Modern Marketing attended the annual #TBWAAfricaConference under the theme #Disrupt at Katy’s Palace and Bar in Johannesburg on 1 November. The conference highlighted topics such as podcast content creation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and technology in Africa.
‘We plan to maintain momentum into 2020. Affiliates are building volumes by providing more services in each market while exploring cross-border opportunities,’ said Graham Cruikshanks, Director of Africa Operations.
Podcast content creators Timothy Maurice of Brain and Brand Science, Thami Pooe of The Interchange and Siya ‘Slikour’ Metane of SlikourOnLife were part of the podcasts panel discussion, which was facilitated by Gareth Cliff from Cliff Central.
Cliff said that podcasts are beautifully crafted stories in audio and visual that come into audiences’ lives when it suits them. Podcasts are about good old storytelling and that is what makes it so powerful. Podcast is not target marketing, instead, the audience chooses you based on the content you deliver.
Maurice said that valuable content is assembled by people, not the other way round. ‘When content is collected and shared, a higher priority is placed on it and that is what podcasts do.’
Metane mentioned that content creation in the digital world is not just brands competing against brands for people’s attention – it is not the brand to brand competition type of competition but an opinion to opinion one. ‘If you are a brand, you want to be in the position where you are chosen.’
Pooe stated that podcasts are different from broad platforms such as Twitter as they are ‘an echo chamber that allows the audience to engage with a topic from all sides’. Podcasts enable real engagement and by an audience that is specifically interested in what is discussed.
