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icandi CQ is a 31% Black Woman Owned, Level 2 B-BBEE strategically driven full-service digital brand, communication and employee experience agency.
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Brand love, from the inside out
Every business wants their customers to love their brand. But what about their employees? 14 Feb 2024 Read more

Is 2024 the year we unlock AInternal Communications?
Annual performance reviews are so 2023. In 2024, if you’re not strategising ways to create a more connected, engaged, and empowered workforce, powered by AI and driven by hyper-personalisation and real-time feedback, you’re speaking to the past, not the future. It’s time to look ahead to get ahead. 17 Jan 2024 Read more

How to draft craft an annual report
If your annual report doesn't look like it will be a must-read for investors and other stakeholders, then you need to throw out the draft and employ more craft. 20 Jun 2023 Read more

Tell or sell - how website storytelling goes beyond selling
Social media didn't kill the website. It made website storytelling more important than ever before. If your website isn't telling a story about your brand in 2023, it isn't selling your products and services either. Let's change that... 8 May 2023 Read more

Can your EVP drive work-life integration in 2023?
In this post-pandemic hybrid working environment, does your EVP still attract talent and deliver real value? Is it time to dissolve the old model or evolve it into a more human-centric approach to value? 23 Mar 2023 Read more

Metaverse - crypto or kryptonite for marketing?
Trend of fad? Unexplored universe or volatile planet? Like it or leave it, the metaverse is one planet you cannot afford to ignore or not explore. So, let's explore... 17 Feb 2023 Read more

What can US businesses teach SA about inclusion at work?
We may think of workplace diversity as a problem unique to South African businesses based on our history, but it's not. We only have to look to the US, where chief diversity and inclusion officers and gender-neutral pronouns are part of business to realise that maybe we have a thing or two to learn from our counterparts up north. 23 Sep 2022 Read more

Gender equality: How woke (or broke) is your internal comms?
It's Women's Month - that time of year when every company becomes 'woke' to the issues affecting their female employees and the many ways their recruitment programmes, wellness initiatives and gender equality policies are fighting the good fight and winning. And yes, many companies have made very real strides in transforming the workplace into a place where women have voices and make choices from positions of real power and influence across the board and, indeed, on the board. 3 Aug 2022 Read more

Can you have workplace culture without a traditional workplace?
Is workplace culture still worth investing in? Are cultural activities still in fashion? In the lead up to Heritage Day this month, we look at how company cultures, diversity and inclusion intersect at the corner of brand sustainability. 7 Sep 2021 Read more

Enabling the Africa way
Africa Day celebrates the continent's progress as much as its diversity, begging the question: How can business progress in a multicultural world if they don't embrace diversity at its most vulnerable roots - the remote (or hybrid) workplace? 24 May 2021 Read more

From reactive to responsive: IC trends in 2021
Adopt, adapt or pivot? We share some of the top trends taking internal communications from reactive to responsive in 2021. 19 Jan 2021 Read more

Ask your employees the right questions
Employee surveys are key to gauging, not only the impact of your internal communication efforts, but also as an indicator to the current mood and sentiment in your organisation. 1 Dec 2020 Read more

Diversity without inclusivity is just skin deep
If diversity is the face of transformation, inclusivity is its voice. As communicators and leaders, if we want to change the corporate narrative and drive a more inclusive company culture, it starts with enabling inclusive communication. 28 Sep 2020 Read more

5 leadership lessons from women changing the narrative
Women make great leaders, but not just for the reasons we think. In addition to the collaboration and empathy they bring to the table, women know how to turn a slamming door into an opportunity to forge a new and better way. 21 Aug 2020 Read more

Is brand empathy crisis-proof?
Empathy is not an emotional response to a global crisis. It is a strategy that enables you to bring meaning to your brand and the people who give you permission to exist. Why then are so many brands lacking empathy? 11 May 2020 Read more

When innovation is the path of greatest resilience
Many businesses are still operating in that emergency 'first response' mode - reacting to every challenge every day, just to survive. But the time is coming to rethink and redesign a new economic order and we can either prop up our old systems or build new ones that are as innovative as they are resilient. It's time to choose before it chooses us. 21 Apr 2020 Read more

Sales is everyone's business
Is sales a job title or the result of an engaged workplace culture? With the right strategy and support, is it possible to turn every employee into a member of your sales team? That depends... 12 Nov 2019 Read more

Changing culture, from the workplace out
Does your workplace culture reflect society, or help shift it? Why wait for change to come into the workplace when you can use internal communications as a tool to shift and shape culture, from the workplace out. 25 Sep 2019 Read more

Is demotivation the new motivation of employee engagement?
If you want to start engaging your employees, stop motivating them. Please. The reason they're not performing at peak has less to do with motivation and more to do with de-motivation. 28 Aug 2019 Read more

Don't get mad, get creative
There's a lot to celebrate this Women's Month, but women at the helm of the creative industry is not one of them. Instead of waiting around to retweet yet another media list or brand #campaign #empoweringwomen, let's do what we do best - get creative. 15 Aug 2019 Read more

