Marketing’s Virtual Platform

In 2018, Dale Hefer bought the IMC or Integrated Marketing Conference and re-launched it a year later with Nedbank as the naming sponsor. 

Dale’s mission in buying and re-launching the IMC was to provide an industry platform that had wide appeal and could attract the interest of all the different industry bodies and associations. Dale’s vision was to create something that was relevant in marketing and business. She says, “I wanted the conference to serve as a platform that proves the business case for marketing.  To show that marketing deserves its rightful place at the boardroom table and is a measurable business imperative for every business.”

Trademarked as Marketing is Business™ and aimed at African marketers and businesspeople, the conference sought to dispense with ‘death by PowerPoint” and “sponsored” presentations. Thus, the iconic Nedbank IMC marketing presentation was born and was specifically designed to have no sales pitch and would normally run for around 15-minutes – enough time to deliver a lot of information as a quality package.

The launch theme of the Nedbank IMC in 2019 was “Marketing Gets Naked” – an intriguing theme which Dale explained, “We wanted to strip away the misconceptions and jargon often associated with marketing and strip it down to the bottom line. There was also the awareness that this could be Africa’s largest marketing conference and an industry highlight (which it has become).” 

When first approached in 2019 as a potential sponsor, Khensani Nobanda, head of marketing at Nedbank, immediately saw the value and Nedbank came on board as the naming sponsor. 

An additional, but critical aspect to the Nedbank IMC is to provide an opportunity to uplift the youth. 

Youth upliftment bursaries were made available and by 2021, a total of six bursaries had been awarded to students, along with more than R250k worth of attendance value  for student attendance.

In 2021, the conference moved to a virtual platform and pulled in a total of 1 300 delegates from 14 countries around the world to watch the conference live. The Nedbank IMC has been able to draw a galaxy of renowned and specialist speakers to the event, which is now presented in association with the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA) and endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of South Africa.

This year’s theme, “Is it relevant? Marketing’s big ask” seeks to interrogate the impact and meaning of marketing in an always-on, sophisticated, and street-savvy marketplace. Included are international speakers such as Greg Hoffman, global brand leader and former NIKE CMO, and Tyrona Heath, Director of Market Engagement, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn. Local marketing stalwarts such as Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership Group, and Karabo Songo, Group CEO at Brave Group. A total of 26 speakers and a group of South African personality and marketing specialist co-hosts, promise to make 2022 another memorable year for delegates.

Of the success of the Nedbank IMC, Dale says, “African marketers have a great deal to offer. The first stop, however, is for marketing to be taken seriously as a business contributor at boardroom level. We are getting there, slowly but surely, but our work is not yet complete. Reaching that goal is the fire that drives the Nedbank IMC.” 

By Dale Hefer