The Nedbank Digital Edge Live is South Africa’s largest and most prestigious digital marketing show. This year the event gave insight into how brands, marketers and agencies leverage the power of purpose-driven communications to inspire deeper relationships with consumers. The event took place on September 30 at the Vodadome in Johannesburg – we were there!

The theme, “Go Do Good“, was explored by a dynamic line-up of advertising and marketing heavyweights who spoke about authenticity, purpose, values and doing good.

Key note speaker and “idea-preneur”, Tom Kelley – partner at design agency Ideo and bestselling author of the ‘Art of Innovation’ and ’10 Faces of Innovation’, captured the audience with his inspiring talk on creativity and innovation.

Twitter was abuzz as delegates leveraged the power of digital and had their say. While the funky, live band ‘Rubber Duc’ took full advantage and tipped the scales of creativity by turning some of the Tweets into lyrics!

Here are some of our favourite Tweets of the day:

Ultimately, technology should make people smile. It’s a very small act, but, it’s the most important benefit to humanity #DigitalEdge2014
— Outspoken Edge (@OutspokenEdge) September 30, 2014

Storytelling is how you bring your data to life @TomKelley74 #DigitalEdge2014 @EngageJoePublic — Joe Public (@joepublicagency) September 30, 2014

If you don’t talk to customers, don’t expect to ever have customers. #DigitalEdge2014
— Pepe Marais (@pepemarais) September 30, 2014

RT @MG_Reporter: “What is the brand’s essence and what is the consumer looking for?”-that’s where data starts says #DigitalEdge2014 — digitedge (@digitedge) September 30, 2014

This is what Striata had to say:

Great welcome address @musakalenga. In this digital era, in Africa, tech is an opportunity to solve a problem #DigitalEdge2014
— Sheryl-Lynn Collins (@SL_Collins) September 30, 2014

Always try to understand the humans in your equation #empathy #DigitalEdge2014 — eBilling, eMarketing (@Striata) October 1, 2014

The definition of advertising has to evolve. Companies need to move from saying they are great to being great #digitaledge2014
— Sheryl-Lynn Collins (@SL_Collins) September 30, 2014

Is your digital engine scaring your customers? Don’t change the technology, change the experience #DigitalEdge2014 — eBilling, eMarketing (@Striata) September 30, 2014

Use data in a creative way for predictive marketing. Experience driven platforms! @Adobe #DigitalEdge2014 — Sheryl-Lynn Collins (@SL_Collins) September 30, 2014

Are agencies off the hook? Is big data the clients problem? Silo’d data and legacy systems make deriving insight difficult. #DigitalEdge2014 — Sheryl-Lynn Collins (@SL_Collins) September 30, 2014

Do good for your customers first. It’s the starting point for purposeful marketing #DigitalEdge2014

— eBilling, eMarketing (@Striata) September 30, 2014

“We can no longer separate doing good and making a profit”#DigitalEdge2014 — Dori-Jo Bonner (@DJ_Bonner) September 30, 2014

Graphs are cool but marketing INSIGHT is a million times better! Can big data help us in #purposedrivenmarketing? #DigitalEdge2014
— Sheryl-Lynn Collins (@SL_Collins) September 30, 2014

‘If we are authentic it doesn’t matter how we tell the story” #DigitalEdge2014 — Dori-Jo Bonner (@DJ_Bonner) September 30, 2014

Digital connects us to a Global Community #DigitalEdge2014

— eBilling, eMarketing (@Striata) September 30, 2014

Put your customer at the centre of the strategy to do good. Creates shared value & shared values! Awesome @JaxTimeTraveler #DigitalEdge2014 — Sheryl-Lynn Collins (@SL_Collins) September 30, 2014

And there was great excitement as #DigitalEdge2014 clinched the number 1 trending #

Winning! RT @TrendieZA: “Trending South Africa:12:53 PM SAST” 1. #DigitalEdge2014 2. #ThingsKwaleMenShouldCane 3. #mybroadband
— digitedge (@digitedge) September 30, 2014

Take a look at the influencer map:

The #DigitalEdge2014 Influencer Map. #NodeXL Keep tweeting to see your handle too! pic.twitter.com/qnTpwNmCLM — Ogilvy South Africa (@OgilvySA) September 30, 2014

Key take aways:

• Consumers care more and more about the values of the companies they do business with. Therefore it’s important for companies to “Go Do Good” – do good for your customers first. It’s the starting point for purposeful marketing.
• Be authentic! As Tom Kelly says, “In the long run, it benefits the company itself because customers are drawn to companies that are authentically committed to social innovation. Employees are attracted to organizations with a strong sense of purpose.”
• Marketers should spend less time on data and more time on ideas. Pepe Marais, founding member, Joe Public said, “Everything starts with ideas. The big idea still carries more weight for me than big data. We need to move back to what we actually do and spend time on ideas and then dictate how to use these on technology and devices, not the other way around”

Do you have a “Go Do Good” strategy?