Press Release Archive

With less than a week to go until Brands and Branding for Good 2, brand custodians who have not yet secured their seats risk missing out on leading-edge presentations by branding and sustainability gurus from France, Germany, the United States and South Africa.

With six international speakers on the podium over the two days – that’s more than any other marketing conference has delivered – Brands and Branding for Good 2 is an impressive follow-up to last year’s inaugural conference, South Africa’s first to include a focus on sustainable branding.

The international line-up includes:

1. Leslie Pascaud – Director Responsible Marketing Practice, Added Value Group, Paris
2. Mindy Goldstein – Partner & Programme Director Ogilvy & Mather, and member of the founding team of OgilvyEarth, New York
3. Seth Farbman – Senior Partner and President, OgilvyEarth, New York
4. Jean Cox-Kearns – Head of the Dell Take Back organisation for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region
5. Mitchell Faigan – President, Citizen Brand (consultant to Kimberly-Clark), USA
6. Stefan Borbe – General Manager Product Communication – BMW, Germany

The conference takes place on October 13th and 14th in Johannesburg. Bookings can be made through http://www.brandconference.co.za or mailto:lynn@brandsandbranding.co.za.

Last year’s conference was heralded as ‘definitive’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘inspiring’ by delegates. At the end of the final day’s proceedings, Engen’s Adnaan Emeral said: “For me, Brands and Branding for Good made it clear that we are entering the Age of Sustainability. Opportunities exist for brands, businesses, societies and individuals to embrace this era and rise to the challenge. If sustainability does not become a priority business issue, then there is a risk that all business issues could become sustainability ones.”

Hybrid Living’s Gabriella Alberon found the sustainability content of the conference to be a wonderful confirmation of the work that she and her colleagues have been doing over the last few years – the philosophies and imperatives resonated perfectly with their mission to spread the sustainability message into mainstream thinking.  “I found the issues that sparked debate were especially of value as only through dialogue will we begin to shift those paradigms,” she said.

Both Unilever’s Louise Duys and Sasol’s Bronwen Watt found the speakers inspiring. “Thanks to Affinity Publishing for organising an incredibly rich and inspiring two days of world-class standard.” and “thank you for an extremely interesting and inspiring two days – it was really fantastic!” were their respective comments.

“Brands and Branding for Good 2 addresses relevant and critically important matters with regards to sustainable practices in branding and offers an unrivalled opportunity for local business to plug into a world of global insights, local and international case-studies, panel discussions and presentations over either one or two days,” said convenor, Ken Preston.

“To our knowledge, no other branding conference can boast such depth when it comes to international and local expertise. If you are involved in branding, communications, public relations, marketing, advertising, CSR, sustainability, external affairs, business development, consumer insights and image management, you can’t afford to miss this.”

The local line-up of speakers includes:

1. Melissa Attree – Social Media Marketing and Communications Professional and Founder, GetOn eMarketing
2. Nicola Robins – Sustainability Strategist, Incite Sustainability
3. Jo-Ann de Wet – Operations Director, McDonald’s, South Africa
4. Mzamo Masito – Marketing Director, Nike, South Africa
5. Paul Bannister – Managing Director, Ignite. Served as the acting CEO of the International Marketing Council of SA during the crucial build-up to the hosting of the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup.
6. Mike Schalit – Chief Creative Director, Net#work BBDO South Africa, and Co-founder of the MAL Foundation
7. Deon Robbertze – Executive Creative Director of Zoom and Creative Director Ogilvy Earth at Zoom Advertising, South Africa
8. Mike Freedman – Founder, Freedthinkers
9. Nicholas Maweni – Marketing & Communications Executive Sub-Sahara Africa, IBM
10. Terry Volkwyn – CEO, Primedia Broadcasting
11. Andrew Human – CEO, The Loerie Awards

Creative Activist Mike Schalit, chief creative officer and co-founder of advertising agency Net#work BBDO and its new non-profit initiative The MAL Foundation explores the missing link between good corporate intent and its content: the power of ideas.

In essence, the difference between standing on a soapbox and connecting with people? Mike challenges the status quo by presenting the case for outrageous imagination working in parallel with corporate responsibility.

“Sixteen years after independence, there has to be a better way for brands to create and sustain a better South Africa. Companies may have the smarts, they may even have the hearts, but where are the arts? Why does so much good intent have such grey content? Does green have to be so dour, social responsibility ever so responsible? Either a corporate’s best kept secret or its most ingratiating soapbox.

