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Coaching Business Launched To Enhance Organisational Performance

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Modern Marketing
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Coaching Business Launched To Enhance Organisational Performance
Lynn Madeley and Beverley Jones, HPM.

High Performance Matters (HPM) has been launched to help leaders turn strategy into operating reality. Across industries, business leaders are under pressure to deliver growth, manage change, integrate new technologies and improve performance, often all at once.

Yet many organisations are discovering that the real challenge is not a lack of ambition or strategy but rather making that change land across strategy, people, processes, systems and everyday decision-making. That execution gap is the space High Performance Matters is entering.

Founded by Lynn Madeley and Beverley Jones, HPM has launched as a founder-led consulting and executive coaching business built to help leadership teams move beyond strategy decks, fragmented advice and short-term fixes and embed the operating changes needed to improve performance.

With more than two decades of senior leadership experience across some of Africa’s largest marketing, communications and business environments, Madeley and Jones say the same pattern keeps appearing inside organisations: businesses fail because no one stays close enough, for long enough, to make the strategy real.

Lynn Madeley, co-founder and CEO of HPM, said, ‘HPM was created because too many leaders are expected to solve complex business problems with fragmented support. Strategy, people, process and systems cannot be treated as separate conversations. If one of them is misaligned, performance suffers. Our role is to work alongside leadership teams to diagnose what is really getting in the way, fix it with them, and help the change land.’

HPM launches at a time when AI is forcing organisations to confront exactly these kinds of operational questions. Many businesses are experimenting with new tools, but the harder work lies in clarifying roles, decision rights, data flows, accountability and team habits. Without that, AI risks becoming another layer of complexity rather than a driver of better performance.

Beverley Jones, co-founder and COO of HPM, said, ‘Every leadership team we speak to is wrestling with the same question: how do we actually integrate AI into how we operate, not just bolt it onto what we already do? That is an operational and human challenge before it is a technology challenge. It requires structure, discipline, trust and hands-on implementation.’

HPM’s model brings together consulting, fractional leadership and executive coaching, with a focus on partnership rather than prescription. The business works with CEOs, CMOs, managing directors and leadership teams across South Africa and the broader African region, helping them improve performance in ways that are human-centred and sustainable.

Its approach is deliberately practical. HPM works inside a business to understand what is happening beneath the surface, identify the few performance levers that matter most, and help teams build the systems and behaviours needed to sustain improvement.

Madeley describes it as a ‘Mary Poppins approach’, ‘We arrive when things need sorting out. We are kind, but we are firm. We do not disappear the moment it gets uncomfortable, and we do not leave behind a report that nobody has the capacity to implement. We stay close enough to the work to help the new way of operating become habit. Then, and only then, do we leave.’

That emphasis on measurement and accountability is central to the business. HPM uses data to help leadership teams define what success should look like, track whether change is happening, and ensure that performance improvement is visible and repeatable.

‘What gets measured gets done, but the measurement has to be meaningful. We help teams focus on the numbers that actually matter, not dashboards that create noise without changing behaviour.’

Joining Madeley and Jones is Grant Lapping, a specialist partner in digital media, data and technology, with two decades of experience across agencies, clients and publishers. His expertise strengthens HPM’s ability to help clients navigate increasingly complex performance ecosystems where media, data, technology and commercial decisions are now deeply connected.

Lapping added, ‘Media, data and technology decisions are no longer narrow specialist decisions. They are business decisions. Grant brings a critical lens to that part of our work, particularly where clients need to make better sense of complexity, efficiency and measurable performance.’

The business is also fortunate to be including Andrea Bottega as its financial and commercial partner. Bottega has significant experience in the marcom space, having worked with several holding companies in his career across audit, tax and advisory. As a chartered accountant and registered auditor, his expertise strengthens HPM’s ability to help clients build the financial rigour, governance and commercial clarity need to translate strategy into measurable results.

‘Financial performance is where strategy either lands or unravels. My role is to help leadership teams see the numbers clearly, strengthen the operating disciplines behind them and make sure the decisions being taken today build a business that is stronger, more resilient and worth more tomorrow.’

For HPM, the business is about changing the way leaders are supported through periods of pressure, transition and reinvention.

HIGH PERFORMANCE MATTERS
https://highperformancematters.com

Students Challenged To Showcase Marketing Talent Ahead Of Nedbank IMC

By
Modern Marketing
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Students Challenged To Showcase Marketing Talent Ahead Of Nedbank IMC
Gugu Mthembu, Telkom; Prof. Rene Benecke, University of Johannesburg and Dale Hefer, Nedbank IMC.

Student campaign concepts will be showcased to the broader industry at the Nedbank IMC 2026. University of Johannesburg (UJ) students are stepping into real-world marketing, tackling a live commercial brief for Plug’d by Telkom.

The initiative, a collaboration between Plug’d by Telkom and the Nedbank IMC, is built around the ‘Turn Connection into Opportunity’ challenge. Students are tasked with answering a critical question: how can Plug’d by Telkom empower young South Africans to translate connectivity into tangible opportunities?

