Local ad-tech company and Facebook marketing partner Popimedia today announced the launch of SHIFT, a practical programme of workshops for senior marketing professionals designed to shift thinking around design, marketing and business in the digital age.
SHIFT will replace Popimedia’s Ad-Tech Academy, the company’s pioneering free learning academy that, over the course of two years, educated the country’s leading marketers on the emergence of ad-tech, and how it was changing digital advertising and marketing.
“Technology is not only driving a fundamental shift in the way we communicate, engage and interact, though. It’s also redefining the way we live and how we conduct business,” explains Gil Sperling, co-founder and CTO of Popimedia. “We therefore felt it pertinent to overhaul the focus of the Ad-Tech Academy, moving beyond merely demonstrating to marketers the opportunities social and digital media offer, and instead display how business and mindsets are shifting, and as such where the opportunities lie for marketers to truly shift the organisation through thinking, design and technology.”
Sperling, who is devoted to understanding tech developments and how these impact all facets of life, believes that we could be more innovative in how we incorporate “the future” into today’s daily processes.
Through SHIFT’s monthly workshops, each hosted at a different business, Popimedia aims to demonstrate how progressive organisations are leveraging technology and digitisation to drive innovation and do things differently, to ‘SHIFT the future’. The full itinerary includes a trip for clients to Israel in July 2018 to gain a glimpse into some of the most innovative starts ups in the world.
“Essentially, SHIFT will be a bridging platform that illustrates how technologies that are available today, both globally and in South Africa, are being employed to build businesses, or make them better, smarter, and more purpose-driven,” elaborates Sperling.
Throughout 2018, Popimedia will be taking 20 senior-level marketing professionals each month to glimpse inside the most innovative companies in South Africa. These will include, among others, Accenture’s Innovation Lab, where real-life disruptive technologies that impact on a business’s bottom line are developed, prototyped, delivered and scaled; AltRealty, a technology studio that creates virtual reality experiences by merging custom software and hardware; and Propertuity, the property development group behind the revival of the Maboneng precinct in downtown Johannesburg.
The programme starts off with attendees being afforded the opportunity to engage with and learn from Richard Mullholland, a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, trends analyst and columnist, to gain insights on his views on business innovation and tech-mediated disruption. Richard and the team from MissingLink will host an interactive session that forces participants to engage in real change scenarios – the kind that marketers are continuously exposed to.
“This programme will shift conventional thinking and spark innovation through the concepts, ideas and applications of technology presented during the events. It will be a catalyst for change within the businesses of those who attend,” concludes Sperling.
SHIFT is free to attend, but space is limited to only 20 seats per event. It is exclusively open to senior marketers, who need to apply by visiting www.popimedia.com
Local ad-tech company and Facebook marketing partner Popimedia today announced the launch of SHIFT, a practical programme of workshops for senior marketing professionals designed to shift thinking around design, marketing and business in the digital age.
“Technology is not only driving a fundamental shift in the way we communicate, engage and interact, though. It’s also redefining the way we live and how we conduct business,” explains Gil Sperling, co-founder and CTO of Popimedia. “We therefore felt it pertinent to overhaul the focus of the Ad-Tech Academy, moving beyond merely demonstrating to marketers the opportunities social and digital media offer, and instead display how business and mindsets are shifting, and as such where the opportunities lie for marketers to truly shift the organisation through thinking, design and technology.”