It’s not just about nagging at social consciousness; it’s about relevance, pragmatism and a creative edge. It’s about making a real difference to society and the bottom line through compelling content. We are all stakeholders in the business of creating a truly sustainable future – be it advertising, marketing, government or civil society – we urgently need to harness our greatest asset: creativity. Given the times we are living through in South Africa, we have no option but to walk together and the ultimate liberation has to be through innovative ideas. “

Join us to hear Mike at the second Brands & Branding for Good conference, together with 6 international and 10 other high profile local speakers at the Sandton Hilton on 13^th and 14^th October. There has never been a branding event that even comes close. It’s really not to be missed.

The full line up of speakers include;

• Leslie Pascaud, Director Responsible Marketing Practice, Added Value Group, Paris
• Sizakele Marutlulle , CEO and Founder, MOONCHILD
• Stefan Borbe, responsible for BMW product communication worldwide.
• Jo-Ann de Wet, Operations Director, McDonald’s, South Africa
• Mzamo Masito, Marketing Director, Nike , South Africa
• Jean Cox-Kearns, Senior Take Back and Recycling Manager, Dell Europe, Middle East and Africa
• Paul Bannister, Managing Director, Ignite. Served as the acting CEO of the International Marketing Council of SA during the crucial build-up to the hosting of the World Cup.
• Nicholas Maweni, Marketing & Communications Executive Sub-Sahara Africa, IBM
• Mitch Faigan, President, Citizen Brand
• Jean Cox- Kearns, Leads the Dell Take Back organisation for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Region
• Mindy Goldstein, Partner & Programme Director Ogilvy & Mather, and member of the founding team of OgilvyEarth, New York
• Seth Farbman, Senior Partner and President, OgilvyEarth, New York
• Mike Schalit, Chief Creative Director, Net#work BBDO South Africa, and Co-founder of the MAL Foundation
• Deon Robbertze, Executive Creative Director of Zoom and Creative Director OgilvyEarth at Zoom Advertising, South Africa
• Melissa Attree, Social Media Marketing and Communications Professional and Founder, GetOn eMarketing
• Mike Freedman, Founder, Freedthinkers
• Nicola Robins, Sustainability Strategist, Incite Sustainability
• Andrew Human, CEO, The Loerie Awards
• Barbara Jensen, Head of Communications, Gautrain Rapid Rail Link
• Yusuf Abramjee, Primedia Broadcasting Head of News & Current Affairs, Head of Corporate Affairs / Communication & Head of Crime Line

Click here for the program.

Click here to register.

This conference is a must attend for anyone involved in advertising, branding, communications, public relations, marketing, CSR, sustainability, external affairs, corporate affairs, business development, and reputation management. Discounts are available for team bookings.

Please visit our website www.brandconference.co.za or call us 011 442 2366 for more information.

Marketers in the 1980s and the 1990s had it easy; the decades beyond 2010 are going to be the most challenging the profession has faced.

This is the opinion of Paul Bannister, the co-facilitator with Sizakela Marutulle – the Brands and Branding for Good conference to ensure the two day event truly gets to grips with the real issue facing brands and branding in a shifting world.

Bannister argues that, while brands were everything in the 1980s and 1990s, marketing was relatively simple with the primary goal to build strong brands (primarily through memorable advertising) and to create consumer demand to facilitate sales.

“Those were the days of overt consumerism and materialism with baby boomers both driving demand and driving business. It is questionable whether the other 3Ps of the marketing mix even came into play as the battle for the hearts and minds of consumers was played mainly on the promotional playing fields,” he says.

“Then, as ‘millennium mania’ threatened to disrupt the world global retailers began to dominate the marketing landscape and the dot com phenomenon began to change ideas of distribution only to appear to crash in the early 2000s.

“However, the ability to ‘translate’ products and services into a digital format was to change marketing for ever, particularly when combined with the extraordinary growth and reach of mobile telephony and the internet.

“Managing and developing brands suddenly got a lot more complicated in a world where the customers had the means to not only enter into a true two-way relationship, but also to become either a very potent brand advocate or a rather more frightening brand antagonist.”

Further explaining the changes and their causes, Bannister points to events in the past decade that have shaped the environment in which marketers must operate:

• The increasing importance of corporate social responsibility
• The emergence of triple bottom lines
• A global economic recession putting pressure on production and purchase prices
• The emergence of ‘developing’ nations such as South Korea as global consumers, global producers and even managers of global brands
• The purchase of global brands, for example Landrover, by companies with global aspirations but located in emerging markets
• The failure of many of the financial institutions of the first world and the ‘bursting’ of the property bubble
• Consumers living well beyond their means on bank-facilitated credit
• Nations failing economically as well as politically
• Intellectual piracy
• The ever-increasing cost of healthcare and pensions in the first world reducing discretionary income and demand
• The extraordinary growth in social media

“And, if the world situation wasn’t sufficiently complicated, now add the complications of South Africa’s dynamics,” he says.

