It wasn't long ago when AI chatbots were a new technology, with analysts trying to predict how they might be used; but now you can hardly go onto a website without encountering one, says Brent Haumann, managing director at Striata Africa and Byron Wolff, digital product manager at Blue Turtle Technologies. The duo explains how to use them as part of your customer communication strategy.

Eskort has announced that it has taken on a new look that was inspired by South Africa's unique trading environments. The brand's aim was to underpin the South African heritage in its new look and feel, as well as to speak to South Africans in their native tongues — using both a visual language and the written word, all while remaining true to the brand's 103-year history. 

Libresse, a feminine hygiene brand, has launched a new campaign. The initiative aims to empower women to explicitly share honest, cringe-worthy experiences of womanhood, including profound diagnosis, fertility treatments and severe menstrual cycles. 

Dan Berkowitz, HaveYouHeard's group executive creative director, has been appointed as a judge for the 2021 New York Festivals Advertising Awards. Celebrating the exceptional and innovative content being created today, the New York Festival runs six international awards competitions to honour and recognise the world's best work across six different creative fields.

Quest, a generation data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, has named DataGroupIT its distribution partner for Quest and One Identity across Africa. This strategic partnership is set to strengthen Quest's delivery model across the continent.

Spitfire Inbound has officially co-founded a new international company called Digital Transformation Group (DXG). The new company comprises a group of specialist HubSpot Partners. DXG aims to bring the combined capabilities of 180 experts and offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, France, Dubai and Spain.

Over the past five years, AI and machine learning in marketing have come a long way, says Grant Lapping, managing director at DataCore Media. Lapping says that many marketers using it to reach their audience, however, are not exploiting the full power of the algorithms that it can offer or the vast amounts of consumer data that it collects.

HaveYouHeard has announced that it has added a fourth office to its network that already spans Cape Town, Johannesburg and London. The agency has merged with KwaZulu-Natal digital hotshop STIR, started by Kirsty Bisset nine years ago, and will now trade as HaveYouHeard Durban. 

CLEVVA and United Kingdom-based Blue Prism has announced a partnership that combines CLEVVA's front-office solutions with Blue Prism's back-office solutions to deliver an end-to-end customer service offering. Under the partnership, Blue Prism will sell CLEVVA's digital experts through its global digital exchange and partner network that already makes use of its digital workers.

At the beginning of every year, there is a new generation of school-leavers and graduates trying to make an important choice that will determine their futures: which career path to follow and how to get there. The Red & Yellow Creative School of Business provides four directions that graduates can consider in the digital marketing space: