Valiant has announced that it has celebrated its first-ever win at the Promax Africa Awards with its '#UpdateYourStatus' campaign. The agency won a Silver Muse in the Social Media Campaign category.

Many marketing professionals were unprepared for the digital revolution that came with the global lockdown and the need for businesses to pivot to digital, says Desirée Gullan, co-founder and executive creative director of G&G Digital. Gullan says that with customers spending more time online, it is crucial for marketers to engage where the customer is at. 

Traditional marketing is holding its own in a rapidly evolving world thanks in no small part to the explosive rise of digital media. media update’s Nakedi Phala explores this relationship and provides keen insights into what makes traditional marketing king.

While the role of the marketing department appears to have evolved significantly over the past few years, it is still fundamentally about building relationships, says Paula Sartini, founder and CEO at BrandQuantum. Sartini says that with the rise of social media and other digital platforms, relationships are now based less on human contact and more on personalised digital communication. 

The Business Day Focus 4.0 conference, presented by Arena Events (a division of Arena Holdings) and Cold Press Media, has announced that it will take the shape of a digital dialogue series. The event will focus on the fast-tracking of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technology development, transformation and adoption under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boomtown has announced that it is celebrating a significantly good start for the year. The agency says that it has "hit the ground running in 2021" with a new account from the South African National Space Association (SANSA). The new client follows the half a dozen that it signed up during the COVID-19 months. The association has tasked Boomtown with a brand revamp. 

The One Club for Creativity has announced seven top creatives from South Africa who will serve as judges for The One Show 2021. The One Club for Creativity has additionally indicated that it is now accepting entries for The One Show 2021.

Lars Lehne has been appointed group CEO of Incubeta, a South African-born global independent digital marketing services group. The former SYZYGY AG CEO will be taking over from the founder Alan Lipschitz, whose company Interface made the reverse acquisition of IncuBeta Holdings in 2011. Lipschitz will be moving into the role of chairperson of the board of directors of Incubeta. 

We are still months away from the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and consumer behaviour is far from returning to normal, says Grant Lapping, managing director at DataCore Media. Lapping says that it seems unlikely that people will return to all of their former habits when we leave the world of lockdowns and quarantines completely behind.

As marketers, we often need to find new and innovative ways of connecting and engaging with our audiences, says Neil Bromehead, digital director at Stratitude. Bromehead says that sometimes, our ideas can feel quite gimmicky or trendy, but one recent innovation seems to be here to stay.