“There’s BEE and transformation, skills shortages and a failed education system, a leadership vacuum, no inspirational national vision, continuing crime and corruption, reduced global competitiveness, an under productive, but overly powerful, labour force, and the need to create a Southern Africa economic entity to increase the region’s competitiveness because a 49-million South Africa can never be globally competitive on its own.

“But, on the positive side … business confidence is at a recent high, interest rates are at their lowest for 30 years or so, the rand is at a three-year high and we just demonstrated that we are definitely ‘alive with possibility’ by hosting arguably the most successful Soccer World Cup.

“What does this all mean for brands and branding?”

Bannister promises the answers will be found in his and other presentations at the Brands and Branding for Good 2010.

Key international speakers include Mindy Goldstein and Seth Farbman (Ogilvy Earth), Leslie Pascana (Added Value Group, Paris), Jean Cox Kearns (Dell, EMEA region), Mich Faigan (Kimberley Clark) and Stefan Borbe (BMW).

Local top speakers are Mike Schalit (Net#Work), Mzamo Masito (Nike), Jo-Ann de Wet (McDonalds), Andrew Human (the Loerie Awards), Melissa Attree (GetOn eMarketing), and Nicola Robins (Incite), Deon Robbertze (Zoom), Mike Freedman (Freedthinkers), and Nicolas Maweni (IBM).

Book for the conference via http://www.brandconference.co.za or mailto:lynn@brandsandbranding.co.za.

With six international branding experts taking to the podium in October this year, Brands & Branding for Good is set to make an indelible mark on the local branding scene as the conference of choice for forward-looking marketing and advertising professionals.

Recognising that exposure to international trends and case studies is vital when it comes to planning for a brand’s future, conference convenor, Ken Preston, has secured six speakers with extensive experience in the global market to join an already impressive line-up of local gurus.

They are:

1. Leslie Pascaud – Director Responsible Marketing Practice, Added Value Group, Paris
2. Mindy Goldstein – Partner & Programme Director Ogilvy & Mather, and member of the founding team of OgilvyEarth, New York
3. Seth Farbman – Senior Partner and President, OgilvyEarth, New York
4. Jean Cox-Kearns – Head of the Dell Take Back organisation for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region
5. Mitchell Faigan – President, Citizen Brand (consultant to Kimberly-Clark), USA
6. Stefan Borbe – General Manager Product Communication – BMW, Germany

Commenting on this line-up, Preston said: “Branding – and brand sustainability – is such a critical issue for companies today. It is a time of upheaval, and  the future of business is not secure.

“Brands and Branding for Good 2010 addresses relevant and critically important matters with regards to sustainable practices in branding and offers an unrivalled opportunity for local business to plug into a world of global insights, local and international case-studies, panel discussions and presentations over either one or two days.

“To our knowledge, no other branding conference can boast such depth when it comes to international and local expertise. If you are involved in branding, communications, public relations, marketing, advertising, CSR, sustainability, external affairs, business development, consumer insights and image management, you can’t afford to miss this.”

Registration is now open and bookings received before the end of August qualify for the Early Bird Special. Enquires and bookings via mailto:lynn@brandsandbranding.co.za or www.brandconference.co.za.

The local line-up of speakers includes:

• Melissa Attree – Social Media Marketing and Communications Professional and Founder, GetOn eMarketing
• Nicola Robins – Sustainability Strategist, Incite Sustainability
• Jo-Ann de Wet – Operations Director, McDonald’s, South Africa
• Mzamo Masito – Marketing Director, Nike, South Africa
• Paul Bannister – Managing Director, Ignite. Served as the acting CEO of the International Marketing Council of SA during the crucial build-up to the hosting of the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup.
• Mike Schalit – Chief Creative Director, Net#work BBDO South Africa, and Co-founder of the MAL Foundation
• Deon Robbertze – Executive Creative Director of Zoom and Creative Director Ogilvy Earth at Zoom Advertising, South Africa
• Mike Freedman – Founder, Freedthinkers
• Nicholas Maweni – Marketing & Communications Executive Sub-Sahara Africa, IBM
• Terry Volkwyn – CEO, Primedia Broadcasting
• Andrew Human – CEO, The Loerie Awards

The Brands & Branding for Good Conference 2010 program has been announced and can be downloaded here.