Meet Rika Joubert, a strong, caring woman who lives in an apartment block on Prayer Hill in Yeoville. She believes in giving back where she can, caring for the environment, caring for her neighbours and recycling her waste; all bar one small shopping packet of rubbish a week. Prayer Hill is an area of land of not more than one square kilometre, that affords the most incredible views of Johannesburg, ‘houses' a small group of homeless people, is used by communities as a prayer site and is a stop on walking tour of the inner city.

Chaos is collaboration’s best friend. Why is this? The less structured the environment, be it virtual or physical, the more open it is for ideas. Many great ideas have been born in chaotic environments, not least of all penicillin and artificial sweeteners.

The upcoming local municipal elections have caused me to reflect on the state of my heart. I have become increasingly saddened and disillusioned.    

Creatives’ frustration reaches all-time highs when the brief is poor. Whenever they receive a brief that isn’t clear enough, not comprehensive enough or that simply states, ‘make it pretty/funky’ they go into decline and the client expectation of ‘great’ is generally not met.

As we find ourselves on the eve of what will probably be one of the most hotly contested local elections in South Africa since the birth of our democracy in 1994, I find myself wondering what we could attribute to the ‘average’ politician - conflict, collusion, corruption or collaboration?

‘If your business does not have a mobile strategy today, it will be left behind.’ 

So say all the marketing pundits, and reviewing the latest statistics, I can’t help but agree. The implications are clear - if you're not able to reach your audience through mobile search or display, or you're not providing a satisfactory mobile experience you will miss out compared to competitors who are. Responsive screen and vertical adaptations to horizontal are no-brainers. We are talking about web presence specifically, not mobile apps. That is a topic for another day.

A blog motivating why everyone should join a community

When author John Don spoke the words “no man is an island” in his sermon in the 17th century, I doubt he knew how true the words would ring, four centuries later. Even today, we continue to learn how human beings do not thrive when isolated from others; perhaps that’s the reason for the collaboration era we find ourselves in today.

Having just completed one of my best business reads this year, Disrupt You by Jay Samit, I firmly believe we’re in the best possible era for disruption. I know that there are some out there who feel the word itself is vastly overtraded. For me, disruption is about new thinking that improves the way we do stuff, consume stuff, create stuff, etc.  It’s about improving lives through better access to goods, services and talent. 

Everyone who is anyone is talking about the power of video content. Why is there such a push to use videos? There are many reasons but most marketers agree, that video content is one of the most effective ways to cut through the clutter in a crowded content marketing landscape. A video is as close to a full-sensory experience (second only to virtual reality experiences) because it uses both sight and sound senses to help the audience to process a message.   

As online communities develop, so do their audiences. Thinking of the audience as a homogenous and consistent group can be a big mistake. As members are indifferent to the phases of the lifecycle, they will act differently, spend varying amounts of time within the online community, and fulfil different needs.