Welcome to the SA Digital Marketing Podcast.
My name is Terence Mentor, and I’m a digital marketer who has realised that since the industry is constantly changing, we need to be constantly learning. I think the best way to learn all the things is to talk people who are doing all the things, so this podcast is a chance to do just that.
If you’re listening on Spotify, leave a comment in the app and I’ll respond to you there, otherwise you can send your thoughts, opinions and questions to podcast@tmdigital.co.za (mailto:podcast@tmdigital.co.za).
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Data gives you the signal. Culture gives you the context. Tshiamo Maremela on reading both
We keep framing this as a fight: the data and reporting side of marketing against the cultural and creative side. Tshiamo Maremela doesn’t accept the split. He’s a strategist and the founder of a cultural intelligence and creative advisory, and he helps businesses make sharper decisions when things are messy.
His line on it: data gives you a signal, culture gives you the context, and strategy is what you do with both.
The part that should worry you is the quiet risk. We all know the brand that misread a moment and got cancelled. Tshiamo is more interested in what happens when nobody says anything at all - your campaigns still perform, the dashboard still looks healthy, but the brand is quietly becoming less important in people’s lives. By the time a comms problem has run long enough, it’s a business problem.
In this episode:
Why culture can’t be a single KPI, and what you can actually measure: behaviour, conversations, language, the movement of ideas
Lived intelligence, his term for the knowledge that doesn’t come from research, and how to build a system that uses it
Why ten layers of approval make an idea safe, and safe is the problem
The defensive version of cultural marketing: an African proverb, an African print, an African song, and a brand you can’t tell apart from any other
Why not every cultural moment needs a response from your brand
Two brands getting it right, including an artist residency in Mexico that Tshiamo worked on as strategist
His four-part practice: look, understand, decide, act, and why marketing can’t run it alone
Connect with Tshiamo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tshiamomaremela
Connect with Terence on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-mentor
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7 Oct 2026
Are we in the era of the small agency? Darren Morris on why bigger isn't always better
Are small agencies now the ones winning, and should in-house marketers be looking at them instead of the big names?
Lucky Hustle just won Small Agency of the Year for the second year running, which Darren Morris believes nobody has done before.Darren is honest in both directions.AI has changed what a team of 25 can take on, and clients have noticed that ten people for ten days has become two people for three.
But he's just as clear that a small agency taking on an account the size of a bank would fall over, and he's watched others try it until the house of cards came down.
In this episode:
What counts as a small agency, and why staff numbers are still the measure
Why big brands went big for so long: heritage, 95-day payment terms, and someone to bankroll the campaign
The "more monster", and why his five-year plan is to sustain rather than grow
Why "a long healthy three years" with a client is nowhere near long enough
What to look for when you pick an agency, starting with people who won't kiss your ass
The clients who say jump, and the brands that sink because the agency always asks how high
Darren was on the show before, talking about AI and trends for 2026. This one is about the business underneath the work.
Connect with Darren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-morris-527598151
Connect with Terence on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-mentor
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21 Sept 2026
Can you measure real life? Doug Bird on experiential marketing's missing layer
Marketing budgets are moving back from digital to in-real-life. The trouble is that most brands still can't show what an event, a sponsorship or an activation actually did for them.
Doug Bird has spent more than 20 years in South African experiential marketing, including five as head of sports marketing at Red Bull, and he's the founder of WILD AIR Agency. His argument: in-person marketing is often as measurable as digital, as long as the systems are in place before the idea.
In this episode:
- Why digital won the budget: it's easier to defend in the board meeting
- How Red Bull counted interactions, captured first-party data and measured trial at its events
- Why the idea should be the last thing you work on
- Going where your customers already are, instead of asking them to come to you
- How Saucony took on the big running brands at run clubs with a trailer and 25 pairs of shoes
- Why there are no easy wins without systems, and why word of mouth sits at the centre
- Go Badger, the platform Doug is building so brands can buy in-person connection the way they buy digital media
Connect with Doug on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-bird-wild-air/
Want the live version of conversations like this? The SA Marketers' Circle is where South African marketers think out loud. Every month, a past guest joins us for a Hallway Session.
Apply to join: https://www.samarketerscircle.co.za/join
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