The Digital Edge

Episode 59: Lunch with The Digital Edge

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:06:36 +0200

This week we bring you something slightly different with a double episode where we take Justin Spratt, Nevo Hadas and Steven Ambrose to lunch at Metro in Benmore with our very own Jarred Cinman.

Join us as we discuss new media and the business models behind the future of the Internet. A special thanks to Metro for providing us with the space to record and for a fantastic meal. We highly recommend you get to Metro.

Also don't forget to join us at The Digital Edge Live on the 26th of March in Cape Town. Book now to avoid dissapointment: http://bit.ly/bJARUs

Episode 58: Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:58:59 +0200

This week The Digital Edge takes a trip down to the Silicon Cape to speak to five local entrepreneurs that are blazing a path for the South African digital space. With issues like funding, securing talent and taking an idea international being issues for any local endevour, we speak to these local entrepreneurs to understand how they overcame these issues.

Remember to sign up for The Digital Edge live in Cape Town on the 26th of March: http://www.thedigitaledge.co.za/cambrient2/view/cambrient2/en/page1548

Episode 57: Online Media Buying

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:42:28 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we tackle to topic of online media buying in South Africa. With the total amount spent online in 2009 being around four hundred million, it is rumoured that a similar amount was spent on Google adverts that are thus not reported as local income. Now with Facebook being represented locally by Habari Media, is this problem set to grow even further with international publishers taking potential local publishers revenue.

We speak to Richard Sidersky, Head of the Media Buying division of Aqua Online as well as Stijn Smolders from Habari to understand their new Facebook offering and finally Nikki Cocroft of the Online Publishers Association to give us some industry perspective.

This week we're also joined by Hilton Tarrant of Moneyweb live from Barcelona to discuss the Mobile World Congress and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us to discuss the news of the week.

Remember to sign up for The Digital Edge Conference happening on the 26th of March in Cape Town: http://www.thedigitaledge.co.za/cambrient2/view/cambrient2/en/page1548

Episode 56: Heavy Lifting

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:34:56 +0200

In this week’s episode of The Digital Edge we take a look behind the beautiful flash work done by the countries digital agencies to see what web application developers are building and how they’re putting together some world-class applications.

We speak to Wesley Lynch of Realm Digital, Anton De Wet of Telamenta and Peter Flynn of White Wall Web to see how their business works, what they program in and whether the relationship with creative’s is complicated or not.

We also speak to Kerry-Anne Gilowey to get all the buzz news and Jarred brings us the Twit of the week.

Episode 55: Online Brand Monitoring

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:52:05 +0200

This week's Digital Edge takes a look at the topic of online brand monitoring. As more and more people are able to influence their friends and peers over social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, finding out what people are saying about your brand becomes more and more critical.

Of course you can setup a Google alert to check certain keywords but this is not instant, nor does it offer any sort of look into the influence and reach of these comments online. It's also important to remember that these tools are useful not only in a crisis but to value positive mentions as well as to help see what aspects of an online campaign might be successful or not.

This week we speak to Ingrid Rubin from Virtuosa to speak about Saidwot, Tim Shier from Quirk to talk on Brandseye and finally Gordon Geldenhuys from Acceleration Media to talk about Radian6.

We also speak to Vanessa to hear about Breadline Africa's latest competition to raise funds as well as Kerry-Anne Gilowey to discuss the news of the week.

Episode 54: The Reconstructed Living Labs

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:56:04 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we take a very special look at the Reconstructed Living Labs run by Marlon Parker in the Western Cape. Marlon and his team tirelessly work to uplift their community through the use of technology. In the drug addled landscape Marlon uses services like Mxit and The Grid to counsel troubled youth. In this episode Marlon tells us about the start of the project, how it's funded and where he's going with new projects. We also speak to reformed gangsters looking to help their community via the Reconstructed Living Labs.

We also speak to Sean Riley of AD:Dynamo in our Agency of the week section and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us in the iPad news section.

Episode 53: Geek Retreat 2.0

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:54:59 +0200

This week we take a look at the second Geek Retreat that took place over the weekend of the 15th to the 17th of January in scenic Stanford Valley in the Western Cape. The first Retreat yielded a fair amount of controversy for being exclusively "A-lister" as well as an excuse to network rather than completing the mandate of "making South Africa better through the Internet".

We sent intrepid reporter Jarred Cinman with recording equipment and a fair sense of cynicism to Stanford. What returned was someone almost akin to a religious convert. Jarred, the usually cynical member of Th Digital Edge came back in love with the location, people and concept of The Geek Retreat.

Follow Jarred as he explains his new found fascination with the Geek Retreat as he brings you coverage of the event.

Episode 52: Chick Clicks

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:28:52 +0200

For this week's Digital Edge we follow up our episode in 2009 where we looked at black entrepreneurs in the social media space. This week we take a look at women in the digital space in South Africa. We speak to women in the marketing and business side of digital to try find out if they're intimidated by men in the industry, whether they have to work harder to succeed and why they think there is a lack of female digital entrepreneurs in South Africa.

Episode 51: 2010 Trends

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:57:48 +0200

In the first episode of The Digital Edge for 2010 we take a look at what our guests predict will be big in 2010. Sadly we're not living in a world of flying cars, missions to Mars and food pellets but 2010 still promises to be a fast paced, rapidly changing space with innovations not only in technology but also in the online marketing space in South Africa.

Take a listen as we put our prediction pants on to see what we can expect for 2010 and what you can expect from marketing, technology and culture.

Episode 50: The Best Until Now

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:11:04 +0200

In our 50th and final episode for the year we take a short retrospective at the last six months of our favourite episodes.

First up, we listen to our quiz show to hear the chaos and madness that was the quiz show. That episode we were joined by Toby Shapshak as the quiz master, Anna Vaulina, Justin Spratt, Craig Rodney and Rich Mulholland. To call them loud and raucous may be the understatement of the year.

Next we delve into the issue of why the online space in South Africa is still so dominated by white males and what can be done to solve this issue. We spoke to the Chairman of the Mail & Guardian, Trevor Ncube to get an understanding of the the issue.

Then, as the fight between pirates and copyright lawyers continues to grow, we took a look down the rabbit hold that is piracy online. We spoke to both Christian Engstrom, leader of the Pirate Party in the European Parliament and Carlo Lavizarri, a copyright lawyer for the recording industry. The debate was heated and that was just between Saul and Jarred.

Continuing the topical and controversial theme, we took a look at the growing issue of privacy online. We spoke to Lillie Coney, a director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in the USA as well as locally, Dominic White, a security expert. Remember your tinfoil hats.

As digital continued to grow in South Africa in 2009 so to did the awards to rewards the work done. We look at The Bookmark Awards where we speak to organisers, judges and winners of awards.

Finally, a short look into a recent topic of Online Dating. We speak to David Burstein of The Dating Lab and Jane Collachio, an online dating expert.

We're also joined by the extremely patient Kerry-Anne Gilowey and the show ends with a Twit of the week.

Episode 49: 2009 In Review

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:47:39 +0200

With 2009 coming to a very rapid end we at The Digital Edge decided to take a look back into the year that was and get some of the biggest web celebrities in the country to tell us what they thought was big in 2009. We also ask them what news stories shocked them the most and what technological advances tweaked their interest in 2009.

We're joined by Avusa's Elan Lohmann, Stuff Magazine's Toby Shapshak, Mobile Marketer Gaby Rosario, Digivox's Andrea Mitchell and finally comedian and marketing expert John Vlismas.

Next year we're joined by the same guests and more for their 2010 predictions so join us next week for a greatest hits episode and on the 11th of January 2010 for the predictions of the year.

Episode 48: Online Dating

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:33:15 +0200

This week we take a totally amorous view of the world of online dating. As 18 hour work days become more and more common, finding time to go to bars or on blind dates that were organised by your grandmother becomes less and less possible. The solution for many is online dating however this solution does come with a fair share of stereotypes and psycho's.

We speak to David Burnstein of The Dating Lab to see how online dating works as well as author Jane Coloccia to give her experiences on the subject. We also speak anonymously to two users of online dating to get their perspective and stories.

We're also joined by Anne-Sophie Leens to hear about Apartment Studios and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo joins us for the news.

Episode 47: The MMORPG

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:49:26 +0200

Chances are if you've spent any time online in the past few years you've heard of games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Second Life". These online worlds are known as Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or "MMORPG's". This week on The Digital Edge we investigate the phenomenon of these successful online worlds.

We speak to developers of online games in the form of local gamers from the "RoseZA" server as well as look internationally to speak to Oscar Garza from Eve Online, the third biggest MMORPG in the world. In order to better understand these games we also speak to players and finally Jerri Mperdempes, someone that makes his living off selling in-game merchandise online.

Finally we also speak to Hein Koen of Flickswitch in our 60-second pitch as well as being joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo in our news segment.

Episode 46: Eskom Reputation Management

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:39:49 +0200

This week on The Digital Edge we team up with investigative journalist Mandy De Waal from Marklives.com as well as the newly launched Mandylives.com sites to tackle the topic of relationship management online, specifically focussing on the fallout around the Eskom brand in the past few weeks.

Our first guest on the show is Chris Yelland, a publisher of Electrical Engineering titles to give us an understanding of the situation at Eskom as well as let us in to some of the industry gossip behind the media front. We then speak to branding expert Clive Simpkins to explain why this fiasco is an example of how not to position yourself. Finally, Ingrid Rubin of Online Reputation Management Agency "SaidWot" joins us to talk about the number of mentions of Eskom online and what can be done online to protect your brand in the event of a crisis. Mandy De Waal then summarises the situation and what can be done going forward. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey then joins us for the news.

Episode 45: The Bookmarks

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:50:33 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we take a special look into last weeks Bookmarks Awards.

First, we speak to Online Publishers Association Head of Creative, Ben Wagner on why the awards are important in the South African space and how the OPA is trying to champion excellence in digital in South Africa. He also provides tips for next years entrants on what not to do.

Next we speak to judges J.P. Farinha, Rob Stokes and international judge Chris Colborne to see how the process worked, what they learnt and what they didn't enjoy about the process.

Finally, we take a audio trip to the awards ceremony and speak to winners Elan Lohmann from Avusa, Justin Hartman from Afrigator and Pete Case from Gloo.

We are also joined by news lady extraordinaire, Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our weekly news section.

Episode 44: Alternate Reality Games

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:58:17 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we look at the phenomenon of Alternate Reality Games (ARG). By blurring the boundaries between real world and online space, an ARG creates an immersive game experience that you need to experience to truly understand. Companies that have used an ARG to promote themselves online include McDonalds, Audi and movies such as the recent Batman movie. These ARG's have even successfully won awards at Cannes for innovative work.

We speak to Ken Eklund, writer of what has been dubbed the first serious ARG, World Without Oil. We also speak to Chris Walsh from agency McKinney to talk about the ARG done for Audi USA known as "The Heist". Jonathan Cherry, a local ARG developer talks about the work done for Woolworths and Marie Lamb from ARGN.com gives us an explanation of what an ARG really is.

In our 60-second pitch we speak to Jonathan Hall of Added-Value, a branding agency. Our Top Ten looks at the ten best quotes from South Park and as always we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo in the news.

Episode 43: Social Media Agencies

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:22:23 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we look into the phenomenon of social media agencies to see whether having one on retainer is necessary for your brand. With hushed talks of agencies charging excessive amounts to create a fan page on free services such as Facebook we decided to look into the necessity of having a full on agency or if you could hire a web savvy teenager to do the work at a fraction of the cost.

We speak to Angus Robinson of Brandsh, Louis Janse van Rensburg of World Wide Creative, Gino Cosme of Cosmedia and finally consultant and web strategist Eve Dmochowska to see what is happening with excessive charges as well as whether you really do need an agency.

Our top ten this week is the ten best quotes from T.V. presenter Jeremy Clarkson and our 60-second pitch features Kish Ramdial from immedia to talk about their iPhone app development. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for the countries best audio news.

Episode 42: Digital Agency Review

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:41:48 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we take a look at South African Digital Agencies to see how they are doing with winning international awards.

We're joined by Pete Case of agency Gloo, Ben Wagner of Stonewall and Peter Stewart of Clickthinking. We take a look at what they think of awards, what sort of strategies they use to win awards and what sort of work they produce to win these awards. We also ask the million dollar question of why South African Digital Agencies are not winning at Cannes in the Cyber Lions category. Despite winning Grand Prix awards in radio advertising this year, South Africa did not even produce a finalist in the Cyber category. We're also joined by market commentator Chris Moerdyk to give an overview of the situation and give his view on the way forward.

In our "60 second pitch" we're joined by Marcus Sorour of PR Agency Text 100 and our Top Ten looks at the ten best Internet Meme's as read by 2Oceansvibe editor, Seth Rotherham. As always our resident female voice and Cape Town representative, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us with the news.

Episode 41: Privacy Online

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:53:53 +0200

The Internet is a haven for all things weird and wonderful and to be honest, who hasn't used the Internet to search for something illicit or disturbing? However, wouldn't you hate that search to be used against you in the future when trying to find a job, get credit or even a relationship? The issue here is that the Internet is no longer private and your daily searches and dubious nuances are available to be harvested for potentially nefarious purposes.

What information is being harvested from your computer and what is being done with this information? This week on The Digital Edge we speak to privacy experts to find out.

We're joined by Dominic White of Deloitte Security, Lillie Coney of privacy rights group EPIC, Gian Visser of ISP Afrihost and Pria Chetty a technology and innovation lawyer. We also speak to Richard Mulholland of Missing Link in our "60-second pitch section and have a special chat with head of the OPA, Adrian Hewlett. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for a fun filled look at the news.

