
Search is fragmenting – credibility and trust create the new visibility
Online search behaviour has changed significantly with the rise of AI. How can African brands adapt to this new marketing landscape?
MARKETING TALENT
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2026
She will play a central role in driving marketing innovation, strengthening brand portfolios and deepening consumer engagement.
East African Breweries Limited has appointed Anne Joy Michira as Group Marketing and Innovations Director.
She joins the leadership team of EABL after serving as Marketing and Innovations Director for South, West and Central Africa at Diageo in London. Diageo is the parent company of EABL.
Anne Joy Michira. Photo: LinkedIn
In her London-based role, Michira developed a broader strategic perspective on multi-market brand management, overseeing marketing innovation across several African markets.
Prior to that, she was Marketing and Innovations Director role for East Africa at EABL, overseeing a portfolio spanning beer and spirits across the region, and briefly served as Acting Marketing and Innovations Director at Kenya Breweries Limited.
Known for her expertise in consumer insights, portfolio development and brand growth, Michira has been instrumental in shaping strategies that strengthen market presence while responding to changing consumer behaviours.
In her new role at EABL, she is expected to play a central role in driving marketing innovation, strengthening brand portfolios, and deepening consumer engagement across the company’s operations in the East African region.
A decade at BAT
Prior to joining EABL in 2015, she spent 10 years at British American Tobacco. There, she served in various positions – including being Area Brand Manager for Aspirational Premium, Marketing Services Manager, and Area Key Accounts and Travel Retail Manager.
On her LinkedIn profile, Michira describes herself as “a senior marketing director with 20-plus years of leadership experience driving product marketing, portfolio strategy and go-to-market execution across complex, multi-market environments.
“I specialise in translating market insight, product innovation, and commercial strategy into sustained market share, revenue growth and long-term brand equity.”

Online search behaviour has changed significantly with the rise of AI. How can African brands adapt to this new marketing landscape?

Researchers propose a framework for packaging that senses, learns and acts – making packaging an active, AI-powered tool against food waste.

Country needs marketers to build recognition and consumer trust around Malawian products and national brand, says Deputy Minister.

Fashion brand suspends giant lingerie high above the city’s streets, using shadows to create a moving billboard for pedestrians and motorists.

Researchers describe AI influencers as having a ‘dual identity’. Consumers evaluate both ‘person’ and ‘technology’ identities at once.

Reputation and trust, once modest influences on hotel choice, have become some of the strongest predictors of patronage, study finds.

South African brands are increasingly setting the global benchmark for customer loyalty strategies, organisers say.

Global influences among younger consumers are still present, but they are being filtered through a distinctly Zambian lens.

Researchers find that lack of perceived ‘genuine care’ is the mechanism connecting AI involvement to lower trust ratings.

Explore the 2026 AMC Conference speaker line-up. Top African marketing voices gather in Zambia to tackle AI, AfCFTA, and brand power. Register today.

New industry currency will bring South African television and online video audiences together in a single measurement system.