According to TransUnion’s Q4 2025 South Africa Industry Insights Report, the consumer credit market is moving beyond recovery into stabilisation with the vehicle finance market experiencing its fifth consecutive quarter of sustained growth.
It’s been a year since I first began asking ad industry execs — chief investment officers, pure-play digital techies, brand marketers, anyone who will answer me — to predict what share of ad spending will be targeting AI agents — not humans — in five years.
Die Kantoor—an adaptation of the hit series The Office—is the official South African version of the show. But instead of selling paper, they sell polony. The show has performed well on Showmax, but Fourie says it’s too early to confirm a second season which would now likely be on DStv Stream.
A cadre of media strategy leaders has founded a membership organisation to organise training and debate for the next generation of planners. The Media Planning Group (MPG), launched today, will serve as a “new home” for media planners and strategists. It sits alongside the non-profit Account Planning Group (APG), a similar membership organisation founded in 1979 to support creative account planners in advertising agencies.
There’s MMM and MTA, but no single ad measurement works for brands with multiple points of sale. On Tuesday, Northbeam launched an incrementality tool to complete what it calls “the trifecta of digital attribution.”
“The Government is taking decisive action to tackle the community and public health concerns associated with gambling,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “We’re getting the balance right here, letting adults have a punt if they want to but also making sure Australian children don’t see betting ads everywhere they look. “What we don’t want is kids growing up thinking that footy and gambling are the same thing.”
Lloyds Bank has used connected TV with postcode targeting (and twice-daily campaign optimisations) to drive downloads of its app among its Scottish Widows workplace pension customers. Sam Taylor, head of marketing at Lloyds Banking, explains how CTV worked harder than email and direct mail (DM) and proved to be a powerful multiplier for DM performance, too. “Who would have thought television is a CRM channel?” he asks.
AI has settled the debate. First-party data isn’t just preferred; it’s structurally necessary. And the capital is already moving: IAB’s State of Data report found that 71% of brands, agencies and publishers are currently or planning to grow their first-party data sets, nearly double the rate from two years earlier.
Central South Africa’s leading commercial radio station, OFM, has kicked off 2026 with an exceptional first quarter, marked by strong audience engagement, innovative campaigns, and continued brand growth as it celebrates 40 years on air.
Akamai has reported a 300% rise in AI bot activity affecting the publishing industry, with media ranking as the second-largest target globally in its latest research. The report found that media accounted for 13% of all AI bot traffic tracked, and publishing organisations made up 40% of that activity. The pattern suggests content-heavy websites are facing growing levels of automated scraping.