The Nedbank IMC 2026 brought marketers, business leaders, creatives and industry voices together in Johannesburg on 17 September for a day focused on one central idea: Shift Happens.
Held at Mosaïek Teatro with a virtual attendance option, the conference explored how marketing is changing as artificial intelligence, culture, consumer behaviour, creativity and business expectations continue to evolve.
Rather than focusing on one trend, the programme connected several shifts happening at the same time — from the changing role of the CMO to the growing importance of African context and the need to keep human thinking at the centre of technology.
The result was a programme that moved beyond advertising and campaigns to examine the wider role of marketing in business, culture and society.
AI Is Moving From Hype to Practical Business Value
Artificial intelligence was one of the strongest themes running through the Nedbank IMC 2026 programme.
Kabelo Makwane, Country Director at Google South Africa, addressed this directly with “Making AI Useful: From Organisational Mindset to Business Value.” Later in the programme, Jarred Cinman, CEO of VML, explored whether 2026 was the year AI changed everything in advertising, while Milan Naran of Google looked at “AI in Action: Turning Content into Insight in Real Time.”
Together, these sessions placed AI in a more practical context. The conversation was not simply about what artificial intelligence can do, but about how organisations can use new tools while still making meaningful business and marketing decisions.
Technology may change how marketing teams work, but the value of those tools depends on the people, strategy and business problems behind them.
The CMO Role Is Changing
Another major theme was the changing position of marketing leadership.
Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Chancellor of Sol Plaatje University, presented “The CMO Shift.” The programme later returned to the subject through the Brand Africa CMO Panel, where Ikalafeng was joined by Khensani Nobanda, Group Chief Marketing Officer at Nedbank Group, and Opeyemi Lawal, Chief Marketing Officer of NBA Africa and the Basketball Africa League.
The conversation reflected a broader shift in how marketing is expected to contribute to organisations.
Marketing is no longer presented simply as the function responsible for communications or advertising. The discussions at IMC placed greater emphasis on growth, relevance, leadership, business performance and understanding changing consumers.
That aligns closely with the conference’s wider Marketing is Business philosophy.
Nedbank IMC 2026 Puts Africa at the Centre
If there was one theme running across the conference, it was the importance of African markets being understood on their own terms.
Dawn Rowlands, CEO of dentsu Africa, addressed the subject directly with “Africa is the Shift.”
Suhayl Limbada, Chief Marketing Officer at KFC India, approached the same challenge from a cultural perspective in “Stop Making Global Work: A Practical Guide to Building Big Ideas in Local Culture.”
The emphasis on local culture matters because brands increasingly operate across markets where language, identity, humour, behaviour and cultural references can dramatically change how an idea is received.
For African marketers, local insight can be more than an adaptation step after a global campaign has been developed. It can be the starting point for the idea itself.
Brave Creativity Still Matters
The conference also made space for a question that remains central to marketing: what happens when brands and creative teams stop playing it safe?
Roanna Williams and Fran Luckin of Boundless tackled that question through “The Creative Shift: Why Brave Work Wins.”
Their session sat alongside Conn Bertish’s “Happy Purposeful Businesses are Harder to Kill,” creating a broader conversation around resilience, purpose and creative thinking.
Tiffany Markman added another perspective with “Specifically Odd: Write Human. But Weird.” Her session focused on communication and the value of bringing a recognisable human voice into an environment increasingly shaped by technology and standardised content.
Across these sessions, creativity remained closely connected to human thinking. Technology can accelerate production, but distinct ideas, emotional connection and creative courage continue to shape how brands are remembered.
Nedbank IMC 2026 Gives Younger Voices a Platform
The future of marketing was also discussed through the voices of younger generations.
Gugu Mthembu facilitated “The Next Shift: A Gen Z – Gen Alpha Conversation,” featuring Desmond Koolen and Marko Stavrou.
The inclusion of Gen Z and Gen Alpha in the main programme reflected a broader recognition that brands cannot understand younger audiences simply by studying them from the outside.
Younger consumers are growing up with immediate access to global information, digital communities and artificial intelligence. Their expectations around brands, communication and relevance are developing alongside the technology they use every day.
The programme also included the Plug’d by Telkom UJ Challenge, giving university students a platform to work with a real-world marketing brief, with the winning team announced during the conference. The initiative formed part of the IMC’s wider focus on emerging talent.
Storytelling Remains Powerful
Amid conversations about AI, business transformation and technology, the Nedbank IMC 2026 also returned to something much older: storytelling.
Dr Gcina Mhlophe presented “Tales to Tell, Wings to Fly,” bringing storytelling, heritage and cultural expression into the conference conversation.
Her inclusion alongside technology and marketing leaders reinforced the role of human stories in building connections between brands, communities and cultures.
That same human dimension appeared in Tahaab Rais’ session, “The Real Shift Isn’t Technological. It’s Psychological.”
The international keynote, delivered by the Group Chief Strategy Officer and Film Director at Publicis Groupe, focused attention on the human behaviour behind technological change.
The session reflected an important distinction: technological transformation does not happen in isolation from people. How audiences think, behave, connect and adapt remains central to how marketing evolves.
From Brand Building to Business Impact
Sheldon Tatchell, CEO and Founder of Legends Corporation, brought the conversation back to entrepreneurship and impact through “Business of Impact.”
Tatchell’s Legends Corporation story connects brand building with culture, talent development, community and growth — themes that extend beyond traditional marketing communications.
The session followed the Brand Africa CMO Panel and reinforced the idea that brands are built through more than campaigns. They are shaped by the businesses behind them, the communities they serve and the experiences they create.
Nedbank IMC 2026: What Comes Next for Marketing?
The Nedbank IMC 2026 did not present one single answer to where marketing is going.
Instead, the day brought together different perspectives on an industry changing on several fronts at once.
AI is changing workflows. African markets are demanding greater cultural understanding. CMOs are being pushed closer to business conversations. Younger generations are changing expectations. Creative teams are being challenged to produce braver work. And storytelling remains central even as technology transforms how brands communicate.
The final moments of the programme captured that combination of technology, culture and creativity. Siya Metane, better known as Slikour, joined MC Donovan Goliath for the live reveal of an original conference track built from the day’s own voices. The conference then moved into its closing networking session.
For Nedbank IMC 2026, the shift was therefore bigger than a marketing trend.
It was a conversation about how brands, businesses and people respond when the environment around them changes.
And if the conference theme was “Shift Happens”, the bigger question for marketers is what they choose to do when it does.
The changing marketing landscape discussed at the Nedbank IMC 2026 also connects with the wider marketing trends shaping South Africa in 2026, particularly around AI, consumer behaviour and brand relevance. For the full speaker line-up, sessions and programme, readers can explore the official Nedbank IMC 2026 agenda.