Episode 40: Email Marketing

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:31:47 +0200

In this week’s episode of The Digital Edge we take a look at the contentious topic of email marketing. Studies show that ninety percent of all email’s sent are considered spam due to their nature of being unsolicited even if they are relevant to that person’s needs. However, there is still a place for email marketing as part of an integrated campaign. The problem it seems is that of people purchasing databases from marketers selling addresses of people not opting into these lists.

We speak to two legitimate email marketers in the form of Josh Adler from pMailer and Mia Papanicolaou from Striata. They give us a run through of how best to create an email marketing campaign as well as giving us some advice on what not to do when it comes to database purchases. We also speak to an email database list seller to see how that industry operates.

In our 60-second pitch we speak to Robynn Burls of Encyclomedia, a highly targeted media database service. Our top ten features then ten most amusing spam email subjects’ lines and as always, we’re joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our news section.

Episode 39: Travel and Tourism

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:31:19 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we take a look to see what is being done to promote South African tourism online. While internal marketing for South Africa tends to be done on radio, print and T.V. adverts there is a strong push internationally to promote the country via the Internet. Realistically, international visitors have the choice between going to a travel agent and using the Internet for their information.

Destination Marketing Organisations, traditionally part of a government tourism agency, have started a major push online. These sites can give potential visitors the ability to book hotels, tours, rentals and sightseeing all from the comfort of their bedroom.

We speak to Aslam Levy of Cape Town Tourism as well as Karin Duncker of the German Tourism Board. They give us the lowdown of what their territories are doing to promote themselves online.

In our "60-second pitch" we're joined by Marcel Oudejans and our Top Ten this week features the ten best "Sheldonisms" in honour of the character Sheldon Cooper on T.V. show "Big Bang Theory". As always, we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo.

Episode 38: The Loeries Extravaganza

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:30:44 +0200

The 31st annual Loeries was held for the first time in Cape Town over the weekend of the 25th to the 27th of September. These advertising "Mad Men" certainly have a reputation for raucous behaviour and this year was no different. With multiple parties throughout the day, the awards ceremony then a party on Long Street till all hours of the morning the Loeries certainly pulled out all the stops to impress and entertain this year.

We spoke to winners TBWA Hunt Lascaris on their campaign for the Zimbabwean as well as Chris Gotz from Ogilvy, Tony Koenderman and Ben Wagner from Stonewall Digital. The show also features an overview of the digital winners and a debate on whether the Loeries really gets digital.

Remember, if you didn't win at the Loeries in the digital category there's always the Bookmarks coming up. This week is the last week to register so go to www.thebookmarks.co.za now.

Episode 37: The Future of Media

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:29:47 +0200

In this week's episode we take a look at the future of entertainment media. In the follow up to our episode on piracy we cast our gaze forward to see what is going to happen with the entertainment industry now that piracy is such an entrenched concept.

The entertainment industry has spent the last ten years digging in their heels and sending lawyer after lawyer to stop pirates they've spent little time, effort and money thinking of new ways to sell their goods in digital format. In essence, the entertainment industry has done a shocking job of providing an alternative to the offerings of the pirates.

We're joined by Jason Probert of DSTV New Media to explain the video on demand services that DSTV offers as well as explain the launch of the new "African Film Club". We're also joined by Dagmar Heijmans of website "Sellaband", a Dutch based website that helps bands raise money to record their albums. We're again joined by last week's guests, European Parliament member Christian Engstrom and International Copyright Lawyer Carlo Lavizzari.

In our "60-second pitch" we speak to Rob Gilmour of RSAWeb and our Top Ten features the ten most popular movies on the Internet Movie Database. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for the news.

Episode 36: Piracy

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:55:37 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we investigate the issue of piracy online. It's hard to find a person these days that does not pirate either music, movies or T.V. shows and as access grows, it gets easier and easier to pirate content.

Legally speaking, piracy is a crime but is this an apt description for what many call a victimless crime. Is this crime actually victimless and is there a solution to the situation. With the Recording Industry Association of America going after students and single mothers for ludicrous amounts of money that they can never afford, you cannot help but wonder whether the anti-piracy crusade has not gone slightly off the original mandate of promoting copyright.

In the first of a two part series we look at the legalities and the morality behind piracy to see whether the anti-piracy SWAT team will be breaking through your doors if you download the latest episode of Lost or that new Britney Spears album. In this episode we're joined by a member of the European Parliament, the head of the Recording Industry of South Africa and finally an international copyright lawyer to find out whether you're breaking the law or just stepping around a gray area.

In our Agency of the week we speak to Mark from Tribe and as always we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo to give us the news

Episode 35: FNB Live

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:43:03 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we took a drive down to the FNB Conference center to present to the marketers of FNB at their internal digital conference. The event was presented in a panel style and featured Digital Edge host, Saul Kropman and Jarred Cinman as well as FNB's "Internet and Social Media Guy" Andy Hadfield.

We combinined a live debate with pre-recorded news, video's and a previous Top 10 to inform the FNB team of what's happening in digital. We managed to take that recording and distill it down into twelve fantastic minutes of content. Our first guest is Gisele Wertheim Aymes, the Head of Media at FNB speaking to us about using social media inside a corporate. Then, Steven Ambrose of Internet consultancy World Wide Worx gives us a run down of the numbers of broadband subscribers in the country.

We're also joined by Marianna and Tim of charity Breadline Africa to talk to us about how they're using the Internet to market themselves and how you can get involved. Our Top 10 this week celebrates the soul of the corporate warrior by providing the ten best "David Brentism" ala David Brent of the British version of "The Office". Nausher Rahman, of Grid Worldwide gives us his final tip about online branding and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo joins us for the news.

Episode 34: 2010 Online

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:30:28 +0200

This week The Digital Edge takes a look at what companies are doing to promote the 2010 World Cup online. With less than three hundred days left till the world cup the excitement in South Africa is at a fever pitch. While drumming up support locally is entirely unnecessary, it is critical to promote the event overseas. In this week's episode we see what exactly is going on with 2010 online. We'll speak to Shine 2010, SAGoodNews and FIFA themselves to see what work and what regulation goes into this event.

Find out how local tourism and private companies are going about promoting the event to international viewers and are their intentions to promote South Africa or purely rip off dollar and euro toting tourists that don't know any better.

In our Agency of the week segment we speak to Anton Moulder from digital design agency Urbian. We also speak to Nausher Rahman of Grid Worldwide to get his third tip on online branding and our top ten this week looks at the ten best comments from legendary racing commentator, Murray Walker. As always, regular news contributor Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us in the news

Episode 33: The White Boys Club

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:27:52 +0200

In a country still challenged by racial divide great strides have been made to integrate both black and white employees into the workplace. The Digital space however, seems to be struggling more than most to arrive in the New South Africa. At the recent Geek Retreat, out of the forty guests less than 5% were non-white. The same can be said for the monthly 27 Dinner or any random article covering the “Web 2.0” trendsetters. The Digital Loeries judging panel had one black judge out of 15 and only 2 women.

Almost all key people in Digital businesses with the terms "Director", "Head" or "Manager" tend to be on the pale side. To say nothing of the programmers, designers and innovators that is shaping our digital future. In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we take a somewhat controversial look at this sensitive topic. Is this racism, a coincidence, a cultural issue or the continued legacy of our Apartheid past?

In this episode we speak to Mail & Guardian CEO Trevor Ncube, web enthusiast Quincy Ntuli and finally blogger, business coach and controversial article writer, Ramon Thomas. They give their opinions on what is going on in the black social media movement and explain what's going on with the lack of black social media entrepreneurs.

In our Agency of the Week segment we’re joined by Clint Bryce of SpacePatrolCar, a division of 24.com. We’re also joined by Nausher Rahman of Grid Worldwide to give us his second tip on online branding. As always Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo joins us to give the most important and relevant news in the country.

Episode 32: Bloggerati

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:32:03 +0200

As the amount of Internet connections in South Africa slowly grows, more and more interest groups are coming online and publishing their content for all to see. Blogging provides a voice for these people and allows them to promote their opinions, services and often agenda. What seems to be a growing trend these days is that individuals that previously had a personal blog are using Twitter as their soapbox and at the same time, blogs are moving into the opinion piece and thought leadership arena.

Does this mean blogging is moving away from fluffy "dear diary" style sites and more towards semi-professional journalistic pieces and if so, is this even a good thing? The reality is that blogging has only rarely rivalled proper researched journalism but this is rapidly changing. We're joined by bloggers Laura-Kim Allmayer, Sheena Gates, Daniel Bailey and Vincent Hofmann to give us an idea on whether blogs are all about narcissism, whether they think they're real journalists and what they see the future of blogs is. Our final guest is Alistair Fairweather, social media manager at 24Labs to give us an overview of their recently re-launched blogging platform: "Letterdash".

Our Agency of the week is Osmosis, a viral marketing company headed by Leon Orsmond. Also this week, we start a new "Tips and Tricks" section and are joined by Nausher Rahman of Grid Worldwide to give us some branding tips. Before all that you can listen to the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey.

Episode 31: The Quiz Show

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:32:42 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we feature some local web celebrities in an exciting new quiz format. The quiz features different guests from the web, marketing and PR world answering questions on the digital world.

The quiz features a mix of questions spanning from the serious to the sublime to the complex and the show will be hosted by Toby Shapshak, the Editor of Stuff Magazine. Listen to episode 31 of The Digital Edge to hear some of the most challenging and the most amusing questions being answered.

Episode 30: A Day In The Life Of

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:56:12 +0200

To celebrate the thirtieth episode of The Digital Edge, we decided to take an introspective look at the company that puts the show together. We’ve also had a lot of people ask who these Cambrient people are, what do we do in our day jobs, and what gives us the right to podcast about digital stuff.

In this episode we spend a little bit of time talking to the people of Cambrient, finding out what goes into being a digital development agency. This week we speak to various different people to understand what their role in the company is and what type of person it takes to work on one of the premier web, mobile and analytic companies in the country.

Also in this episode is the weekly news and we're joined, as always, by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo.

Episode 29: The Digital Loeries

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:52:44 +0200

Despite years of isolation, South African advetising has always been a powerful force with exceptional and uniquely South African creative work. With our digital disability though, we've only recently been bombarded by companies that work purely in the digital space. Due to this connectivity shortcoming, we've lagged behind compared to the rest of the world. While South African adverts have had some success at the international Cannes Lions awards (with a print and radio win this year), not a single entry on this years Cyber Lions shortlist was a South African campaign.

Our local version of the Cannes Lions Awards, the Loeries, are being awarded at the end of September, a mere two months away. Before the awards though, the judging takes places to weed out the chaff from the wheat. In this episode we speak to three of the judges that spent last Thursday in a darkened room judging the entrants in the digital section. Click play to find the unique way that the entrants were judged as well as what it means to win a Loerie.

We are also joined by Elena Douvos of Tequila in our Agency of the week section and Diane Charlton gives us her final tip on buying online media. Finally we are joined by regular Kerry-Anne Gilowey and Uno De Waal in the news.

Episode 28: Online PR

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:52:21 +0200

In this weeks episode we look at the phenomenon of Online PR. It only takes a customary look in an online directory to see that there are roughly three PR agencies in South Africa for every member of the population. With the "dime a dozen" nature of the industry, it's easy to become slightly jaded on the topic of public relations. For many companies, having a PR Agency promote their services in traditional media is a pointless exercise. If the requirement is to bring online users to the site, surely it makes more sense to have your brand mentioned online?

This week we speak to Melissa Attree of Geton eMarketing, Pedro van Gaalen of Hello World Agency, Sarah Rice from Sentient Communications, Melody Maker of Cerebra, Craig Rodney of Emerging Media and Gavin Moffat of Puruma Communications join us to explain the six facets of Online PR and how to use those tools and strategies to get people speaking about your brand online.

Our Agency of the week is "Wisdom Games" and we are joined by CEO Raymond De Villiers to give us an explanation of how they make games for companies. In our Top Ten we look at "adverts from the 80's". Finally, Diane Charlton joins us for her third tip on online media buying.

Episode 27: Sports Online

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:23:25 +0200

When the Internet was first created it was the preserve of the garden variety, pocket protector toting Nerd. In recent years these nerds have had their space invaded by the jocks of the world checking their sporting news online. Sport information sites seem to be a growing trend with the local gym jock asking his geeky friend to show him how to check the latest game score on his cellphone. These sports reporters are invading social media as well with the likes of Twitter and blogs becoming a popular way to provide information for sports fans. In sport mad South Africa, the top blogs in the country are all sport related, specifically on the theme of Rugby.

This week we speak to Ray Moore and Leonard Kahn from Supersport, the biggest sport website in the country with a rapidly growing international footprint. We're also joined by Ryan Cooper, head of New Media at Touchline Media, the owners of Kickoff.co.za. Kickoff is the biggest Soccer website in the country with over two million pageviews a month. Finally, Steve Morris from Scoregrid.co.za joins us to talk about Scoregrid, a unique Soccer tracking system that allows you to see where the ball is and which player is kicking that ball live.

Our agency of the week is Atplay, the digital division of Saatchi & Saatchi in Cape Town. We're joined by head Allan Kent to give us the lowdown on the topic. We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news and Diane Charlton from Acceleration Media gives us her second tip for online media buying in our Tips and Tricks section.

Episode 26: Religion Online

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:24:37 +0200

In this weeks episode we dive head first into the sticky topic of religion online. We look into the phenomenon of religion online to see what exactly it is that religions are doing to promote their brands and how they hope to appeal to a wider range of potential believers online. In the past, finding the local church standing outside a shopping center handing out flyers was not an uncommon sight but now as the Internet grows in South Africa it is easier and more efficient to evangelize online. While it has been a slow start for religious organisations, the competition for Google keywords is heating up. This growth in adwords related to terms such as "Jesus" shows that people are turning to the Internet for answers and religions are looking online to try provide those answers for them.

Firstly. we're joing by Diaan Mynhardt from the Atheist Nation, an online social network of Atheists online. Second, we speak to Ryan Hogarth of the Church of Scientology to discuss the latest Wikipedia/Scientology saga and how it has affected their church. Third and finally, Andrew Butterworth from the GodFirst Church provides us some insight into how he is promoting his church online to current congregants and attempts to evangelise new followers.

In our Agency of the week segment we're joined by American entrepreneur and web developer, Howard Mann to hear about his business, book and trip to South Africa. Our Top Ten this week looks at the "ten best Afrikaans sayings" and is read by Erich Viedge. Finally, this week we start a new "Tips & Tricks" section with Diane Charlton from Acceleration Media to give us tips on how to buy online media space.

Episode 25: The Geek Retreat

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:24:08 +0200

On the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of June, a group of some of the greatest Internet minds in the country got together at the picturesque Elephant Sanctuary, nestled in the Magaliesburg mountains. The aim was to talk about what would make the South African Internet better, how to stimulate innovation locally and what role there is for a more formal industry-wide body to carry on these conversations and representations in the future. In essence, organiser Heather Ford wanted to create a manifesto on how the top of the geek pile wanted the Internet in South Africa to be.

In this episode we take a slightly satirical look at the Geek Retreat to see whether it was all just an excuse to drink or if this group, with their German sedans, fast Internet access and venture capital funds could solve the issues that face the man on the street?

In our agency of the week we speak to Mongezi Mtati of Netweb events to hear about his monthly offline networking events. The top 10 this week looks at the phenomenon of "Tubes" and Rob Stokes joins us to give his final tip on the topic of how to succeed at SEO.

Episode 24: Digital Acquisition

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:23:18 +0200

With massive media conglomerates such as Publicis and WPP having spent a good part of the last ten years acquiring digital agencies for obscene amounts of money we decided to take a look at local digital agencies that have been acquired by larger media or advertising holding groups.

In 2007, Publicis spent a whopping 1.3 billion dollars in a landmark deal to buy US agency Digitas and in the same year, WPP bought South African agency Aqua Online in the same year as buying five other digital agencies, one of them costing 650 million dollars. Clearly selling a share of a digital agency is big business for both the agency founders as well as media conglomerates.

In this episode we speak to agency heads Brent Shahim from Aqua Online, Gavin Rooke from Trigger and Pete Case from Gloo. Each of these agencies have been bought by WPP, Isobar and Kagiso respectively. We take a look at the pitfalls of acquisitions and pick apart the specifics of these deals involving both local and international media conglomerates. We're also joined by industry commentator Sandra Gordon to get her take on the local industry.

In our agency of the week we speak to Keisha Mayhew of Prezence, one of SA’s largest web and new media agencies and a part of Primedia. Our top ten this week are author Lauren Beukes, writer of the book Moxyland's, favourite opening lines from books. Finally Rob Stokes joins us for the third time to give us his tips and tricks on SEO.

Episode 23: The Digital Edge Greatest Hits

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:30:45 +0200

In this week's episode we look back at the work achieved by The Digital Edge in such a short time. We take a trip down memory lane to see how far The Digital Edge has come. With twenty-two episodes of audio magic, we've trawled through the archives to decide on the top five interviews over the nearly six months that we've been tearing up the airwaves.

While it was close on impossible to narrow down the top five interviews, with heated debate and no small amount of violence we decided on the following:

First up we speak to Graham Warsopp, founder of The Jupiter Drawing Room. Graham gives us his opinion of where traditional agencies are going to move towards in the future and how his company is approaching digital.

Second, Brian Dunning from internationally reknown Podcast Skeptoid joins us. A few years ago, Brian began searching for interesting and unusual phenomena in Internet forums and mailing lists. More than once, he tried to open a discourse offering alternate, more reasonable explanations for the reported phenomena, as diplomatically and respectfully as he could. Thus Skeptoid was born.

Third, in our blogger episode we were joined by Seth Rotheram of the blog 2OceansVibe. Seth talks to us about his lifestyle, blogging and his penchant for the finer things in life. Fourth, head of the Pandora music service, Tim Westergren joins us all the way from the United States to tell us about the streaming service and its impact on the music industry.

Finally, Vinny Lingham of Web 2.0 DIY site design company Yola joins us to talk about Web 2.0 startups

If for some reason you've missed some episodes this is your chance to catch up and hear the best of The Digital Edge

Episode 22: Digital Branded Entertainment

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:57:31 +0200

In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we revisit the world of Branded Entertainment with a digital slant. With the aim of Branded Entertainment being to positively associate your product with other, innocuous forms of entertainment, Digital is a prime candidate. International examples such as Lonelygirl15 had a young girl video blogging about her life and conveniently speaking about products that she used in her day. Millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers later the truth came out that the supposedly lonely girl was a complex marketing stunt.

While deceitfully attracting customers might not be the best long term strategy the opportunities to brand online games, webisodes and create what is known as utilitainment are rife. In this episode we look at what it takes to create digital branded content and how your brand can benefit from a foray online. We speak to Mark van Diggelen of Skillpod Media, a company that makes branded games for companies. We're also joined by Lauren Beukes to talk about Alternate Reality Games, Lionel Smith of Trudon to talk about Widgets and Tristan Owen of MEDIAS to talk about Webisodes.

In our Agency of the week we speak to Grant Shippey of Amorphous, a digital communications agency based in Johannesburg. Our top ten this week is the ten top blogs according to Amatomu and Amorphous. Finally, Rob Stokes joins us with his second tip on how to improve your sites SEO ranking. We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news.

Episode 21: Bandwidth Cometh

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:56:44 +0200

With bandwidth in South Africa being a consistently sticky point for many South African's, the winds of change are coming. Internationally a 50 Mbps connection which also pipes in 1000 television channels is fairly standard. Locally 4Mbps is the fastest available consumer connection, at a cost of around R600 for the line alone. When ADSL was launched in South Africa in 2002 we were told that the average user only needs a three gig cap but unfortunately, seven years later we're stuck with the same artificial limitation. The simple fact of the matter is that due to geographic distance, there is only a finite amount of bandwidth available to reach international servers. What this means is that South African’s have had little satisfaction with Internet connectivity due to speed and pricing issues. SEACOM, a new cable connecting Africa to the rest of the world aims to change that.

Listen as we take a trip down to the Mtunzini landing station for the media launch. We speak to various journalist, bloggers and other digerati that found themselves in the sweltering humidity of Durban in the winter. We also field some questions to SEACOM CEO Brian Herlihy but first we speak to Anthony Brooks from the ISPA to get his take on the SEACOM cable and how it will affect ISP's around the country.

We also speak to Walter Pike of the AAA School of Advertising's Digital Marketing Academy to see how he's training the digital agency staff of the future. Our top ten this week is ten reasons to get broadband read by David Perel and in our tips and tricks section we speak to Rob Stokes of Quirk to get his tip for search engine optimisation. Before all that we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo as well as Uno De Waal of 10and5 to bring us all the hipster news.

The Digital Edge 27 Dinner Special Edition

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:03:31 +0200

In a brief special edition we bring you the talk given by Jarred and Saul at this month's 27 Dinner held in Johanneburg. For those not in the know the 27 Dinners have fast become a staple entry in the calendars of South Africa's smartest, funkiest and most networked entrepreneurs, business owners, designers, developers, geeks, marketers and even good old corporate jacket-and-tie's. Every month on the 27th of the month geeks can be found having dinner in either Johannesburg or Cape Town, with the cities rotating every month.

In a sense what you're about to hear is akin to a model being photographed without their makeup as we release an episode without clever post production and studio conditions. Join us as we take a listen to what it takes to put a Podcast together and look at a week in the life of The Digital Edge.

Episode 20: The Branded Entertainment Episode

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:55:54 +0200

In celebrating the achievement of twenty episodes we have a bumper edition of The Digital Edge this week.

Imagine yourself watching the latest action movie featuring Brad Pitt. In the scene Pitt is involved in a high speed car chase with three pursuers, a literal life and death scenario. In the next twenty minutes of celluloid Pitt manages to evade his pursuers, rescues the girl and saves the day, all while driving his sleek and sexy BMW. What you’ve just seen is an example of branded entertainment, a new form of advertising that is proving extremely popular as people’s perceptual filters tend to block out traditional forms of advertising.

In this episode we take an in-depth look into the how branded entertainment is infiltrating the world of T.V. We speak to Jason Xenopoulos and Peter Gird from new agency, 2point0 to see what it takes to build a piece of branded entertainment, how much it costs and when it's more appropriate than a 30-second advert. We're also joined by Stanley Edwards from Platypus Productions and Heather Swarts from Zoom Advertising to see whether Branded Entertainment is going to be the death of the 30-second spot.

Our Agency of the week this episode is "HelloWorld", a recently formed agency that focuses on conversation, collaboration and interaction. Our top ten this week are ten of South Africa's most loved brands and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo joins us with the news. In our final segment we get a chorus of compliments from local web celebrities.

Here's to twenty more episodes

Episode 19: The Online Porn Episode

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:55:23 +0200

Pornography is always a contentious issue and never more so with the introduction of easily accessible, anonymous online porn that one can now get piped anonymously into ones house. The numbers are boggling: in America the porn industry makes over twelve billion dollars in revenue every year and the global porn revenue is close to ninety-six billion dollars. In the time it took to read this paragraph nearly one hundred thousand people could be found surfing online porn sites.

In this week’s episode of The Digital Edge we look at the medium that pushed the Internet into the mainstream despite still being something most people will not admit to taking part in. In this episode we speak to Wendy Maltz, a sex therapist from America to get her views on online porn as well as how easy it is for people to get addicted to the medium. We then speak to Silas Howarth, the organiser of the Sexpo to give us a slightly more “pro-porn” opinion. To round off we get the opinion of various people on the street to see what they think about porn. These anonymous contributors talk on varied topics such as the economics behind porn, their distaste for the medium and how often they watch porn.

Also joining us is Joey Da Silva of Cape Town based, web and mobile application developer, Formfunction in our Agency of the week section. Antonio Petra joins us for the last time this week to give us a summary of all we’ve learnt about online measurement. Our top ten this week is ten movie names repurposed for porn movies. As always we’re also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news where this week we discuss politics.

Episode 18: The Twepisode

Mon, 11 May 2009 12:05:03 +0200

In this weeks episode we look at the phenomenon of Twitter, a microblogging service that is growing at the phenomenal rate of over 700% per year. With around 6 million users and rapidly growing, the service is the third biggest social network behind Facebook and Myspace, the giants of the social networking space.

Despite the numbers and despite the huge amount of celebrities that have flocked to using the service many are still unsure as to what Twitter is really about. Not even having Twitter featured on Oprah seems to have demystified the service and it still remains in the realm of the tech savvy or the socially challenged.

In order to cut through the clutter that surrounds Twitter we decided to look into what the service really can offer. We speak to some local Twitter users (or Tweeple as they like to be called) and get an idea of what they use Twitter for and why it's relevant to them. We'll also speak to some marketers using Twitter to see how they promote their product and what, if any, success they've had.

Our Agency of the Week in this episode is Aqua Online. We speak to MD Brent Shahim to hear more about the busienss of digital. As always we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our news section and our top 10 this week is "Ten things progammers say when something is not working". Finally, Antonio Petra of Cambrient gives us his third tip for online measurement. This week he tells us about the nefariously titled "A-B Testing".

Episode 17: The Mobile Marketing Edition

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:29:52 +0200

In the second part of our discussion on mobile we take a look at how the mobile is used for marketing and advertising purposes. With around 44 million mobiles in South Africa, mobile marketing is something to be taken very seriously. Admob, the world's largest mobile advertising network reports that over 50% of its near 800 million page impressions per quarter are from South Africa. This equals over 120 million impressions per month on Admob alone.

We speak to Michael Laws of Vodacom's Adme, Simon Davis of Location Based service Mobgeo, Angus Robinson from Brandsh and finally Hans Mol of Be-Mobile. They answer the tough questions of whether mobile is the way forward for marketers of whether it should be used as a complementary service. We also take a look at the costs involved with going mobile, the conversion rates and what sort of return on investment one can expect from the growing mobile landscape in South Africa.

Our Agency of the week is "2.0", a next generation production company. We speak to founder Jason Xenopoulos to get the rundown of what they do and who they work with. Our top 10 this week sticks with the mobile theme and looks at the worst answering machine messages available. We're joined as always by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo. Finally we're joined again by Antonio Petra for his tips about online measurement.

Episode 16: The Mobile Tech Edition

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:30:40 +0200

This weeks episode is part one of a two part series where we take a look at the humble cellphone. First up we look at the technology and processes required to create a mobile service. We debate the difference between a mobile application over a mobile site as well as try to understand the commercial model and the marketing behind these applications.

Our first guest this week is Vincent Maher from Vodacom's "The Grid", a location based social network. Next we have Oliver Krantz from Pocit, a mobile payment service. Finally we round off the show with Stefano Sessa of 24.com as well Colin Daniels of The Times. Stefano tells us about the 24.com iPhone App while Colin talks about The Times mobile site.

We are also joined, as always, by Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our news segment. Our Agency of the week is Mango-Omc and we are joined by Catherine Luckhoff. Finally our Top 10 this week is the "ten most annoying ringtones" available to download. Finally Cambrient's very own Antonio Petra joins us with his tip for online measurement.

Episode 15: Web 2.0 Startups

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:46:06 +0200

In this weeks episode we take a look at Web 2.0 in South Africa to see where we are in comparison to the rest of the world. Web 2.0 is a very rough definition for the new breed of websites online which ascribe to the ethos of "You make the content, we keep the money". With our local market still tiny in comparison to the rest of the world we've historically been left making copies of international Web 2.0 services with a local stance. We take a look at four entrepreneurs that are blazing a trail for unique services in South Africa and get their take on the local market.

