BY: LEIGH ANDREWS It's a touchy subject for some, but completely necessary to explore: Here's how Fort Review is amplifying the need to truly hear the black voices in advertising and stop being creative Jekyll and Hydes. Makongoza behind the decks at the Fort Review second edition VIP launch event, at Rockets' rooftop in Bryanston on 16 February. It’s no secret that the SA ad industry is in drastic need of transformation. It’s not necessarily that there aren’t enough black voices in the industry, more that those voices are not being heard, and those truths are not being well told. That’s what I call...

Posted By: Michael Bratt Ahead of a talk that he is giving at the Loeries Creative Week, Google Africa chief marketing officer Mzamo Masito spoke to The Media Online. The chat centred on creativity and its role in both advertising and marketing and the world as a whole. “I love creativity that rhymes with functional design, that is beautiful but is also useful. This is when it helps answer and solve a few questions,” says Masito. He punts creativity that assists in two ways. Firstly, creativity that is used to create solutions to ending the world’s problems, including poverty, racism, prejudice and ignorance. Or creativity that...

BY: SORIA HAY The Department of Trade and Industry's (dti) proposed amendments to its Codes of Good Practice on broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) focus on ownership and skills development. Soria Hay, head of corporate finance at Bravura Proposed amendments include, for example, stricter requirements for the enhancement status of small and emerging black-owned businesses yet a surprising enhancement status for black-owned generic entities. There is an innovative new skills development indicator which will incentivise businesses to increase their BEE levels while supporting long-term economic growth possibilities. Unexpectedly, no amendments are proposed for broad-based schemes despite criticism levelled at these by the dti¹s minister, Rob Davies,...

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Johannesburg-based full-service communications agency, Riverbed, has set high targets for 2018, in a bid to take the business to what CEO Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila calls “the next level”. Emerging from what was a challenging year for many in the industry, Riverbed is leveraging new wins and hires to bolster both its creativity and position in the market. Monalisa Zwambila Advertising added on “We started very much as an activation and PR agency, and then we added on our advertising competency,” she says. “What we really want to be in a position to do is make a difference in terms of creativity.” Zwambila is confident...