With the new decade comes a new mindset that's shifting towards customer-led marketing growth, says Rob Anderson, CEO and founder of Brand Hubb. Anderson says that push marketing is losing relevancy fast — especially when consumers are being served hundreds of advertising messages by brands daily.

During 1917's launch in South African cinemas, the new film from director Sam Mendes received a high-profile accolade. 1917 won the Best Picture Award ('Outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures' — the Darryl F. Zanuck Award) at the 31^st annual Producers Guild Awards (PGA).

There is no doubt that airport passenger numbers are increasing annually, bringing bigger revenue and foot traffic to destinations worldwide, says Mzukisi Deliwe, deputy CEO of Provantage Media Group and head of Airport Ads. Deliwe identifies the trends that will affect OOH advertising within the airport environment in Africa in 2020.

Digital marketing is not left out of the potential benefits of blockchain technology, says freelance writer and digital marketing strategist Gem Franks. Franks looks into the benefits, as well as the downsides, of Blockchain in the landscape of digital marketing.

The Township Marketing Summit, which is now in its 12^th year, has announced its dates and line-up for the 2020 programme. The event is set to take place in Johannesburg from Tuesday, 17 March to Wednesday, 18 March.

Google has focused on evermore precise targeting of advertising for almost as long as it has existed, but the growing power and maturity of AI is enabling it to take smart targeting to a whole new level, says Grant Lapping, managing director at DataCore Media.

This shift away from text-based and visual communication to multi-sensory (voice and visual) is one of the most significant trends to emerge from the next wave of artificial intelligence technologies, says Richard Mullins, managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Acceleration.

Social media platforms are constantly evolving to meet demanding trends and users' needs, says writer Gregory V. Chapman. Chapman further says that fierce competition makes innovations short-lived, and developers have to continually come up with new ideas to keep their users engaged.

Ogilvy South Africa has announced that its CEO Alistair Mokoena will be leaving the group and joining Google South Africa. "Alistair has been a part of our journey since 2015," says Ogilvy EMEA CEO Paul O'Donnell. "He feels that now is the time to embark on the next stage of his career. We wish him every success."

Automated digital marketing is taking the business world by storm because it provides many benefits to businesses, says Whitney Blankenship, content marketing manager at Omnisend.