The conference began with an introduction from comedian Nik Rabinowitz, who acted as host for the duration of the day, followed by GM of sales and marketing at Times Media Trevor Ormerod who welcomed those in attendance.
The keynote speaker, and arguably the best across the many that featured during the day, was partner at Innovation Media Consulting Group, Juan Senor, whose presentation was titled “Mediamorphosis – How to reinvent news media for the digital age”.
Senor, whose company consults with leading media organisations around the world as they adapt to the digital age, took the audience through how the newspaper industry was a once great business that had gone through severe dislocation as digital came to the fore, but now is on the comeback.
The key ingredients are for print organisations to move away from content Senor described as commoditised and which have no value, with the current market sitting somewhere at 80% commoditised and 20% “caviar, content that intrinsically has value”.
He proposed a market that should rather be 80% caviar and 20% commoditised. How do we get there? High-quality journalism with newspapers and magazines being the prestige product and digital being for mass audiences. There was a lot more Senor touched on, which media update will focus on in greater depth in a follow-up piece.
Following Senor, conference attendees heard Uber South Africa general manager Alon Lits tell media personality Jeremy Maggs about the phases of finding an influencer and growth hacking using word of mouth, talkability and partnering up with other brands as a means for growth in a new market.
Delegates then heard about programmatic buying from Popimedia’s Gil Sperling, branded content from iKineo chairman and founder Joshin Raghubar and Lucky Bean Media CEO Donald Clarke.
The first panel discussion took place, featuring Content Bar CEO Michael Balkind, Barbarossa Media COO Kyle Hauptfleisch and Platco Digital managing director Patrick Conroy, guided by Bonngoe TV managing director Pepsi Pokane, discussed branded content, with Balkind raising eyebrows in the room by stating categorically that while social media and the digital era were real, content marketing's time had come and passed. What the industry was now in was the era of engagement.
Following a break,
Hendri Lategan, CEO of Barbarossa Media, spoke about the looming potential of virtual reality in the marketplace and his talk was complemented by Contiki Holidays South Africa general manager, Kelly Jackson, who spoke about how as a brand, they realised the potential of VR as a means of engaging with potential customers.
They were followed by Elias Sikazwe, a digital entrepreneur with SnapScan, Nic Haralambous, founder of Nicsocks, and Simon Hartley, co-founder of Wumdrop, who all spoke about the processes they went through when establishing and expanding their businesses.
Haralambous caught the room’s attention by stressing that a lack of tech should never be an excuse for not doing something. Apps will never save your business, but engaging with your customers and selling your product will, and technology needs to get out the way and let you do what you do better.
This was followed by independent marketing and communications consultant Craig Page-Lee and Spark Media commercial director Marc du Plessis talking about the power of location media.
David Sidenberg, CEO of BMI, then took the stage where he spoke about the imperative of sponsorships and partnerships being mutually beneficial, where both the marketer and rights holder are pulling in the same direction.
He then took part in the panel on the same subject that followed, which also included Nandos CMO Doug Place and Standard Bank executive head of sponsorship Hazel Chimhandamba. During their lively discussion, Chimhandamba made the salient point that “as the sponsor’s objectives are evolving, you as the rights owner need to keep place”.
Next was a panel was on big data, moderated by Maggs, who guided the conversation between co-founder and CEO of Delv Media, Karabina Business Technology and Innovation director Ryan Jamieson and team lead of Advanced Analytics, Britehouse Chris Wiggett.
In a fluid discussion, the points were made that big things are not being sought for but minute things, it does not matter how much data is available, it’s rather how you use it, and when it comes to marketing between data and intuition, it is not a binary choice.
Duncan McLeod, the editor and founder of TechCentral, took conference attendees through the history of South Africa’s tortured journey from analogue to digital broadcasting, with his forthright speech followed by a discussion on social media’s increasing power.
Moderated by editor-in-chief and publisher of Stuff Toby Shapshank, and featuring head of digital audience development at Times Media Riaan Wolmarans and managing director of Black Box Theory Yavi Madurai.
Points raised included publishers overcoming the fear of unknown to fully maximise the tools social media offered, that word engagement coming up once more, Snapchat being the platform that will soon capture the local market’s imagination, with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter also in the mix, and how we are now in the era of storytelling, where authenticity is critical.
Last but not least, before Rabinowitz wrapped up the conference, was the CEO of Sea Monster Glenn Gillis speaking about how gamifying your brand was a fun way to increase user engagement, customer loyalty, and employee productivity, among other benefits.
The Future of Media Conference was an absorbing, informative day on how media and marketing is changing almost at breakneck speed and it will be interesting to see what has changed and what has not by the time next year's conference arrives.