The challenge brings together students from Marketing, Public Relations and Strategic Communication, with Graphic Design students encouraged to form part of multidisciplinary teams. Participants will work in teams of three to five to develop integrated campaign concepts.

All entries will be submitted ahead of the conference, showcased on a public platform, and evaluated by an official judging panel. The top five finalist teams will attend the Nedbank IMC 2026, where the winning campaign will be announced live on 17 September. The winning team will be recognised on the main stage and awarded a R10,000 cash prize.

Hosted at Mosaïek Teatro in Johannesburg and online, the Nedbank IMC is Africa’s Biggest Marketing Conference™. Under this year’s theme, SHIFT HAPPENS™. ARE YOU READY? The conference will bring together marketers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, agencies and innovators to explore how organisations can remain relevant and competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.

A key highlight of the programme is a dedicated youth panel focused on critical issues such as affordability, access to skills, mentorship and employability. The discussion forms part of both the IMC programme and the broader YOUTH1000 initiative in partnership with the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA), which extends virtual conference access to young people through participating MASA patrons.

Telkom Chief Marketing Officer, Gugu Mthembu, who will be the facilitator of the panel, said, ‘Young people are one of Telkom’s most important growth audiences, and we believe connectivity should be a gateway to possibility. Through Plug’d, Telkom has created an exclusive digital platform and mobile offering for South Africans aged 18 to 24, providing affordable data, lifestyle benefits, learning resources and job-seeker support to help young people stay connected and unlock opportunities. This partnership reflects our belief that the future should be built with young people, not for them, by giving their ideas, ambitions and solutions a meaningful seat at the table while advancing Telkom’s purpose of connecting South Africans to a world of possibilities.’

Dale Hefer, CEO of the Nedbank IMC, says the initiative underscores the conference’s commitment to developing emerging talent, ‘The industry cannot continue to speak about young people without creating meaningful opportunities for participation. This challenge gives UJ students a real commercial brief, valuable industry exposure and a platform to showcase their thinking. Our ambition is to evolve this into a sustainable, annual opportunity for emerging marketing talent.’

Prof Rene Benecke, Head of School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg, says, ‘This competition gives our students a valuable opportunity to apply their knowledge to a real-world industry challenge, while demonstrating the strategic thinking, creativity and fresh perspectives that young South Africans can bring to the marketing industry.’

The partners believe the initiative has the potential to evolve into a long-term platform connecting academia, young talent and the marketing industry.

Tickets are available here.

Nedbank IMC
www.imcconference.com

IPendoring Awards Announce Jury President For 2026 Awards Programme

By
Modern Marketing
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IPendoring Awards Announce Jury President For 2026 Awards Programme
Thembalethu Msibi, BlackSwan.

With a career spanning nearly two decades, Thembalethu Msibi, Co-Founder and Creative Partner of BlackSwan has built a reputation for creating work that is culturally rooted, strategically sharp and emotionally resonant. The iPendoring Awards has announced Msibi as Jury President for the 2026 awards programme, placing one of South Africa’s most respected purpose-driven creative leaders at the helm of this year’s adjudication process.

Through BlackSwan, she has led through-the-line campaigns for brands including Telkom, KFC, Absa, Clicks, South African Airways and the Joburg Film Festival, while helping establish the agency as one of the country’s most influential independent creative businesses.

Her appointment comes at an important moment in the 2026 awards programme, as entries remain open until 28 August 2026 and the industry continues to submit work that celebrates the depth and diversity of South African creativity.

‘Thembalethu brings a fresh perspective to this year’s adjudication and is a natural fit to lead the jury. She understands that language carries culture, context and connection, which is exactly what iPendoring exists to celebrate,’ said iPendoring General Manager Eben Keun.

Msibi has served as a judge at the Loeries, iPendoring and Effie Awards, and has held leadership roles including membership of the Creative Circle EXCO and the ABInBev Braintrust. Her experience spans integrated campaigns, brand design, live activations and sponsorship, giving her a broad understanding of how ideas connect with audiences across platforms and communities.

Speaking about the role, Msibi said, ‘The strongest creative work understands people beyond the brief. When communication is shaped by lived experience, it becomes more honest, more nuanced and more powerful. iPendoring plays an important role in recognising ideas that are not simply translated into indigenous languages, but conceived and felt within them.’

This year’s judging panel brings together leading creatives, strategists, designers, writers and storytellers from across South Africa’s advertising and communications industry. The judges will evaluate entries through a digital adjudication process, with formal judging taking place in Johannesburg on 3 and 4 September 2026.

Entries for the 2026 iPendoring Awards are now open and will close on 28 August 2026, with the awards ceremony taking place in November 2026.

For more information and entry details, click here.

PENDORING
www.pendoring.co.za

What Makes A Customer Experience Genuinely Valued?

By
Modern Marketing
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What Makes A Customer Experience Genuinely Valued?
Richard Cramer, Achievement Awards Group.

