If we want better media decisions, measurement needs to reflect how people actually make buying decisions, not simply how platforms record them, writes Dan Gee. What’s often missing is an explanation of how all of this contributes to growth. In essence: true media effectiveness.
Cheap, AI-generated microdramas are taking South Africa by storm and vying for an audience that once belonged exclusively to DStv, E-tv, and the SABC. Even though microdramas are delivered in vertical video format, they scratch the same itch as traditional soaps or telenovelas and, in the modern attention economy, compete for a similar audience.
Marketing teams have become vastly better at optimising campaigns and communications through ever-more precise data and measurement tools. But for the likes of Les Binet, Mark Ritson and James Hurman, such precision puts brands in danger of losing sight of how we generate future demand.
As the platforms take on more of the operational work and AI becomes capable of handling increasingly complicated tasks, the value of having someone manually operate an account starts to fall. Conversely, the value of having someone who understands what the system should be doing, what information it needs, and where it should go next starts to rise. That’s going to change what a PPC agency actually is. Read further.
South Africa’s e-commerce opportunity may depend less on getting consumers online than on giving them the confidence to spend once they get there. According to the World Wide Worx’s Online Retail in South Africa 2026 study, 79.1% of South African adults regularly browse the web, but only 34.2% buy goods online.
Marketer spending on product placements will grow 13.7% worldwide, and 12.8% in the U.S. this year, the greatest rate of expansion since the industry rebounded from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, according to the 2026 edition of PQ Media’s Global Product Placement Forecast.
Andrew Tindall digs into data across 1,478 brands and argues ad awareness deserves a place back in effectiveness planning, alongside attention, emotion and business outcomes. Ad awareness became quite a dirty word in effectiveness. The industry focused too much on it, and we correctly steered toward more System 1 thinking, subconscious engagement and attention, alongside metrics that felt closer to an outcome. But we overcorrected.
Google Ads introduces channel prioritization and budget allocation controls, giving advertisers more flexibility over spending across Search, Performance Max, and other campaigns. Advertisers will be able to designate channels as high or low priority, with the option to cap spending on lower-priority inventory rather than excluding those channels entirely.
Carat, dentsu’s global media agency, has launched Difference Engineered, a new global positioning and brand identity that sets out its ambition to create greater differentiation and measurable advantage for clients.
Google Ads is introducing commerce audience sharing, allowing retailers and marketplaces to share first-party audience segments with brands and sellers running eligible retail media campaigns.