Chief Strategy Officer, PHD, said, ‘This research brings category level empiricism to the open-ended industry conversation about the growth opportunity with consumer facing AI and Agentic AI. It underscores the need for brands to design for both meaning and machine logic, and through Four Modes Framework offers marketers practical guidance on how best to implement against a category-level business case.’

James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting, WARC, and author of the research, said, ‘This landmark study finds that agentic AI is already facilitating the path to purchase for many consumers, and will become deeply embedded over the coming years to influence $3.35 trillion in household expenditure by 2030.

‘This is true not just in high-frequency categories such as travel, CPG, and utilities, but increasingly more so in sectors that have traditionally leveraged brand marketing as a core strategy. By mapping adoption across product sectors, markets and media, our research ensures practitioners are not caught flat-footed as they approach the new frontier.’

Methodology Of The Research

The research draws on data provided by Acxiom and uses a weighted index approach to evaluate key factors such as decision complexity, transaction value, purchase frequency, data availability, media mix, and market regulation to make a holistic assessment of how much consumers will spend on AI channels in 2026 and 2030. The analysis covers the global viewpoint of ten markets: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, South Korea, UK & US. Additionally, it includes industry expert views and category analysis.

Key findings from the research outlined in ‘From abundance to agents: how the delegation of choice is transforming marketing’ are:

Categories And Markets Leading On Agentic AI Consumer Spend

Agentic AI, artificial intelligence systems that understand goals, plans steps, and act autonomously, are making their mark on high-frequency categories like travel and transport, food, media and publishing. By 2030, AI-facilitated spending will surge across all industries, especially where purchases are frequent and data-rich.

The top three markets for agentic AI consumer spending in 2030 will be:

US: The US will lead agentic AI spending at $1.1trn (31.9% of the global total), driven by consumers already comfortable with digital commerce and brands with the resources to deploy agents at scale.

China: China will be the second-largest market at $505.8bn (15.1% of global spend), powered by high platform integration, government support, and consumers ready to embrace delegated commerce.

UK: The UK will capture 3.9% of global agentic AI spending ($131.2bn), driven by strong talent, major investments, and government backing for AI-led transformation.

How Agentic AI Will Affect Consumer Spending: Introducing The Four Modes Framework

Agentic AI will not impact all industry categories evenly. PHD’s Four Modes Framework defines where marketing must evolve as brands extend focus to influencing machines.

Each mode of marketing requires strategy, capability design and creativity. All four will coexist, with their importance varying by category, purchase occasion and customer journey stage.

The framework serves as a navigation tool to see the category impact of agentic AI on marginal purchasing decisions in 2026 and 2030, while recognising that brand advertising, salience, and equity remain fundamental to success.

Agent → Agent

Agent adoption will surge where purchases are repetitive, searchable, and measurable, not necessarily high-volume or low-value, just routine enough for AI to own the entire journey.

The three industry categories where agentic AI will have the greatest impact are:

1. Telecoms and utilities will grow 611.9% from $57.6 billion in 2026 to $410.3 billion by 2030, making it the largest category for AI agents. Information-dense, frequent billing, and comparison-led contract switching make these infrequent but high-value purchases ideal for AI delegation.

2. Financial Services decisions are too sensitive to fully delegate, but too complex not to be agent-assisted. Total agent-facilitated consumer spending will increase 235.3% to $237.9 billion by 2030.

3. Travel and transport will lead agent-facilitated spending at $78.1 billion in 2026, surging 252.8% to $275.6 billion by 2030 as AI agents take control of discovery, planning, and booking.

Agent → Consumer

1. Alcoholic Drinks: This category is habitual and identity-driven, brand loyalty still rules. AI agents will influence $62 billion in spending in 2026, advising on party ideas, drink pairings, and occasions. By 2030, agentic spending will grow 219.0% to $198.4 billion as agents dominate both replenishment and discovery.

Soft Drinks: Starting small at $60.5 billon in agent-influenced spending in 2026, it will see massive growth of 403.5% to $304.8 billion by 2030. Habit-driven, low-value replenishment is perfect for AI automation: optimising price, convenience, and repeat purchasing.

2. Food: This category is primed for early use of agentic AI thanks to is high frequency, low decision complexity. Agents will influence $78.1 billion globally in 2026, surging 274.8% to $292.8 billion by 2030.

3. Media & Publishing: At $73.3 billion, this category is already one of the most impacted by agentic AI. Subscriptions, recommendations, and content consumption are digitally native and measurable. By 2030, agentic AI spending will increase 401.8% to $367.8 billion.

