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[Marketing Week Africa] Bob Koigi: What Threads entry portends for Africa
The recent launch of micro blogging site Threads by Meta has created global buzz on what this latest development means for content creators and social media enthusiasts.
The app that is rivaling Twitter allows Instagram users to log in with their existing credentials and post updates including texts of up to 500 characters long, links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.
According to Meta, ‘’Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas.’ The social media platform is already exciting users across Africa, who are known to trail blaze their global peers in the active use of these platforms whether for business or leisure. It will be interesting to see what and how individuals and corporates in Africa will embrace the new kid on the social media block
The latest development came as another social media platform TikTok announced a comprehensive refresh of its Community Guidelines.
TikTok says it recognizes that safety is a top priority for its community in and believes collaboration is the key to maintaining a safe app environment.
In news that made headlines in the advertising front this week, Relativ Connect, a level 1 BEE company specialising in innovative advertising solutions, has joined forces with Oasis Digital Networks, a progressive group known for curating cutting-edge digital platforms.
Together, they have announced the launch of the new DigiMax digital screen network across the Shell & Vivo Network that is set to transform the advertising landscape in South Africa and beyond.
South African companies allocated a large majority of their marketing budgets at 81% to digital advertising. This is according to the Broad Media 2023 Marketing Budget and ROI report released in June.
The report also revealed that digital advertising provides the best ROI for South African companies by a large margin at 82% compared to print at 15% and outdoor at 13%. Radio, television, and cinema on the other hand provide 10%, 11% and 1% ROI respectively.
And in the PR scene, PR leaders remain confident about market conditions, and are increasingly exploring the potential of AI tools such as ChatGPT, according to the latest PRCA and ICCO Confidence Tracker.
73% of leaders say that they are ‘very confident’ or ‘quite confident’ about the future of their organisation, and 16% are ‘not very confident’ or ‘not confident at all’, compared with 83% and 16% respectively in the last Tracker published in February 2023.
Elsewhere, Podcast incubation studio SemaBOX is launching a podcast distribution platform to help podcasters on its network to reach more audiences.
Known as WAZO, SemaBOX says the platform will also help creators to drive discovery and monetization of their podcasts.
KPMG and Microsoft have announced a significant expansion of their global relationship that will reshape professional services across a number of business-critical areas including workforce modernization, safe and secure development, and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for clients, industries and society more broadly.
Sony Group Corporation has announced the first-ever Sony Creators Conference, introducing a full slate of technical talks and panel discussion sessions that spotlight Sony as a brand at the intersection of technology and creativity.
The two-day event will showcase the works of creators across Sony who are pursuing their creative vision through the use of groundbreaking technology.
Bob Koigi is an editor at Marketing Report Africa