Can CSR engage employees in a new South African narrative?
The law demands it. Employees want it. Your company needs it. The case for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a business imperative is a done deal. Or is it? Maybe it's time CSR understands its power to engage employees in a new SA narrative. 26 Jul 2019 Read more

What minimalism can teach internal communicators
Declutter. Simplify. Tidy up. Are we talking spring cleaning or internal communications here? Are they mutually exclusive? Not if minimalism is the intention driving and delivering communication that does more than tick another box. 25 Jun 2019 Read more

What's the purpose of 'purpose' in B2B?
If you think a brand's purpose has no place in B2B, best you consult your HR department. You might be surprised to learn who is influencing procurement and why, in 2019, purpose power is the new purchase power. 23 May 2019 Read more

Appreciation is its own reward
Brace yourselves. Recognition and reward programmes are heading for the divorce courts, having realised they are poorly suited to ensuring employee wellbeing and its intended offspring - high performance. Luckily a new company-employee relationship is on the rise, and it's something all employees can really and truly, well "appreciate". 7 May 2019 Read more

Are customer and employee engagement one and the same?
Customers or employees? Which one should you engage first or most? Neither and both. They become one and the same if smart, strategic internal communication is the tool you use to drive loyalty, engage employees and build a customer service culture. And here's why... 16 Apr 2019 Read more

If strategy was breakfast, what's for lunch?
Everyone knows that "culture eats strategy for breakfast". So why are companies still starving when it comes to enjoying the fruits of their cultural labour? The answer lies in their brand diet. It lacks the one vital ingredient that has the power to give their corporate culture substance and sustainability - internal communications. 22 Mar 2019 Read more

Is AI the virus killing creativity?
Artificial. Automated. Analytical. The AAA of Intelligence is looking to go viral, along with the big data and mobile technology that supports it. But before we rush out and become early adopters of the next big thing, let's remember one scientific fact - that every viral creation is born of a virus that threatens to kill the lifeblood of the very industry it feeds and breeds. In the marketing world, that means creativity. 31 Aug 2018 Read more

Why you need to draw the line at agencies that are not internal communications specialists
As we move into a communication world where high expectation, low marketing budgets and growing competition is the order of the day, the communications pool of public relations, below-the-line, integrated, above-the-line and digital agencies are scrambling to assert themselves in the new pecking order. Suddenly every agency is a social media expert, knows how to make your company "future fit" and has an iron-clad grasp of how AI will shape your workplace and industry. Even if you milk cows for a living... Willing to wage your entire media budget on that? Don't think so. 7 Aug 2018 Read more

Add these to your internal communications wishlist
Every year, come January and February, we get bombarded with trends we as communicators should be incorporating into our communication mix. 6 Mar 2018 Read more

Kunene-Msimang to put icandi CQ on the African map
icandi CQ is proud to announce the appointment of Thembi Kunene-Msimang as chairperson, forging a new era for this leading local communication specialist, as they venture into Africa and the growing tourism sector. 18 Dec 2017 Read more

Launching #MoreThanData to Investec staff
icandi CQ recently conceptualised and implemented an innovative internal communication campaign for Investec Private Banking, using a live-streaming, pop-up radio station as the central channel to launch Investec's #MoreThanData marketing campaign, for young professionals, to staff. 24 Mar 2017 Read more

Structuring a future-ready communication function
Fickle markets, growing competition, increased business risks, pressure to increase productivity and time to market, cost reductions, the need for innovation and collaboration, decentralised teams, limited skillsets and talent - these challenges and requirements are the order of the day for organisations across business sectors. 27 Mar 2015 Read more

Hey, internal communicator, how agile are you?
In today's complex environment, business no longer operates in a sequence of events, but changes constantly. The end goals shift relentlessly and programmes that take months to plan and build (often at great cost!) can be irrelevant before they even launch. This is a struggle internal communicators are faced with daily and predictably the way we plan communication and enable change can no longer be sequential. 18 Nov 2014 Read more

Adapt or stagnate: The future of internal communication
The communications game is changing faster than many of us realise and businesses either adapt and roll the way the world wants them to roll, or stagnate, and finally regress, into irrelevance. 28 Nov 2013 Read more

As we engage in a century where everyone is not only a global citizen, but a valuable "Brand in Waiting," we begin to understand that the Internet Revolution IS in fact the Industrial Revolution of our time. It's a sweeping social disruption that brings with it not only new inventions and scientific advances, but perhaps most importantly revolutionises both the methods of work and we the workers ourselves. 11 Dec 2012 Read more

Competing on the curve
icandiCQ at the 11th annual Melcrum Summit in London 23 Oct 2012 Read more

Caring to dream
Creative intelligence is not just about being SMART - it's also about having HEART. 31 Aug 2012 Read more

icandiCQ - Building character for Arrowhead Properties CI
Take a smart branding concept, add a dash of CQ (creative intelligence) and you have the winning method for giving 'character' to a corporate identity (CI). 22 Jun 2012 Read more

icandi adds creative intelligence to their brand
icandiCQ, previously icandi COMMUNICATIONS, has reshaped their brand. As a communication, marketing and brand agency, icandiCQ delivers fresh, intelligent and creative results for clients like Nedbank, KPMG, Arrowhead, Basil Read, Hendler&Hart, HiP, Tower Bridge Trade Services, GroFin, Old Mutual, Nestle and many other blue-chip companies. 5 Apr 2012 Read more