Richard Cramer, Loyalty Director, Achievement Awards Group, asks what makes a loyalty programme stand out? Loyalty programmes are not new to customers. They have become a familiar and even ubiquitous part of life, expanding and proliferating steadily across categories and industries. Grocery stores, airlines, medical aids, beauty salons, the local pizzeria, they all have loyalty programmes.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, customers are not indiscriminate. Most are selective about which programmes they feel are worth joining, and even more selective about which ones deserve their ongoing attention. Many programmes are considered and rejected. Others are joined, but are active only technically, and not meaningfully engaged with. Customers filter which programmes they use, and how much.

There are more loyalty programmes than ever, but they are not just competing to attract members. They are competing to sustain engagement, and to grow the very thing they set out to: loyalty.

On the surface, many loyalty programmes appear similar, with familiar structures: spend leads to points, points lead to rewards. From the company’s or brand’s perspective, the intricacies of these mechanics are often thought-through, well-designed, and clear.

From a customer’s perspective, however, the experience of two similarly structured programmes can be very different. What matters to them is not mechanics alone. It is how the whole experience unfolds, and how it feels to participate in it.

A programme may be logical, generous, and well-constructed, but still fail to hold attention. Not because it is structurally flawed, but because it does not create a strong enough emotional response to matter.

The Emotional Spectrum Of Loyalty

Think of the loyalty programme experience not as either good or bad, but rather as a spectrum of how customers’ experiences feel, from confused to indifferent, to slightly rewarded to genuinely valued.

– Confusion: here, the programme feels difficult to understand, the value is unclear, and it takes effort just to make sense of it. Disengagement is often immediate and the programme is not just ignored but quickly rejected.

– Indifference: the mechanics are understood, but the experience does not feel compelling. There may be some value, but not enough for the programme to stand out or stick. Engagement is mild at best, and only occasional, probably fading over time.

– Slightly rewarded: the customer receives something in return, and there is a recognition of value. But the experience remains largely transactional. It meets expectations but rarely exceeds them.

– Genuinely valued: the programme feels considered, relevant, easy and even enjoyable to engage with. It makes customers feel appreciated and valued, and gives them a reason to return, not just because of what is offered, but because of how it feels to participate.

Most loyalty programmes operate somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. They function and deliver value, but do not consistently create a strong enough experience to move customers towards that deeper sense of connection.

In a crowded environment, this is what differentiates a programme that recedes in a customer’s mind from one that the same customer wants and chooses to engage with repeatedly.

What Makes An Experience Genuinely Valued?

What shapes the loyalty experience is not just features, but feelings. And there are various signals that will make those feelings negative or positive based on their absence or presence.

– Ease: ease is non-negotiable. A programme that is difficult to understand or requires effort to navigate quickly pushes customers towards confusion, and rejection of the programme. Participation should feel intuitive, and the path forward should be clear.

– Attainability: progress needs to feel within reach. If rewards feel too distant, or if the effort required to earn them feels disproportionate, motivation weakens. Visible progress, achievable milestones, and a sense of momentum all contribute to the feeling that participation is worthwhile.

– Relevance: beyond ease and attainability, signals start to shape the customer’s experience more meaningfully. When communication, rewards, and interactions align with what matters to the individual, the programme starts to feel considered rather than generic. Without relevance, even a financially valuable reward can feel unexciting.

– Personalisation: personalisation builds on relevance. Although data can play a huge role in personalisation, from the perspective of the participant’s experience, it is really about a feeling of recognition. It is the difference between something that could apply to anyone, and something that feels directed at me. One well-known online South African retailer pretty much built its brand by sending hand-written messages with every order. Even if there is a point at which that kind of personalisation may be difficult or impractical to scale, it gives customers a rare feeling of being recognised and cared for.

– Delight: at the more powerful end of the experience, delight is where the programme exceeds expectations. A charming message, an unexpected benefit, a well-timed reward, or a moment of recognition can really elevate the experience and create a sense that there is more here than just a simple exchange. That same retailer that hand-wrote messages was not just personalising the experience, they were making it delightful.

– Memorability: ultimately, what is critical is what is remembered and, more specifically, how it is remembered. Lack of memorability means indifference for customers and will keep the programme in the forgettable middle of the spectrum. Experiences that leave a good and lasting impression are far more likely to positively influence future behaviour. This is why incentive travel is considered the ultimate reward, it creates lifelong memories.

These signals don’t operate in isolation, they reinforce one another. Choice can increase relevance, but too much choice can introduce complexity, undermining ease. Recognition can strengthen personalisation, but only if it feels genuine. Smaller, more frequent rewards can improve attainability, while also creating moments of delight. The experience is cumulative, shaped by how these elements come together over time.

Indifference Is The Enemy

Not all disengagement looks the same. At the lower end of the spectrum, confusion leads to outright rejection, and customers quickly opt out.

But more often, programmes sit in the indistinct middle. They are understood but not compelling. They function but don’t resonate. They feel okay, average, not bad, not great. In these cases, the risk is not dissatisfaction, but indifference.

And indifference is more difficult to detect. There is no clear moment of exit or explicit decision to disengage. Instead, there is a gradual decline in attention.

