How to forecast the future: pitfalls to avoid 2

[Dr Graeme Codrington] As I elaborated on in my last post, individuals with a good grasp of the world and a strong sense of adventure might be able to predict some major world trends; however, if we want to predict the future effectively, we need to steer clear of attempting specific predictions.

Comments [2] [03 Nov 12:17]

How did you survive this recession?

[Louise Marsland] As we near the end of this year, most people will heave a sigh of relief. It’s been a tough one in many industries, and while South Africa may not have been as badly off as some elsewhere in the world, there’s no doubt that we’ve had to work harder for our money this year!

Comments [1] [02 Nov 11:25]

Why South African comedy is unfunny – some pointers

[Andrew Timm] I have a passion for television comedy, that little 30-minute holiday you get from your stressful day when you sit down, watch a favourite sitcom and escape into your happy place once or twice a week. But what is it that makes my toes curl with cringing embarrassment at the local fare being offered up as situation comedy?

Comments [2] [27 Oct 10:35]

The conscious brand is the future

[Louise Marsland] We’ve gone from ‘save the whales’ to ‘save our planet’ in a short space of time. We’ve been told most of our household cleaning products and the ingredients in much of our processed food are giving us cancer, and that our rampant consumerism is to blame for everything else. So where does this leave our industry?

Comments [5] [26 Oct 12:01]

How to predict the future: pitfalls to avoid

[Dr Graeme Codrington] If we were to transport ourselves back a century to 1909, would we have been able to predict what would happen over the next century? Highly unlikely! Yet, someone with a good grasp of the world and a strong sense of adventure might have predicted some of the trends.

[21 Oct 11:14]

The digital divide

[Terry Levin] The digital divide cuts to the heart of what separates traditional advertising practitioners from the new digerati. Nowhere can this knowledge divide be more obvious than in the advertising and media industry. But that could all soon be a thing of the past.

Comments [1] [19 Oct 12:24]

Here's what you might need...

[Terry Levin] Dwaaled around the Internet for a bit on Friday, 9 October 2009, and not a moment too soon to find an entry put up that very morning about the launch of the Silicone Cape initiative on Thursday 8 October, at which Dr Mamphele Ramphele in her capacity Chair of the Technology Innovation Agency apparently got a standing ovation...

Comments [1] [12 Oct 12:31]

[AdForum Worldwide Summit] Day five

[Johanna McDowell] Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP and David Jones of Havas Group (EuroRSCG) were the star performers on day five. They were both excellent – gave us completely different viewpoints on how they think the economy is going to be in 2010. Can only happen in advertising.

[12 Oct 11:51]

[AdForum Worldwide Summit] Day four

[Johanna McDowell] Production “de coupling” has been mentioned often as a definite trend among clients. I am not sure how pervasive the practice is in South Africa but it is very prevalent in other parts of the world such as US and UK and Australia.

[12 Oct 11:41]

[AdForum Worldwide Summit] Day three

[Johanna McDowell] We met with seven agencies on Wednesday and had a meeting with some top procurement people here in the US. The first five agencies were all part of Omnicom - the DAS group of agencies. The focus was on the Healthcare agencies and it was really interesting - particularly as despite the recession healthcare ad revenues were up by more than 7% while other sector revenues have seen declines.

[08 Oct 11:17]