
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?
INDUSTRY BODIES
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2025
Ronnie becomes Chair at a time the MMA is rebranding and showing a stronger commitment to the sub-Saharan Africa region.
Fionna Ronnie, Executive Head of Customer and Loyalty at The Foschini Group, has been named as the new Chairperson of the Marketing and Media Alliance South Africa – commonly known as MMA SA.
With more than 18 years of experience in digital transformation, customer strategy and brand innovation, the MMA says Ronnie’s appointment reflects its “bold intent to shape the region’s marketing agenda through collaboration, creativity and purpose”.
With growth across sub-Saharan Africa in view, MMA South Africa will establish a Regional Executive Committee to guide expansion into key markets across the region, maintaining a strong local focus within global frameworks.
Fionna Ronnie. Photo: LinkedIn
Sarah Utermark, Regional Director for MMA SSA and South Africa, says this is an exciting next step for MMA in South Africa, one that reflects the ambition, collaboration and innovation already happening across our region.
More than just a name change
“Our renaming to the Marketing and Media Alliance isn’t just a name change, it signals a stronger commitment to empower CMOs and senior marketers in Africa to lead with purpose and proof,” she states.
“Our local industry has the ambition, the talent and the market relevance to shape global marketing’s future, and through this alliance, we are bringing that potential to life.”
MMA claims to be the only association that encompasses all parts of the marketing ecosystem at the governance level – including brand marketers, media, adtech, martech, agencies and consultants, all working together, in support of CMOs.
Comments Ronnie: “Our industry is evolving at unprecedented speed, and this moment demands leaders who can bridge creativity with commerce, and technology with humanity. The goal is to shape a marketing landscape that is dynamic, data-driven and deeply human, empowering South Africa to lead on the global stage,”

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.