Over time, this is what causes programmes to lose relevance, even when they continue to operate as intended.

Efficiency Matters, Emotion Matters More

In a crowded loyalty landscape, standing out is rarely about ticking boxes or offering more of the same. A programme needs to work, and work well, but that is a minimum requirement.

What sets a programme apart is how it feels to be part of it. Because loyalty, at its core, is more than a rational calculation. It is a pattern of behaviour that is reinforced by someone’s subjective perceptions and experiences. Two programmes may offer similar value. The one that feels clearer, easier, and more relevant will be the one that earns attention. The one that creates moments of recognition, that is delightful enough for customers to mention it to their family and friends, and that leaves a lasting impression for all the right reasons, will be the one that is returned to.

TERESA SERRAS COMMUNICATION
https://tscommunications.co.za

The Performance Metrics That Matter In The Era Of AI Search

By
Modern Marketing
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The Performance Metrics That Matter In The Era Of AI Search

AI is transforming almost everything. But high on the hitlist is a fundamental overhaul of how search performance is measured. With AI overviews giving users the info they need directly in search results, clicks and traffic alone no longer capture true impact. A new AI Search report by VML has identified trends in search performance.

AI search has upended everything brands have been using to measure SEO effectiveness. Here is what we should be measuring instead.

In this new iteration of search, brands may influence perception and purchasing decisions without ever earning a click, making visibility within AI answers increasingly critical. Success increasingly depends on how often brands are seen and trusted in AI answers, and how well that visibility translates into meaningful business outcomes.

Traffic-Based Reporting is Out

AI is compressing search journeys and redefining what performance looks like. For two decades, users would type a few keywords into a search bar and navigate the list of URLs the search engine returned like browsing ads for electricians in the Yellow Pages.

For brands, the goal was simple: be featured on page one, as high up as possible. You could buy your spot or follow the rules of SEO and stand a good chance of earning it. You knew your strategy was successful by how many clicks you got.

In AI search, that metric of success is no longer as reliable as it once was. Brands must expand beyond traffic-based reporting and adopt a visibility and revenue framework that reflects how discovery and influence now happen across AI platforms, traditional search results, social media properties, and more.

The New KPIs Of Search

VML’s 2026 AI Search Report identifies trends in how people are using search and how brands can best adapt.

On the optimisation front, that means thinking beyond your own website to how you can manage your brand’s narrative across the entire digital ecosystem. Every piece of content (including text, video and product data) should be meticulously structured to become the definitive source that AI systems choose to feature and cite. That extends beyond owned channels to forums, review sites and media outlets.

The goal: appeal to AI for discovery and humans for conversion. It is a work-intensive process that involves layering GEO (generative engine optimisation) on top of your existing SEO (search engine optimisation) and it extends to the entire web. So brands will naturally want to know whether they are getting a worthwhile return on the time, effort and budget spent. The report identifies four ways to adjust search KPIs for the AI era.

Supplement traditional KPIs with AI-centered visibility metrics: This involves tracking metrics such as brand citations, mentions, and sentiment across multiple AI platforms. Brands that focus only on ChatGPT, for example, could be missing out on key data from other models like Copilot, Gemini and Claude.

Prioritise building trust and expertise: Build authority and trust through expert-driven content, structured data, and original insights that earn credible mentions and citations. This includes content on owned channels, such as your brand’s website and social media, as well as external sources, such as media interviews and Google reviews. Share of voice (SOV) may serve as a metric for how well your brand is showing up outside of your own environment. Requesting reviews that rate specific parts of the customer experience reveals where brands are excelling and where they can improve.

Develop a framework to track the broader impact of discoverability efforts, not just site traffic: That includes measuring things such as engaged sessions and organic search-assisted conversions. The report found that modern users adopt a multi-tool approach to search. Even as AI search rises, Google’s search volume has not dropped, suggesting that users are leveraging AI for certain tasks and still relying on traditional search for others.

Add cross-channel inputs to any discoverability measurement strategy: Any useful measurement strategy for 2026 should include inputs that consider the impact of community forums, social media content, and third-party publishers, which all contribute to your brand’s SOV.

Search has always rewarded brands that adapt. Two decades ago, Google made businesses without a web presence increasingly difficult to find. Today, the same principle applies to AI search. Brands that fail to adapt risk becoming less visible at the very moment customers are looking for answers.

Download the full VML 2026 AI Search Trends report here.

VML
www.vml.com

Outdoor Network Expands National DOOH Footprint

By
Modern Marketing
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Outdoor Network Expands National DOOH Footprint

Outdoor Network, a division of the Provantage Group, is expanding its national digital out-of-home (DOOH) footprint with four new 3x6m digital billboard sites in Pretoria and the Western Cape. Every structure has passed the full municipal and local authority approval process required before an advertising sign may legally be erected.

That distinction carries weight this year. Johannesburg’s ‘No to Illegal Outdoor Advertising’ campaign, launched in December 2025, has seen the Joburg Property Company physically dismantle unauthorised billboards across the city, alongside a sharp rise in outdoor advertising revenue collected through legitimate channels. Pretoria has followed a similar path, with the City of Tshwane also moving to remove illegal billboard structures within its jurisdiction.

Cape Town has pursued a parallel enforcement drive through the courts, backed by a Constitutional Court ruling upholding its outdoor advertising by-law. Officials across all three cities have been explicit that operators bypassing the approvals process undermine road safety, strain municipal infrastructure, and expose the brands on their boards to reputational risk.

Against that backdrop, Outdoor Network’s new sites stand out for having done it the compliant way. The four new locations, Moreletapark and Castle Gate in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria, and Paarl and Somerset West in the Western Cape, sit in affluent, high-LSM residential and lifestyle nodes along key commuter routes, giving advertisers coverage across two of South Africa’s strongest metro economies.

Shamy Naidu, Outdoor Network Director said, ‘This is what disciplined growth looks like: every site fully approved before it goes live. It’s a higher bar, but it’s the only one that protects the brands who advertise with us, and one every operator in this industry should be held to.’

As digital sites, the new billboards support programmatic buying, enabling campaigns to be planned, traded and evaluated locally and globally using consistent performance metrics, all while enhancing efficiency and reliability for agencies and advertisers. As agencies increasingly shift from purchasing loop positions to verified impressions, confirmed audience views rather than pre-set ad slots.

These new digital billboards are programmatic enabled, with audiences made available through Broadsign’s Place Exchange supply side platform (SSP). This connects the network to our expanding programmatic ecosystem, broadening access to local and international demand while enabling agencies and advertisers to activate campaigns through their preferred demand-side platforms.

The expansion forms part of Outdoor Network’s broader strategy to grow its national digital footprint responsibly, at a time when municipalities nationwide are tightening enforcement of outdoor advertising by-laws and naming operators found in breach.

‘Media buyers are watching this crackdown closely, and they should be. Brands and media buyers need to know they are booking with media owners whose sites are fully legal, not just available. Growing our network the right way is the only sustainable path. Every site we bring online has been through the full approval process, because we would rather build a network advertisers can rely on for years.’

OUTDOOR NETWORK
https://www.outdoornetwork.co.za/

How Audiences Are Really Moving Across Platforms, Channels And Screens

By
Modern Marketing
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How Audiences Are Really Moving Across Platforms, Channels And Screens
Leslie Adams, Reach Africa.

Leslie Adams, Sales Director at Reach Africa, writes that advertisers are planning TV for a consumer that no longer exists. Audiences are moving freely between broadcast, streaming, online video and gaming on the same TV, yet advertisers are still playing catch-up up with their planning.

Switch on the TV at home and you could end up watching almost anything. You might go straight to SABC for a live news broadcast, then flip to DStv to catch up on your soapies, then scroll for something on Netflix or YouTube, or start gaming. Over the course of an evening, you might move between several options without giving much thought to how each one reaches the screen. You are simply using the TV (and probably looking for the remote).

Yet advertisers and media planners see that same evening very differently. We separate linear television, pay TV, streaming, connected TV and gaming into different categories, with their own ways of planning and buying media. Linear television and pay TV are typically bought through spot plans, while apps and gaming sit within digital buying structures.

And yes, there are good historical reasons for this. Television advertising developed around programming, when the programme, channel and time slot gave advertisers an address for the audience they wanted to reach. In traditional television buying, the programme often comes first because it determines reach and gives an indication of who is likely to be watching. Digital buying developed differently, allowing advertisers to define an audience upfront and buy impressions against it. The result is a set of systems built around the different routes through which television content and entertainment reached people.

Those systems seemed to make sense when distribution defined the viewing experience. But today, perhaps we have been organising television around the wrong thing. Rather than beginning with how content reaches the screen, maybe it is time to begin with the screen itself.

The television has evolved faster than the systems we have built around it. We say that television has always been connected: first by the aerial, then by satellite and now by the internet. What internet connectivity has done is expand the range of experiences available through the screen. The same television can now carry a live broadcast, a pay-TV service, streaming, online video and gaming, with viewers freely flicking between them. That makes the device itself a useful starting point for thinking about television. Take a viewer watching a local programme through SABC and another watching through SABC+. The viewing behaviour can be virtually identical: someone sitting in front of the same television, watching content on the same screen. For advertisers, however, those viewing occasions are bought differently and considered through different planning frameworks.

When the industry’s planning framework no longer reflects audience behaviour, opportunities are inevitably missed. Budgets become fragmented, audiences become duplicated, and television is evaluated through separate lenses rather than as a single viewing experience.

The boundaries are becoming more complicated as the services themselves expand. YouTube on a television can take someone from short-form clips to long-form programming, while Netflix has expanded beyond streaming video into games. Broadcasters distribute programmes through their own apps, and local content can move between broadcast schedules and international streaming platforms.

Categories that look distinct on a media plan increasingly overlap once they reach the television. The opportunity, then, is to rethink where media planning begins. Starting at the device level gives planners a fuller view of the audience before narrowing the focus to a particular programme, platform or buying environment. It also allows planners to follow how audiences move between different forms of television viewing, rather than treating each viewing environment as a separate audience.

This also changes how we approach planning. Which programme reaches the audience still matters, alongside a broader question: where is that audience engaging with the content? Today, audiences move fluidly between broadcast television, streaming services and social media as they follow the same event, often across multiple screens and platforms.

During the FIFA World Cup, for example, conventional broadcast inventory sold out months ahead of the tournament and official rights came with their own restrictions. Additionally, broadcast was no longer the only access point for the content, with fans able to watch across multiple broadcasters, streaming platforms, online video and social media.

For advertisers, this created new opportunities to reach football audiences beyond the traditional broadcast buy, provided they were planning around audience behaviour rather than a single channel.

This is the map we now need to redraw. The advertising industry has spent decades organising television around how content reaches the screen, while audiences increasingly experience it all in one place.

The way we have traditionally defined television no longer reflects reality. How we measure that viewing, and the role television plays in content discovery, are the next parts of the picture we need to understand. For now, the starting point is the box itself.

Linear television, pay TV, streaming and gaming may follow different paths to the screen, but they increasingly meet in the same place. The device has become the platform, now our planning frameworks need to catch up.

REACH AFRICA
https://www.reachafrica.com

Creative Professionals From Middle East And Africa Included In Global Competition’s Jury

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Modern Marketing
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Creative Professionals From Middle East And Africa Included In Global Competition's Jury

ADC Young Guns is the industry’s only global, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies and celebrates today’s vanguard of young creative professionals. The global Art Directors Club, part of The One Club for Creativity, has announced five creative professionals based in the Middle East and Africa who are among the more than 100 from around the world who will serve on the jury for the global ADC Young Guns 24 competition.

The programme is open to those ages 30 and under who have been working for at least two years, full-time or freelance. Eligible entrants can submit a combination of professional and personal work.

Jury members in the region are as follows:

– Elie Antaky, Associate Creative Director, Impact BBDO, Beirut
– Mohamed Bareche, ECD, Havas Dubai
– Oyindamola Fakile, Chief Creative Alchemist, Thwind, Lagos
– Priyaa Naidoo, Creative Director, AndUs, Dubai
– Nhlanhla Ngcobo, Group ECD, VML Johannesburg, Randburg

The complete list of all ADC Young Guns 24 judges can be viewed here.

The online entry system is now open, with the reduced-fee regular deadline of August 27, 2026, and final deadline September 24, 2026. Winners will be announced in January 2027, with the YG24 awards ceremony and party slated for January 27, 2027 in New York.

The renowned competitions regularly attract entries from upwards of 45 countries, with more than half coming from outside the US.

All ADC Young Guns winners receive a unique version of the iconic ADC Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this year’s incoming class, and have their permanent profile page added to the YG website.

Winners also receive a complimentary one-year One Club for Creativity membership, permanent membership in the YG network, a chance to be featured in YG events and an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from YG sponsors.

ADC Young Guns 24 branding and YG Cube trophy were created by Brooklyn-based independent illustrator and designer Chantal Jahchan, a winner in last year’s YG23 competition.

For more information and to enter, please visit the ADC Young Guns 24 website.

THE ONE CLUB
https://www.oneclub.org

SAS Announces Solution To Help Marketers Build Machine Learning Models

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Modern Marketing
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SAS Announces Solution To Help Marketers Build Machine Learning Models

Many marketing organisations struggle to translate insight into action. SAS 360 Marketing AI addresses this with purpose-built guided workflows and customisable recipe templates for common marketing uses that help marketing teams move faster from data to decision, without relying on overstretched data science teams.

‘For the longest time, ownership of analytical intelligence has lived outside of marketing,’ said Roger Beharry Lall, Research Director at IDC. ‘As such, this predictive intelligence was hard to procure, often being costly, complex, and time consuming. Offerings like SAS 360 Marketing AI solution help democratise the skills, knowledge, and trust needed to put predictive AI in the hands of marketers.’

Flexible Deployment And Growth Path

SAS 360 Marketing AI can be deployed as a standalone modelling and scoring engine or as part of the broader SAS Customer Intelligence 360 ecosystem, where it enhances journey orchestration, decisioning and personalisation.

Organisations can start with specific use cases and expand their adoption as their analytics maturity grows.

‘Marketers don’t lack data, they lack the ability to act on it at speed,’ said Mike Blanchard, Head of Customer Intelligence Solutions at SAS. ‘SAS 360 Marketing AI removes the barriers between insight and execution, giving teams the tools to operationalise AI where it matters most: real customer decisions.’

Why It Matters To Marketers

– Turn insight into action faster: prepare and assess data quality through automated workflows; train machine learning models with guided, explainable steps; generate and activate scores directly in customer journeys; monitor performance and retrain models automatically.

– Reduce time and complexity: automates data preparation, feature engineering and model training; dramatically shortens time to deployment.