Our first guest is a South African now residing in Silicon Valley, Vinny Lingham. Vinny founded the startup Yola (previously Synthasite) around two years ago and recently received 20 million dollars in venture capital to grow the service. We spoke to Vinny to get an international perspective on the local market.

We also speak to Charl Norman of Blueworld communities and Justin Hartman of Afrigator. Blueworld is a unique social network that works both offline and online. Afrigator is a blog aggregator that provides an overview of the burgeoning African blogosphere. Both companies were acquired by Media24 and MIH Africa respectively, and are thus part of the Naspers group. Finally we're joined by Barbara Mallinson of startup Obami, a social network that gets parents and students involved in the happenings of their school.

For our regular feature, agency of the week, we're joined by Donna McCallum of Fairy Godmother Inc. She waves her wand and tells us about her business. Our Top 10 is the ten best South African political gaffes from the campaign trail. We're also joined as always by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo with the news roundup. Finally the show features Mike Stopforth of Cerebra in his fourth and last "Tips and Tricks" on Social Media.

Episode 14: E-commerce in South Africa

Tue, 19 May 2009 11:34:31 +0200

In this week's episode we delve into the South African E-commerce industry to see where they've come in the past ten or so years. Ten years ago the buzz was all about virtual reality malls and how we would all be traversing these malls with VR glasses. The reality of online shopping though is that it is simply a virtual version of home shopping. You pick an item out of a catalogue and it gets delivered in a few days. Amazon is the leading retailer in the world with over five billion dollars worth of sales in 2008 so there is definitely a market for online shopping. Locally however, the industry seems stifled and limited to buying expensive laptops or cheap flowers. There is plenty of noise from smaller providers but no variation from these providers.

We speak to Justin Drennan of Wantitall, Yaron Assabi of Digital Mall, Darren Mclean from Pushplay and Jason Mordechai of Fevertree. They give us the low down on what is really happening in the South African E-commerce industry.

These four online stores, of various sizes, give us an understanding of the world behind the storefront. We find out what it takes to put a store together, whether you could build one from your bedroom, the marketing involved and why South Africa is so sheltered in terms of online shopping options.

Should you buy online or not? Listen to this episode to decide

Episode 13: Podcasting about Podcasting

Wed, 06 May 2009 11:29:18 +0200

In this weeks episode we take a look at a medium very dear to our hearts and talk about Podcasting. Both locally and internationally Podcasting seems to be the unloved cousin of blogging and Twitter, a fact we obviously find dissapointing. This week we speak to some fellow local Podcasters to get an understand of why they're passionate about the medium despite there being no financial gain for them.

Our guests this week are Brendan Jack from the Brendan Jackast, Simon Dingle from the ZATechShow, Jayne Morgan of the Mail & Guardian Podcast as well as Glen Verran from the ZAShow. We roundoff our lineup with international Podcaster, Brian Dunning of Skeptoid. He brings us an international slant on the medium. Brian answers our burning question of whether we could one day gain a massive following and quit our days jobs. The answer he provides is quite surprising. Finally we speak to our very own producer, Brandon Rogoff to get an idea of what it takes to put together a Podcast. Brandon is the genius that puts together our Podcast every week and makes us sound like Brad Pitt or George Clooney.

As always, we have a roundup of the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo. In our Agency of the week we're joined by Justin Spratt of IS Labs and the show ends with Mike Stopforth giving us his second of four "Tips and Tricks" of Social Media.

Episode 12: Reprobates and bloggers

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:32:38 +0200

With the South African Blog Awards coming to a conclusion this Friday we decided to take a look at the South African blogosphere to see what was really happening. We take a look at the persona of a blogger and try understand what makes them put the details of their lives online.

We speak to Nic Haralambous of SA Rocks, Seth Rotherham of 2Oceansvibe, Exmi from Expensive Mistakes Cheap Thrills, Shaun Oakes of Shaun Oakes.com, PhillyGirl of Glad To Be A Girl which was recently voted the best African blog in the Bloggies, Jason Bagley from the Incredible Connection blog and finally Se7en from Se7en.org. We round up that line up with a summary of the blogosphere by Justin Hartman, head of blog aggregator Afrigator.

We ask what they blog about, why they blog and discuss whether blogging has changed their professional lives. This probing view into the South African blogosphere will help you better understand the mindset of the often misunderstood blogger.

We also speak to Fred Roed of World Wide Creative in our Agency of the Week segment as well as get Mike Stopforth to give us his tips on Social Media. Our top ten this week is read by Dee Chetty, an SA Blog Awards finalist and focuses on ten of his favourite pick up lines. As always we are joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey for the news roundup.

Whether you think Bloggers are anti-social reprobates or the future of media this episode will help you decide your stance.

Episode 11: SEO Smackdown

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:51:13 +0200

A few weeks ago we threw the gauntlet down by speaking poorly about Search Engine Optimisation. Rob Stokes, head honcho of SEO Company "Quirk" felt that our comments were unfair. To get a better understand of SEO we decided to take a look at it from two different points of view.

Search Engine Optimisation is loosely defined as pushing your website up the search engine so that it comes out as the first result on a specific search term. The Digital Edge felt that this was often used to beat the system and promote dubious or incorrect content. We decided to find out.

We speak to an anonymous SEO expert to hear how he manipulates the Google search system purely for the purpose of selling products and not giving the user the most relevant search results. We also speak to Brendon Scott, a practitioner of "Negative SEO". Brendon uses the Google search algorithm to actually push websites down the search rankings rather than up as with traditional SEO. Brendon gives us some insight as to why you would want this service and a brief overview of how to take advantage of Google.

Finally we get to hear the positive side of SEO from Rob Stokes, founder of Quirk E-Marketing. Rob is joined by Christopher Mills of "SEO GURU WP" and Imod. They give us an explanation of the commercial model surrounding Search Engine Optimisation and show it's usage for promoting good content.

As always there's our regular news roundup and "Agency of the week". Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us as always for the news and Marlon Parker is featured in the Agency. Marlon is involved with Impact Direct, a drug abuse-counselling centre that uses social media as its tool for counseling. Our Top 10 this week is read by "Phillygirl", recently crowned the Best African Blogger in the International Bloggie Awards.

Whatever your opinion on SEO is, pick a side and come listen to the debate.

Episode 10: Political Interference

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:33:38 +0200

This week’s action packed, special episode is just in time for the elections in 37 days. Following the success of the Obama campaign in using the Internet for rallying voters we take a critical look at what South Africa’s biggest political parties, the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, are doing to woo voters using their online platforms. We want to know which party is going to win awards for their online campaign and which party is going to help make a difference.

We speak to Steyn Speed from the ANC and Anthony Hazell from the DA to hear their side of the story. We also get commentary from aggrieved local blogger Vincent Hofmann but first the GM of Publishing & Social Media at 24.com, Matthew Buckland, gives us an overview of the various campaigns taking place online.

