Jarred Cinman, CEO of VMLY&R South Africa talks through the genesis of VMLY&R's Live from the Edge event series, born from the agency's Digital Edge podcast.
“When I was much younger, about eight years ago, I worked with someone called Saul Kropman to start one of the first South African podcasts, ‘The Digital Edge’. It was a weekly news, analysis and interview show that focused on the broader digital advertising industry. What was radical at the time was we interviewed our competitors and gave profile to businesses other than our direct clients as a way to grow the entire industry. After a year or two, the podcast evolved into a live event – starting small and ultimately exploding into a 1,000-person show with Spike Lee headlining in 2015.”
The podcast or Digital Edge brand has been dormant for several years, but with the arrival of Covid-19 and a burgeoning demand for good quality virtual conferences, Cinman says he decided to revive it in its new incarnation ‘The Edge’ – a show about the future of marketing, as he describes it.