media update’s Adam Wakefield was there to take in what the diverse range of speakers had to say.

The morning sunshine greeted the hundreds of delegates attending the 2017 IAB Digital Summit, with Galleria in northern Johannesburg playing host.

Proceedings were kicked off by IAB SA CEO Josephine Buys, who welcomed delegates and reported back on the activities of the IAB, including the progress made by its transformation council.

She introduced Avatar Investment Holdings group CEO Zibusiso Mkhwanazi and Webfluential head of global operations Kirsty Sharman as the day’s MCs, with the pair then laying the platform for the first speech of the day, the keynote speech.

It was delivered by Didier Uljasz, managing director of Accenture Interactive and head of the agency’s personalisation practice across EALA and digital marketing lead for Middle East, Africa, Russia and Turkey. He spoke about the art of cracking the customer genome, noting that 65% of customers are more likely to buy products they recognise, remember and what is relevant to them.

Consumers are burdened with choice, with 40% of consumers leaving websites and making a purchase elsewhere because they were overwhelmed by too many options. A total of 70% of consumers are comfortable with their data being collected if it is done in a transparent manner and they know how the data is going to be used, and if they can control how the data is used.

The three big elements to take note of to avoid problems when collecting data are; transparency, control, and service.

Digital must be about consumers

Alexandra Salomon, director international at the IAB Washington D.C, then took to the stage and spoke about the four principles of great advertising experiences. Before she got there, though, she told the summit how the digital advertising industry, as innovative as it is, has led itself into a user experience crisis.

“Our unbridled infatuation with new technologies and our desire to lower costs, regardless of the consequences, have contributed to a form of consumer abuse in digital advertising,” Salomon said.

Consumers have reacted by adopting ad blockers.

“The consumer is in control. We have contributed to making the very concept of advertising a pariah among the consumers we serve,” she said.

“There is a way through this crisis that will pull us back to a path of opportunity.”

Using the first Pepsi Generation commercial aired in 1963 as an example, Salomon pointed out the four principles of advertising experiences.

The first was that the consumer is more than a set of data points.

The second was the platforms are always changing and digital advertisers must change with them. The third was when platforms change, creativity must change with them.

“New media platforms lead to a new way of expressing ideas and thus new ways of perceiving the world around you,” she said.

“Harold Innes called this the basis of communication. Creators must adapt their own techniques to the characteristics of new platforms and the expectations these create in the audience.”

Lastly, technology expertise is crucial for meeting the new audience’s heightened expectations.

Coming back to her original point, Salomon said the digital industry has gotten it backwards, placing the user experience behind the technology when, in fact, it should be at the very forefront.

“Our goal has to be to get advertising into alignment with consumer delight. It is our obligation to our consumers, to our companies and our shareholders, to advance a sustainable advertising ecosystem that put’s consumers first.”

The public must invest in good journalism and digital 

Later, Huffington Post editor-at-large Ferial Haffajee detailed the sustained fake news and propaganda campaign that has targeted Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report, and journalists who report on the relationship between the Gupta family, their associates, and figures in government.

 “I don’t think that the concept of fake news explains it properly. I think what we see is social media which is propaganda to create a counter-narrative and confuse the public. It burst into a hugely unequal society and one in which we think we live too comfortably with,” Haffajee said.

“I think state capture shows the road to state failure and they are using social media to do their work. The media is a powerful force in tackling corruption.”

Haffajee implored delegates to invest in good journalism by supporting news sites that support the underlying business, spending their money on news and not on Facebook or Google.

For digital to thrive, data must fall

Later in the day, media personality Tbo Touch asked delegates the question of how we move from success to significance.

Those who engage on online platforms already know what is happening, so the job of the content creator is to meet the challenge of their listeners who want to be gratified instantly.

However, a massive impediment to the success of online content creators in South Africa is high data costs that sees South Africans pay some of the highest data costs on the continent.

Touch said data is a human right, as important as oxygen, because when data is distributed evenly, “you not only shape the society mental landscape, but you’re making information far more accessible and it changes how we do our research and how we consume”.

“We can create all the best content we like. If we don’t have the data, we will be running a marathon that has no finish line,” Touch said.

South Africa had the highest data costs within the BRICS group, even though service providers are in our back yard.

“Charity starts at home. 2017 is a year when the revolution is not going to be televised, it will be digitised.”

After Touch, Leonel Silva, media partnerships director EMEA at Celtra, detailed how advertisers were missing an opportunity on mobile by not investing in creative.

Brands are struggling to achieve their mobile advertising objectives. Delivering poor mobile ads comes at a cost, but improving creative was the remedy the mobile ecosystem stalemate.

71% of consumers indicated ads they saw on their phones in a day disrupted their mobile experience. Around 69% of advertisements obscured content, 51% of advertisements were irrelevant, and 48% of advertisements did not load well.

“Only 24% of companies place top priority on ad creative and content assembly when planning mobile advertising strategy,” Silva said. “For every dollar, 55 cents goes to the rubbish.”

He listed three tips so that consumers were given great creative: minimising formats, relevant messaging, and engaging content.

Towards the end of the day, trend specialist John Sanei detailed how gamification was everywhere, and how the Uberisation of society represented society’s ever-evolving demands of hyper trust, hyper-reward, and hyper-convenience, among others.

The needs and expectations of consumers are changing rapidly, and with Internet Protocol 6 and quantum computing on the horizon, it is going to change the way we interact with one another and with businesses fundamentally.

Many other speakers took the podium over the course of the day, tackling subjects from digital’s marriage to television to brands keeping up with the digital changes of their consumers. It was a day of insights and learnings, and ahead of the IAB Bookmark Awards later the same evening, left delegates much to reflect on ahead of the festivities.   

For more information, visit iabdigitalsummit.co.za.

After the Summit, The Bookmarks Awards recognised exceptional talent in the marketing world. Read more in our article, Ogilvy takes home Bookmarks 2017 Agency of the Year award.