It’s the Monday after and I’m wondering to what extent the digital code has been cracked during last week’s Cracking the Digital Code conference. The idea was to “demystify the internet” especially for corporate marketeers and media and communication agencies.

One way for myself to determine what I learned is to remember at least one point from each of the speakers without having to refer back to my notes. So here goes:

1. Stafford Masie, Google: great presentation, great case studies, great motivation to use Google. What did I learn: nothing new. I was of course not the target market for this conference, and the brief to all the presenters was quite clear: keep it simple ( we have ad agencies in the room….)
2. Vincent Maher, Vodacom: as much as we’re on the so-called Web2.0 point on the internet curve, Web3.0 and Web4.0 have already been defined.
3. Ingrid Rubin, longtail: take charge of your personal reputation online.
4. Russel Hanley, 24.com: “one size does not fit all”. Here Russel referred to the way companies perceive all online advertising to be just a banner. Often all rich media and gadget ads, expanding banners and interactive on-site campaign and sponsorships are all categorised as banners and this is just NOT the case.
5. Chris Rolfe, Mobilitrix: great success can be had when combining mobile with radio campaigns.
6. Arthur Goldstuck, Worldwide Worx: although a lot is being said about mobile and although its potential is clear and in no way being doubted, right now, no digital medium is as relevant and important as the internet when it comes to sales, marketing and branding.
7. Rob Stokes, Quirk: I learned about “Google bowling”: At it’s simplest it’s using anchor text to bowl over, or sabotage another website. Google Bowling is using any off site tactics to bring down your competitors rankings.
8. Tyle Reed, Younique: Tyler went on about how advertising is dead. I can see his thinking from a youth market point of view. I cannot however agree with the statement in its entirety or in such an absolute definition.

Sure, I also presented! It was on digital strategies.

What did I learn from my own presentation? It is possible to do a 45 minute presentation and keep to 10 slides!

longtail has been a supporter of Zoopy and has given them the odd online media campaign. We are planning to do more with Zoopy so it is with great joy that I just read of Vodacom’s 40% equity investement in Zoopy. A while back Jason actaully told us to watch the press as something big was about to happen.

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How interesting to see these bedfellows have come to realise that they should compete rather than co-operate.
On the front page of today’s Business Day it states how they may part ways as Telkom considers selling its 50% stake in Vodacom ( for about R 70bn give and take )
Even more interesting to us internet types is how both companies have made it clear that they want a bigger slice of the internet market ( 2 seperate articles on page 13 of the same paper)
Vodacom it seems is ready for some major acquisition and speculation is that it may be Internet Solutions or DataPro that they are after. Vodacom, it appears wants to shed its image as a cellphone company and become a total corporate solutions and communications company. Their new division, Converged Solutions, is a clear indication of their way forward.
Telkom yesterday stated that they wish to make bigger inroads into Africa’s voice, data and internet services. Having recently acquired African Online, based in Kenya and MultiLinks in Nigeria, a company that also has an internet offering, it seems that the internet race for Africa is in full swing!
May it bring greater connectivity, lower fees and upliftment to all!