Cape Town Daily Photo owner, Kerry-Anne Gilowey, joins us this week for the first time to help us present the news. We’re also joined by Kevin Lourens of Cambrient in the “Agency of the week segment” and the inimitable Heater Ford tells us about the South African Blog Awards in her segment, The Blogedge. Our Top 10 for the week attempts to give some exposure to a segment of our society that requires as much help as possible: the South African Podcasting industry.

Episode 9: A Musical Masterpiece

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:41:15 +0200

For this weeks episode we take a look at the creation, distribution and consumption of music in a digital world. This episode we are fortunate to have some amazing guests as well as a scoop on some local news.

We are joined this week all the way from the US of A by Tim Westergren, the founder of US-based music service Pandora. He talks to us about the change in consumption habits from pre-packaged content to on-demand music using services like his. Pandora’s iPhone app is now the largest downloaded in the world, and the Pandora service gets over 2 million tracks played per day.

We also speak to Jake Larsen, the head of the soon-to-be-launched (April 24th) South African Nokia Music Store. He gives us all the information on the store including what devices it can be used on and gives us a scoop on the pricing. That's right, we are the first place to provide the pricing information.

Finally, local musician Verity tells us about how she managed to turn the recording industry on its head and got her album published by selling it online before it was even created.

Regular feature, The Blogedge is about the Facebook Terms of Service issue, and Stonewall is this week’s “Agency of the week.”

Remember, you heard it first on The Digital Edge

Episode 8: Designing the Indaba

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:36:40 +0200

This week we bring you a SPECIAL EDITION direct from Cape Town. We spent a few days at the Design Indaba Conference and Expo and bring you some of the highlights of these few days. Saul Kropman gives us an audio tour through his time at the conference and on the first day speaks to Seans Adams and Noreen Morioka from AdamsMorioka as well as Rick Valicenti from Thirst. On the second day he speaks to Mohit Jayal and V Sunil from W+K Delhi then Dwayne Spradlin from Innocentive. On the third and final day he also speaks to the members of The Blackheart Gang, a collective of animators and what Saul describes as: "The oddest people he's ever spoken to". In between these interviews Saul speaks about some of the Conference lectures he spent time at as well as giving a brief rundown of the expo.

Episode 8 is entirely about the Design Indaba so come hear all about it

Episode 7: The Nomadic Marketing Episode

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:01:18 +0200

This past week we had the pleasure of being invited to the Nomadic Marketing Conference at the Michelangelo in Sandton City, Johannesburg. This is the first time the Executive Education course, facilitated by Dave Duarte, was hosted in Johannesburg. The course aims to teach executives how to engage a dynamic, global market online with a strategic look at new trends and technologies such as blogs, social-networks and mobile applications.

We got some commentary from Arthur Goldstuck about the stats behind social media, Melissa Attree talks about online PR, Jon and Heinrich from Cherryflava tell us about experiential marketing and finally Dave gives us an overview of the course. Our very own Jarred finally gets to be an interviewee and gives us the highlights of his talk on measurement and tracking.

In addition to this we get the Blogedge from Heather Ford. This week she gives us the rundown of the "J-Bag and Coke" saga. Fortunately, this has nothing to do with SAA.

Episode 6: Digital Godzilla

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:57:58 +0200

This week we speak to representatives from the three largest media houses in the country to see where they think their traditional media offerings are going and what threat digital might pose. We get the views of Toby Shapshak from Avusa, Tim Spira from 24.com and finally Nevo Hadas from Kagiso media. These three represent the holy trinity of traditional media: Newspapers, Magazines and Radio.

For Agency of the week we hear from James Barty of King James. James gives us the low down of how an integrated agency works. King James is an agency that was formed in 1998 and dabbles in traditional and digital marketing as well as eventing and PR.

Heather Ford brings us interesting information from the Blogosphere in her section the Blogedge. This week she speaks about the iHeritage project and sound smart by dropping words like "ephemera".

As always we have the Top 10 (where we speak about the soppiest love lines in movies) and a rounup of all the news.

Welcome to Episode 6 of the best Podcast in the world *

*Scientifically proven in a laboratory

Episode 5: Creativity in a can

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:01:15 +0200

This week we've got a bumper edition of The Digital Edge. Our theme for the week is how a Creative Director approaches the world of digital and, for this segment we speak to Mike Shalit from Network BBDO. Mike is one of the top Creative Directors in the country and gives us his thoughts on the crazy new field that is digital. We start off the show with a roundup of interesting news items and discover why Bill Gates might have lost his mind. We then move on to agency of the week, Unity Design and hear about their alternative approach to the corporate life. Finally Heather Ford gives us her take on the South African Blogosphere with this weeks Blogedge. Our ever irreverant top 10 this week is the worst Idols competitors we could find online.

Episode 4: Traditional Strikes Back

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:48:39 +0200

This week we return to the topic of how traditional agencies view the world of digital marketing and see how the likes of a massive advertising conglomerate such as Y&R view the topic. We hear from Yossi Schwartz, the Group Chief Executive Office for Y&R and see how his company approaches the world of digital.

We also hear from Heather Ford in her regular segment, "Blogedge" and other regulars such as the news roundup and the somewhat self indulgent "Top 10" for the week.

Finally we launch a new section this week known as "Agency of the week". This episode we feature Sarah Rice from Sentient Communications talking to us about her traditional PR company's push into online PR

No animals were harmed in the making of Episode 4 of the Digital Edge.

Episode 3: Traditional vs Digital Smackdown

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:35:55 +0200

We’ve made it to Episode 3 and to celebrate, we’ve gone traditional. Joining us this week is the founder of The Jupiter Drawing Room, Graham Warsop. Graham gives us his opinion of where traditional agencies are going to move towards in the future and how his company is approaching digital.

We’re also joined this week by Heather Ford, previously of iCommons. She gives us a weekly roundup of the South African blogosphere and this week delves in the Donn Edwards/QVC smackdown

Episode 3 starts now!

Episode 2 : A plethora of predictions

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:48:53 +0200

Episode 2 of the "The Digital Edge" brings us to the second round of predictions for 2009. This week we are joined in studio by the Portfolio Manager for Social Media at Vodacom, Vincent Maher. He gives us his predictions for 2009 with a specific look at the Mobile industry. Jarred Cinman then takes his stab at the crystal ball.

We also give thanks to those who were nice enough to write about our Podcast and introduce some fascinating new segments coming up in the next few weeks. Our Top 10 looks at the worst examples of personal branding in our top ten segment.

Remember, listening to the Digital Edge is not only good for your job but will make you a better person.

Episode 1: Welcome to The Digital Edge

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:05:30 +0200

In our maiden podcast hear the Top 10 tech events of 2008, find out what some industry experts think is going to happen in the digital space in 2009 and learn what The Digital Edge is all about, and why you should click that little "subscribe" link.

Guests on the show are Walter Pike (AAA School & PiKE), and Andy Hadfield, the "Internet Guy" at FNB.

Join Saul and Jarred as they kickoff the show -- essential listening for marketers and digeratis alike.