The innovative design of a stand can make a brand stand out in a crowded trade fair. Creative Communications agency icandi COMMUNICATIONS created an award winning stand for client Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation (RSSC), one of Swaziland's biggest companies, at the Swaziland International Trade Fair (26 August - 4 September 2011). 24 Oct 2011 Read more

icandi communications (Pty) Ltd recently attended the IMC (Integrated Marketing Conference) in Johannesburg and after listening to almost 20 hours of speaker sessions, outlining the latest industry trends, there's much to say. 8 Jul 2011 Read more

New GroFin website offers formula for successful SMEs
Businesses are a lot like people. When you spend a lot of time, energy and money reworking your personal or professional strategy, you often need to go out and get a new wardrobe or website to match your new outlook. That's why when GroFin - the leading pan-African financier and advisor for SMEs - appointed icandi COMMUNICATIONS to develop a new brand strategy; it also set about creating marketing material that included a new website that would represent the client proposition that informs every aspect of its business - SUCCESS. 13 Apr 2011 Read more

Facebook? Email? Monthly newsletter? How you chose to engage your employees is not always how they would choose to receive it, or so PwC discovered when it asked icandi COMMUNICATIONS, a strategically driven agency specialising in internal communications, to audit its current communications mix - from the inside out. 29 Mar 2011 Read more

KPMG calls on icandi COMMUNICATIONS to assist with staging Sun City quiz show
How do you engage 300 top-level KPMG executives in a full conference programme, straight after lunch, highlighting some of the more extraordinary aspects of the firm? You elicit the services of icandi COMMUNICATIONS to devise and stage a quiz show, putting some executives in the hot seat, a selection of KPMG's extraordinary achievements in the spotlight and binding this together with more than a dash of energy and fun. 18 Jan 2011 Read more

Company's employees hold the key to success
Successful branding should include a strategy of working from the inside out. Without the commitment, competence and buy-in of an organisation's employees the growth of its brand will inevitably be stunted, according to Kim Nelson, MD of icandi COMMUNICATIONS. 14 Jul 2010 Read more

Basil Read has appointed icandi COMMUNICATIONS as their agency of choice to market and promote St Micheil's international lifestyle estate. icandi COMMUNICATIONS will be responsible for conceptualising and activating all ATL, BTL, Direct Marketing and PR activities. 2 Jul 2010 Read more

GroFin appoints icandi COMMUNICATIONS to grow its SME market
When you are an innovative finance company focused on growing small to medium businesses across Africa, you need an agency that knows how to combine financial savvy with original thinking and creative execution. Enter icandi COMMUNICATIONS. 3 May 2010 Read more

icandi COMMUNICATIONS has been appointed as the through-the-line agency for Old Mutual Investment Group and Basil Read's latest joint venture development in the vicinity of Doornkuil. icandi COMMUNICATIONS will be responsible for conceptualisation of the brand and its positioning in its entirety. 17 Nov 2009 Read more

Who's afraid of a little client recognition?
icandi COMMUNICATIONS walks the talk on improving performance through communications and how this can boost your survival rate in these economic times. So it came with much appreciated recognition to see the effects, earn our own and get some of the recognition back. 9 Sep 2009 Read more

Employee engagement: are you ready?
icandi COMMUNICATIONS recently partnered with Melcrum, a leading UK-based internal communication research and training organisation, as a sponsor at the Melcrum Corporate Communication Management Summit held in Rosebank in early June. 7 Jul 2009 Read more

Nedbank has observed successful communication drives to employees at all levels from icandi COMMUNICATIONS. Powerful messaging that both listens and is heard while stretching the Rand smartly - is how it's done. 3 Jun 2009 Read more

The Creative Director and like... by the mountain, bru
What happens when business factors are changing and office space is rearranging? You work smarter as well as harder. A ten-year creative work-out puts us at the helm of ensuring that your communications do just that, with fresh strategic appointments and even a new (i)candi shop near you. 20 Jan 2009 Read more

Risk is sweet for the Development Bank of Southern Africa
One week. Sixteen speakers. And icandi COMMUNICATIONS was DBSA's choice to be the vehicle of information for knowledge and security. And when you have both knowledge and security - what more could you ask for? 11 Dec 2008 Read more

2.5 million personalities
Earlier this year, Design Indaba Mag asked creatives to contribute material across any design discipline, interpreting and reflecting the theme: ‘Jozi is Mine'. icandi COMMUNICATIONS embraced the challenge and contributed to the graphic design discipline. The result is featured in the third Quarter of the 2008 edition of the magazine. 25 Sep 2008 Read more

Proudly digging deep
SOS Children's Villages is a charitable organisation that provides homes for orphaned and vulnerable children and, in the spirit of Corporate Social Investment, icandi COMMUNICATIONS have undertaken to produce the Bi Annual SOS Children's Villages magazine - ‘The Village News'. 23 Sep 2008 Read more