By Cassy van Eeden

Warsop’s keynote address kicked off a two-day event, packed to the brim with some of the freshest, most engaging content that marketing and communications professionals could ever hope for. Now in its fifth year, the IMC Conference visited the Cape Town International Convention Centre from Monday, 3 to Tuesday, 4 August.

“We need to leave the egos at the door, collaborate and tackle the brief together,” said Warsop about integration. He argued that current marketing and communications practices in South Africa are still largely siloed. This was a key theme throughout the conference: the desperate need for companies and agencies to collaborate with one another – as opposed to working independently – for the greater good of the brand.

“Integration’s biggest enemy is the specialist agency,” said Alistair King, founding creative partner of the King James Group. During his dual keynote address, alongside Yegs Ramiah, executive head of brand at Santam and chief executive of brand services at Sanlam, King argued that: “We need to break down the barriers that stand between one agency and another in order to be fully integrated.”

A total of 10 industry leaders delivered keynote addresses over the two days. Topics varied from content marketing and strategic planning to programmatic buying and reporting. Bryan Melmed, vice president of Exponential, spoke about big data and its relationship to marketing. He spent time assuring marketers that robots will not be taking over the role of the marketer any time soon.

Lynne Gordon, MD of Added Value, argued the necessity of creating meaningful connections with consumers; Telkom’s chief marketing officer, Enzo Scarcella, emphasised the fundamentals of reaching consumers who actually buy; and Paula Raubenheimer, MD of Southern X, explained the basics of programmatic buying.

Melissa Attree, director of content strategy at Ogilvy & Mather, delivered a fascinating presentation about creating good content. Her main argument is that, whether it is by entertaining, educating or empowering, your content should always add value to consumers’ lives.

Other speakers included Tanya Betram, head of CRM and customer loyalty at OFYT who discussed the impact of marketing planning and Adam Weber, executive creative director of Joe Public, who spoke about how we complicate the execution of simple ideas.

The conference was also host to 12 workshops, of which each delegate could choose six to attend. Leading agencies such as Clockwork Media, Phat Brand Activation and R.O.I Digital addressed key issues such as the commercialisation of content, making your brand the obvious choice and successful digital marketing.

Workshops were also presented by Dentsu Aegis Network, Everlytic, BrandsEye, Boomtown, Colourworks, Exponential, NXT Digital, Platinum Seed and Publicis Machine.

The overarching theme of the conference was ‘the State of Marketing Address’. And the Cape Town edition of the IMC Conference addressed just that. Marketing and communications are most certainly still relevant, but they are currently facing the toughest times yet. And in order to overcome these difficult times, it is imperative that agencies and other stakeholders begin to work closely with one another, rather than driving separate goals.

For more information, visit the IMC Conference website. Alternatively, connect with the event via Facebook and Twitter.