Marketing & Selling

Reaching young audiences in South Africa is becoming increasingly complex. Social platforms dominate discovery. However, attention is fragmented, competition is intense, and many brands still operate on outdated assumptions about how younger generations think, spend and engage.

According to UNESCO, press freedom has declined steadily since 2012. Despite this trend, South Africa continues to perform well. The country ranks 27th out of 180 nations in the World Press Freedom Index. This ranking signals a continued commitment to respecting the role and independence of mainstream and independent community media.

Customer Experience (CX) outsourcing is entering a new era. For many years, the industry measured success through scale, including seat counts, headcount and cost-per-contact. While those metrics still matter, they no longer define success on their own. Brands expect far more demanding outcomes. They want measurable business impact, stronger trust protection and seamless customer journeys delivered at scale. These expectations are shaping the new rules of CX.

In 2029, tokenised transactions are expected to double in value from $283 billion in 2025 to $574 billion. This market growth largely stems from the rapid rise of mobile payments, digital transformation and expanding ecommerce activity. In addition, security, personalisation and privacy continue driving adoption. While tokenisation applies easily across multiple industries, retailers increasingly use it to secure transactions.

Excitement will abound on 11 June 2026 when the South Africa national soccer team takes on the Mexico national football team in the highly anticipated 2026 FIFA World Cup opener in Mexico City. This match will serve as a rematch of the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It also marks South Africa’s return to the World Cup stage after failing to qualify for the previous three tournaments.

You’re hungry. You search. Before you’ve even finished scrolling, you’ve booked a table. That’s the new reality of dining discovery - fast, frictionless, and deeply satisfying. It almost feels like you’re tricking the system. With Google’s new AI-powered search experience now rolling out in South Africa, the gap between “that looks good” and “table confirmed” will almost disappear.

Facebook cloning scams are continuing to rise. They are turning ordinary profiles and family photos into tools for fraud and social engineering. Have you ever wondered what criminals can do with a convincing copy of your life? If not, you should. Criminals can easily step inside your Facebook world and create a cloned profile using your family, friends, adventures and experiences.

What are the many AI voice bots about to help companies with customer engagement actually going to say? For all the hype and buzzwords around Artificial Intelligence (AI), what really counts is everything behind the voice. Ultimately, customers expect AI that actually listens.

I speak to business owners every week. Many have been using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for marketing for months. However, they still cannot explain what it has done for their revenue. These businesses have content going out. They run ads. They stack subscriptions. Yet no system connects any of it. As a result, the AI stays busy. The business does not grow.

Why does the government think it can clamp down on a budding sector? This sector allows ordinary people to exchange ideas freely. We strongly condemn Parliament’s exploration of regulatory measures. These measures target South Africa’s rapidly growing podcasting sector. Such intervention poses a direct threat to freedom of expression and democratic discourse. In this context, concerns about a potential podcast crackdown continue to intensify.