– Focus on high-impact use cases: identify customers most likely to convert; detect and prevent churn; expand into next-best offer, cross-sell, CLTV and segmentation; customisable recipe templates for common marketing uses.

– Work with your data, not against it: train models using data where it already resides; reduce costly data movement and prep.

– Build trust with transparent, governed AI: full visibility into data inputs and outcomes; built-in bias detection and mitigation; automated monitoring and governance.

SAS
https://www.sas.com/en_za/

Koketso Masisi On Creative Leadership, Representation And Finding Your Voice

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Modern Marketing
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Koketso Masisi On Creative Leadership, Representation And Finding Your Voice
Koketso Masisi, Retroviral.

Koketso Masisi, Executive Creative Director at Retroviral, spoke to Modern Marketing about her journey into creative leadership, building inclusive teams, creating opportunities for women of colour and why women needed to be brave enough to make themselves visible.

Masisi was appointed as Retroviral’s first Executive Creative Director, a milestone that reflected her progression from a young creative finding her place in advertising to a senior leader overseeing the agency’s creative direction and a portfolio of brands.

Masisi played a key role in developing Retroviral’s creative team as the agency evolved from a social media agency into an integrated agency. Her approach to leadership was centred on empathy, respect, developing individual talent and creating an environment where people could do their best work.

Outside of her agency role, Masisi was also the founder of Ko.Kreate, an initiative focused on creating opportunities and providing support for women of colour in advertising.

For Women’s Month, Modern Marketing spoke to Masisi about her career, leadership, representation, mentorship, creativity and the work still needed to create greater opportunities for women in the industry.

Congratulations on becoming Retroviral’s first Executive Creative Director. What does this milestone mean to you personally?

This milestone is incredibly meaningful because it represents how far I’ve come in finding my place and purpose in this industry.

Sometimes you have to create what you want to be a part of. Over time, I realised that one of my greatest strengths was not just creativity, but leadership: bringing people together, building teams and helping people do their best work. I also made it a priority to understand the craft myself, so that I could lead with credibility and help others grow.

When I joined Retroviral, we were a small social media agency. Together, we’ve evolved into an integrated creative agency by building a team of specialists who are often better than me in their own disciplines.

Becoming Retroviral’s first Executive Creative Director feels especially meaningful because, by the time the opportunity came, I realised I was already doing much of the work. Your opportunity may arrive before you feel ready. That doesn’t mean you’re not ready. The title simply recognised the journey, the trust and the responsibility I had grown into.

What have been the biggest lessons you have learned on your journey to creative leadership?

Meaningful work gives life purpose and connects you to something bigger than yourself. One of my biggest lessons in leadership has been understanding that success does not look the same for everyone. I call it identifying each person’s ‘time in the sun’. For some, it is being on stage or winning awards. For others, it is learning, growing, doing meaningful work or having the flexibility to be present for their family.

It is also about being strategic; sometimes helping people see strengths and opportunities they may not yet see in themselves. Growth is rarely comfortable. Growth and comfort never co-exist. Growth isn’t gentle. It challenges you, stretches you and asks you to become more.

Ultimately, I have learned that the strongest teams are built on trust and support. The culture I want to create is one where, when one person falls, everyone gathers around to help carry what needs to be carried. We do not always get that kind of support in our careers, and I believe it can make all the difference.

Retroviral’s workforce is made up of 78% women, with Black women representing more than half the business. How has diversity influenced the agency’s creativity and culture?

Diversity has had a huge influence on both our creativity and the stories we tell. Our team brings together people from different backgrounds, experiences and walks of life, which gives our work more texture, nuance and authenticity.

You see it in how we tell distinctly South African stories. Because we have different lived experiences in the room, we can create work that feels more human and resonates with the people we are speaking to.

Having a predominantly female workforce also brings valuable perspectives to brands whose audiences are often women and mothers. At the same time, it allows us to challenge categories traditionally seen as male-dominated, such as automotive. With a brand like AutoTrader, for example, we can move beyond simply showcasing the car and instead tell the story of the person behind the wheel.

Ultimately, diversity gives us more perspectives to draw from; and that leads to richer storytelling, stronger cultural insight and more authentic creative work.

You founded Ko.Kreate to create opportunities for women of colour in advertising. What inspired you to start the initiative?

Ko.Kreate was inspired by my own journey in advertising. When I started at AAA, I was the only Black woman in my graduating class of art directors, and when I entered the industry, I found myself in a similar position. The industry was male-dominated, and there were very few Black female leaders I could turn to for mentorship or guidance.

As I grew in my career, I realised that if I was feeling isolated or struggling to navigate certain experiences, I could not be the only one. That is where Ko.Kreate began.

Don’t wait for someone to create the space for you. We wanted to create a space where women of colour could have honest conversations, share their frustrations and ambitions, and feel seen without being judged or labelled. The overwhelming response we received when we started reaching out confirmed how necessary that space was.

Ultimately, Ko.Kreate is about community, connection and action. It is about saying, ‘I see you, I understand your experience, and we can find ways to move forward together’.

What does Ko.Kreate aim to provide beyond creating a support network?

Beyond community and support, Ko.Kreate aims to give women of colour practical tools to step confidently into leadership and executive roles.

One of my biggest focuses is business and financial literacy. You cannot contribute meaningfully in executive spaces if you have never been given access to the knowledge or tools needed to understand the business; whether that is reading a financial report, understanding revenue or making strategic decisions.

I want to help bridge that gap, particularly for creatives who may not have come into the industry with a traditional business background. Whether a woman wants to become an executive, lead a business or eventually build one of her own, Ko.Kreate should help equip her with the skills and confidence to take up space and add real value in those rooms.

Because ultimately, there’s nothing more expensive than a missed opportunity. If we can give women the knowledge, networks and confidence to recognise and act on opportunities when they come, we are helping to change the trajectory of their careers.

Is Ko.Kreate still active?

Ko.Kreate has been on a brief pause this year while my partner, Kgothatso Maditse, has been baking a mini Ko.Kreator. Rather than put unnecessary pressure on ourselves, we wanted to give the initiative the time and space it deserved.

We are now getting ready for our next chapter: a podcast launching at the end of this month, spotlighting women, leaders and young women coming into the industry. We have already had some incredible women say yes, including Thandeka Gilbert, Nwabisa Tolom and Sibuyiselwe Nhlangwini.

We also want to bring industry allies into the conversation; people from agencies and organisations who can help us have more honest conversations about navigating the industry and creating better opportunities for women.

So Ko.Kreate is very much alive. We are simply evolving the platform into its next chapter, with more voices, conversations and action.

Is there someone who has inspired or mentored you, and what did they teach you?

Mike Sharman, industry heavyweight has been an important mentor to me. Through our relationship and the exposure he has given me, I have learned a great deal about leadership, business and the power of visibility.

One of the biggest lessons he taught me is that if you are quiet, people may never know what you are capable of or what change you want to create. PR, storytelling and visibility can be powerful tools for making an impact.

He is also deeply passionate about creativity, which has influenced me. But perhaps most importantly, we have always been able to have honest conversations. We can challenge each other, tell each other when we need to do better, and still maintain mutual respect. That kind of trust is rare, and it has shaped the leader I am today.

What advice would you give to young women who want to build careers in advertising, design or creative communications?

My biggest advice is: actively seek out mentors and sponsors. Find people whose journeys you admire and learn from how they navigate the industry, particularly at leadership level.

Be curious beyond your own department. Immerse yourself in other parts of the business, pay attention, attend events, network and take every opportunity to put yourself in the room. You never know what you might learn or who you might meet.

And most importantly, be brave about being visible. I know it can feel uncomfortable, even a little cringey, to talk about your achievements or share your work, but people cannot support, recommend or open doors for you if they do not know what you are capable of.

And remember: if you weren’t capable, the opportunity would never have come along. You belong.

Work ethic takes no talent. It takes a decision. Show up. Be curious. Do the work. Step up. Take the opportunity. Be brave.

What campaign or piece of work has shaped your thinking?

One campaign that really shaped my thinking was Lil-Lets’ ‘Cyclebreakers’.
The idea was rooted in how period stigma and shame are often passed down from generation to generation. We wanted to ask: how do we break that cycle through honest conversation?

What made the campaign powerful was its authenticity. Instead of the usual sanitised portrayal of periods, we showed what a young girl can actually experience when she gets her first period; the uncertainty, anxiety and vulnerability.

We worked with young girls who were not professional models and brought their real experiences into the work. Their emotions were genuine, which made the storytelling feel honest rather than performed.

That campaign reinforced something I believe strongly in: when you work with clients who genuinely share your values, you can create work that is not only creatively strong, but culturally meaningful.

For me, that is the kind of work worth pursuing. Meaningful work gives life purpose and connects you to something bigger than yourself. It is also a philosophy that sits at the heart of what we are trying to build with Ko.Kreate.

If you could leave women across South Africa with one message this Women’s Month, what would it be?

My message to women this Women’s Month is simple: Leadership should feel safe.

Success should not mean constantly proving yourself, sacrificing your family or feeling like you have to be ‘on’ all the time. It is okay to put down the laptop, go home, laugh, take a holiday and simply enjoy your life.

As women, we put so much pressure on ourselves to achieve the next thing that we often forget to celebrate what we have already accomplished. Pause. Celebrate the small wins. Remind yourself, ‘Girl, you did that’.

And remember, growth isn’t gentle. It challenges you, stretches you and asks you to become more. But growth does not have to mean losing yourself in the process.
Sometimes, the person you are becoming requires you to outgrow the person you thought you had to be. Give yourself permission to do that.

We are doing the most. It is okay to slow down, laugh, enjoy the moment and be proud of how far you have come.

C1W Initiative

Change 1 Woman (C1W) aims to empower women in the branding, print and signage industries. As part of this initiative, Modern Marketing would like to spotlight women-focused content like this piece. If you have any trend/business articles related to the signage, branding and printing industries, please email content to: info@c1w.co.za. Follow C1W on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram for more updates.

RETROVIRAL
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