Delliver relevant marketing solutions in challenging times

The South Africa arm of Superbrands, the world's leading independent arbiter of brands, and The Marketing Show, the acclaimed international marketing industry event brought to South Africa for the second year and hosted by Microsoft, have teamed up to make keeping abreast of global trends and innovation in building and managing brands a little more affordable to South Africa's leading brands.

Companies that qualify for Superbrands status, as identified by an independent council of South Africa marketing, branding and communications industry luminaries, have been offered a 12% discount to the conference on 4 & 5 May, which features international and local industry gurus sharing their insights into what's new, what's important and what's working in marketing today.

Simon Goddard, Project Director for Superbrands South Africa, says the current economic, environmental and technological changes present some of the biggest challenges marketers have ever been faced with.

“This truly is a brave new world for marketers. Across all the 82 countries in which Superbrands now operates,” says Goddard, “we see the industry being turned on its head to ensure it continues to deliver relevant solutions in the face of the explosion of social media, the sudden about-face of the economy and subsequent changes in the consumerist mindset, as well as an escalating awareness of the affect our habits have had on the environment and a growing determination of the person-in-street to be part of the solution.

“We believe The Marketing Show, with its fantastic line-up of speakers and topics, goes a long way to helping marketers stay on top of these challenges.”

International speakers at the conference include: Tom Garrahan - CEO of AlphaQ UK and the producer of the Marketing Show, Bill Carney - Professor of Marketing MBA at Instituto de Empresa Madrid, Jim Marshall - Executive Director of StarCom Mediavest Group UK, Ron Banks - Professor of Marketing Webster University, Graham David Brown - Managing Director Mobile Youth UK, Diana Verde Nieto - CEO of Clownfish (UK, Shanghai and New York), Amy Carroll - Skill to Success Ltd, John Buckie - Director Marketing Practice - Corporate Executive Board Europe and local insight from CNBC Africa, Marketing Mix and Microsoft.

The speakers will cover an array of topics including: How is marketing changing worldwide? Strategies and the Current Economy, Most critical trends and opportunities, Green Marketing, Social Media Programmes, the Future of Television, Youth Marketing and Mobile and much more.

It is notable that some of the South African speakers are also part of the Superbrands South Africa Volume 3 Independent Brand Council, which includes Peter Vundla, Mike Freedman, Graham Pfuhl, Ray Mkhize, Simon Camerer, Basetsana Kumalo, Dudu Thabede, Vanessa Singh, Nomahlubi Simamane, Joy Khaole and Tumi Nkosi, Modise Makhene.