Insights

Thinking out loud.

Writing on strategy, culture, and the South African market. Some pieces published here, others on external platforms.

Platform strategy

WhatsApp has a VIP section now

Everyone is laughing at the ringtones. They are missing what it actually is. Meta just monetised identity and let your users become the billboard.

3 July 2026 · Juff Manda

Digital strategy

Nobody saw a billboard for The Polygamist. They saw it on social.

It hit number one on Netflix in South Africa within hours. No outdoor campaign did that. The people did.

19 June 2026 · Juff Manda

Content strategy

Your phone is vertical. Your content is not.

Most brands are still producing landscape content for a portrait world. The brief has changed. The production has not.

23 May 2026 · Juff Manda

Media strategy

Meta just passed Google in ad revenue. First time in history.

And Celeste Ntuli winning Headliner of the Year explains exactly why attention is shifting.

16 May 2026 · Juff Manda

Strategy

SA brands are drowning in data. Starving for humanity.

The data tells us what. It has never told us why. That gap is where most SA campaigns lose the room.

15 May 2026 · Juff Manda

Social commerce

TikTok is not an entertainment app. It is a shop.

Social commerce hit $100 billion in 2026. The scroll and the purchase now happen in the same session.

14 May 2026 · Juff Manda

Culture

Amapiano went global. No brand strategy built that.

Community did. And that is the most important marketing lesson in SA right now.

14 May 2026 · Juff Manda

AI and systems

Everyone has an AI tool. Almost nobody has an AI strategy.

Gartner says AI automation in marketing doubles to 36% by 2028. The gap between ready and not is already opening.

13 May 2026 · Juff Manda

Strategy

Why most SA brands are producing content nobody asked for

Volume is not the problem. The problem is no governing logic behind what gets published.

June 2025

Influencer

Influencer strategy in South Africa is still being done backwards

Most brands choose a creator and then figure out what to do with them. The brief should come first.

May 2025

AI and systems

AI does not replace strategic thinking. It exposes the absence of it.

When you give AI a clear framework, it scales efficiently. When there is no framework, it scales the confusion.

April 2025

Culture

What brands get wrong about speaking to South African audiences

Localisation is not a translation step at the end of the process. It is the process.

March 2025

Marketing and trade

Turns out it was never Fong Kong

Most luxury goods are manufactured in China. What we actually pay for is the story, not the product.

April 2025 · Juff Manda

Innovation and market shifts

From Fong Kong to global giants: the rise of Chinese innovation

What once started as a joke about knockoffs has evolved into a story of global competition.

March 2025 · Juff Manda