The hidden cost of creativity

[Nyembezi ...] I've been exposed to a myriad of advertising campaigns that are inspiring in terms of creativity, but essentially poor in selling the product they're advertising. It explains why ad agencies lose accounts that have won them prestigious awards. A lot of ads may get the audience's attention, and perhaps even entertain them, yet they fail to drive them as consumers: the worst example being clever ads whose products the audience forgets.

Time for a long hard look at The Loerie Awards

[Chris Moerdyk] The only possible justification for an event such as the annual Loerie Awards is that it gives the people who work in advertising agencies an opportunity to escape the daily grind of watching creativity stifled by commercial interests.

Should your company move to the cloud?

[Rob Lith] "Cloud-based communications has clear benefits, but whether those benefits will accrue to your organisation depends on a number of factors. If your enterprise answers to any of the questions in the checklist below, you may be in the market for a hosted PBX."

Johannesburg billboard landscape revealed - who is doing what?

[Tatenda Chiweshe] Big brands in South Africa are obliged to place a large portion of their outdoor spend in Johannesburg. Although public statistics are scant, there is no doubt that the city is South Africa's most important in terms of population, GDP, consumer spend, international arrivals and almost every other economic indicator that would tickle a media/advertising professional's fancy.

Pork Nirvana

Moving call centre agents back home

[Jed Hewson] When call centres moved into the cloud and starting making use of hosted contact centre solutions, agents began moving out of offices - a phenomenon known by some as "homeshoring". According to Gartner Research, 1 out of every 10 international call centres is likely to shift at least partly to home-based agents.

Marikana has shown how poor communication can be a killer

[Chris Moerdyk] One thing was abundantly clear to me when I looked at the tragedy of what is now being called "The Marikana Massacre" and that is everyone from the mine management to the police, government and the miners themselves, failed hopelessly when it came to communicating with each other.

The DIY CMS website - is it for you?

[Chemory Gunko] I received a very interesting piece of email marketing the other day. In it, the writer was selling a course to teach people how to build their own CMS (content-managed) websites.

Lonmin: Crossed the bounds of negotiation into anarchy and war

Comforting casseroles

"The Wrong Kid Died" track by track