Brand Leadership CEO, Thebe Ikalafeng and Netcare communications director and Former Miss South Africa, Kerishnie Naicker had this today when asked whether celebrity endorsed products work or not: "If you look at Nike for example, Tiger Woods literally created the Nike golf category, Michael Jordan literally created the Nike basketball category, so in those instances yes it can happen and of course the opposite also too. We followed the same principles that are involved in celebrity branding, in South Africa we used the Springboks to lead the Nike South Africa brand and remember at that time they had just won the 1995 World Cup, so it was very good as they were the winning team”. Naicker added: "It could work for your or rather against you, against you because you have to wonder about the celebrity that you're taking on because I think a lot of it has to do with the matching and compatibility of values as well as ethics and sometimes it could be overrated because celebrities could be looking for publicity or simply monetary gain. I think if the values and ethics of both parties are not closely aligned, then you could find yourself in a predicament.”

Then another discussion followed on the BidorBuy television and radio adverts. Jaco Jonker, BidorBuy CEO had this to say: "Seeing that it was BidorBuy's first television commercial, we went to Volcano and we wanted something partly different because there are so many ads that out there on TV that don't really catch anyone's attention, we wanted them to come up with a concept that would really make South Africans talk. We wanted to stand out from the crowd and get people to notice us as a brand. We believe that this concept is something that resonates with the general public, when you see the ad you think about shopping and that's where we want to bring online shopping. We believe it's a connected message where people really understand shopping and how it is sometimes such an issue. Creative director at Volcano, Francois Boshoff added: "They wanted something to stand out from everything else that's out there; they wanted something that people will actually talk about".

Next, Garda talked to the winners of the PICA Awards 2011. Elle. Magazine editor, Jackie Burger commented on their win: "It was a good night for us, the nature of the magazine is quite visual so to get that accolade was really an extreme highlight for us and we also got the Editor of the Year Award and then finally the Consumer Magazine of the Year Award. So I'm still in disbelief and very proud of us”.

Garda also chatted to 5FM DJ, Sasha Martinengo, who recently celebrated 5 000 radio shows. Martinengo commented on his achievement. “My first show was in October of 1993 so we’re going on nearly 18 years at 5FM." Garda played Martinengo back some clips from his past shows. "Before I even started in radio, I worked for Virgin Records which was part of BMI. That's how I knew I wanted to become a radio DJ. I used to come here, to this building, the SABC back in 1992 and I used to bring my whole big box of records to sample the SABC libraries and then I got to know the people at 5FM and I used to paddle my records like a salesman to try and get them on the playlist." Martinengo then told Garda that he was nearly 26 when he started on radio. "Everyone has their own style and some of them like to make sure that people talk about them after their work. If I can make someone smile, whether it’s through the music I play or something I say, that means I've achieved what I have wanted . I had to learn through training when I started, so my general knowledge of broadcasting is very high and I think I know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to doing a link on the radio."

Then, the show looked at the recent controversial unhate worldwide campaign by clothing chain Benetton. They've also done some controversial adverts in the past. Garda asked William Bird of Media Monitoring Africa for his thoughts on the Benetton campaign and he responded, "It has achieved its goal of getting people to engage with it and talk about it. It decided to be controversial.”

Lastly, Rob Stokes, founder of Digital Agency Quirk and Nikki Cockcroft the chairperson of Digital Media and Marketing Association reflected on the 2011 Bookmarks Awards. Cockcroft said, "Last week’s awards went very well. It’s only our fourth year and we had about 450 entries and 157 finalists, so I think it was awesome to see the support and how well digital is doing in South Africa. This year, there was really quite a big swing in terms of agencies winning gold. Publishers such as News24 won gold last year but no agencies ever won gold at the Bookmarks." Stokes added, ”We won very few awards, but I think the two we are most proud of, are for best show for Capitec Bank on their newsletter and the best agency award, which was quite fantastic. This sends a message to the team that the enormous number of hardwork we've put in over the last 12 months has meant something.”