4. Retail: will see agent-facilitated spending grow 218.7%: from $62.7 billion in 2026 to $199.9 billion in 2030 driven by omnichannel shopping and AI comparison. The challenge for retailers will be to remain part of the consumer shopping journey, not just a fulfilment provider.

Brand → Consumer

High-value, infrequent purchases such as automobiles, electronics, and categories with privacy constraints such as pharma and healthcare, leave less room for agentic AI transaction. Trust is important as consumers must feel confident before delegating expensive or privacy-sensitive decisions.

Consumer → Consumer

Categories such as toiletries and cosmetics, clothing and accessories are heavily influenced by word of mouth and creators and are less affected by agentic AI than others. The impact may be smaller, but it won’t be completely absent.

The Brand Imperative

Brands must learn new skills to successfully market to machines. The shift to agentic AI will require marketers to have:

– A strong foundation of structured, machine-readable data.
– Distinctive and differentiated brand assets.
– A unified brand story that resonates with both humans and AI interfaces.

‘From abundance to agents: how the delegation of choice is transforming marketing’ report is available to read in full here.’

WARC
https://www.warc.com

What Are The Arguments For And Against Brands Staying Neutral?

Modern Marketing

July 29, 2026

What Are The Arguments For And Against Brands Staying Neutral? — Willem Steenkamp, Flow Communications.

Willem Steenkamp, Flow Communications’ senior writer and editor, asks: should brands stay neutral in our divided world? Whether or not a brand should take a public stance on social or political issues is no longer a simple marketing decision. It is a fundamental strategic dilemma.

As our world becomes increasingly polarised, the pressure on organisations to act as moral agents has intensified. However, the risks associated with standing on principle, or staying silent, are also significant.

So what are the arguments for and against brands staying neutral?

For: Silence As A Strategic Choice

Avoiding alienation: in a deeply divided society, taking a stance on an issue almost inevitably alienates a portion of the customer base. Neutrality allows a brand to remain a ‘broad church’ for consumers.

The risk of being seen as hypocritical: if a brand champions gender equality but has a gender pay gap, for example, or promotes sustainability but has a high carbon footprint, the backlash can be far more damaging than silence.

Respecting internal diversity: a company may comprise employees with various personal beliefs. Taking a public stance may marginalise or silence staff who hold dissenting views.

Guarding against mission creep: a brand’s true social contribution is perhaps through its core business, creating jobs, paying taxes and driving economic growth, and it should not be distracted by social media trends or geopolitics.

Against: Why Neutrality Is A Mistake

The belief-driven customer: data increasingly show that younger consumers, Gen Z and Millennials in particular, choose brands that align with their values. A principled stance builds brand loyalty and differentiation.

ESG drives value: corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are vital for attracting investment and talent. Committing to social justice or sustainability shows a brand grasps its impact on the communities in which it operates.

Corporate influence: by taking a stance on issues such as climate change or human rights, brands can drive change that individual consumers cannot. With great power, some argue, comes great social responsibility.

Authenticity and ‘being right’: brands staying silent on major issues risk being seen as uncaring or profit-obsessed. Taking a stand, even if it causes short-term friction, can cement a brand’s legacy as being authentic and courageous.

Two Examples

In 2022, outdoor recreation clothing brand Patagonia declared that ‘Earth is our only shareholder’, putting 2% voting shares into a trust and the remaining 98% non-voting shares into a vehicle that gives 100% of profits, estimated at $100-million a year, to land conservation and environmental activism. Patagonia is seen by many as embracing a ‘new capitalism’.

In 2023, brewer AB InBev partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to boost inclusivity (and flagging Bud Light sales). This campaign sparked an enormous conservative backlash, and when the brewer backtracked, it created a second backlash, from the LGBTQ+ community. AB InBev lost a projected $1 billion in sales and even more market share.

The differences are (1) motive and (2) resolve. On the one hand, Patagonia put its money where its mouth is; its motive was climate activism and its determination was solid. On the other hand, AB InBev wanted to increase sales, and then lacked the courage of its convictions when things went sideways.

Now consider this. The Havas Meaningful Brands 2025 report, which mined 460 000-plus consumer insights across more than 30 markets, found that 70% of people believe ‘brands should be doing much more for the good of society and the future of our planet, communication is not enough’. And neglecting these expectations is a risk, with 46% of people saying they have ‘stopped buying from brands that do not respect the planet or society’.

Silence may be golden. But it may also be fool’s gold.

FLOW COMMUNICATIONS
www.flowsa.com

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