Watchdog instructs auto brand to remove or amend TV ad campaign
SA’s Advertising Regulatory Board finds Kia advertisement could be offensive to people with certain health disorders.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
How African marketing strategies are embracing the potential of AI
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2026
From movie-style extravaganzas to conversations with digital clones and enhancing visuals, marketers are doing more than just tinker with AI.
African marketers have come a long way since East African telecoms giant Safaricom flighted what it called the continent’s first artificial intelligence (AI)-generated TV ad in 2023.
Egyptian actor Karim Abdelaziz in an AI-enhanced advert for Orange Egypt
Already leveraging AI and machine learning to develop products, the Safaricom Chapa Dimba football commercial was a logical next step in the quest to combine human and machine intelligence.
Since then, Kenyan bread brand Supa Loaf attracted consumer interest – and some criticism – when it dropped a visual of one of its bread loaves into an existing AI-generated image, and hoisted it onto a billboard. The ad showed a mother running after her smiling baby, speeding away with a huge loaf of bread.
Some consumers felt the ad looking too unrealistic, while Kenyan photographers and videographers voiced concerns at AI-based campaigns taking work from local industry professionals.
Farmer’s Choice in Kenya, which produces meat products, did much the same thing: repurposing an AI image and just adding a sizzling beef sausage.
Safaricom, meanwhile, has kept raking up wins with a hybrid-collaboration approach, using AI to tweak human photographs for its 2024 corporate calendar to ramp up the ‘wow’ factor.
Egyptian telecoms ad blends imagination with technology
In 2025, telecoms company Orange Egypt released its first AI-enhanced advert, featuring well-known Egyptian actor Karim Abdelaziz.
Driving the narrative that super-fast 5G revolutionises the user experience, the ad merged imagination with technology, injecting Abdelaziz into a series of fun – yet futuristic – Hollywood-style scenarios.
At the southern tip of the continent, South African banking group Absa’s ‘The Story Behind the Numbers’ campaign, released in July 2025, featured an unscripted conversation between a well-known financial journalist and her AI-generated digital twin.
As Absa’s Group Chief Marketing & Corporate Affairs Officer, Sydney Mbhele, observed: The 95-second spot made the point that “technology should serve human purpose” and human beings are “more than data points – they’re people with dreams, challenges, and stories that deserve to be heard”.
What these examples illustrate is how dynamically and enthusiastically African marketers are leaning into AI to enhance their creative outputs.
Find out more about how African marketers are embracing AI in the latest issue (Issue 4 2025) of Strategic Marketing for Africa – the voice of African marketing and the official publication of the African Marketing Confederation (AMC). Read it online here. A Print Edition is also available.
The gap between AI’s efficiency promises and marketing reality
Global study finds AI is helping marketers produce more – but is not creating the time and creative space they expected.
Number of African megacities to increase from three to 17 by 2050
Urban Africa will double its footprint, adding the equivalent of more than 4,000 Manhattans or almost 400 Singapores, The Economist reports.
Nigeria’s Hyper City appoints CEO with strong Carrefour background
Luc Demez brings experience from Europe and African countries as the Carrefour brand looks to expand into Nigeria with a local partner.
Cracking the Africa Code: The functional path to market leadership
What makes brands successful in Africa? A summary of the award-winning paper presented at Esomar’s first conference in Africa.
‘What’s for dinner tonight, mom?’ Woolies’ AI chef may have the answer
Woolworths supermarket chain embraces an AI-powered chef as it leverages two decades of recipes to answer an age-old family question.
Demand for sportswear is sprinting ahead of the wider apparel market
Consumers are prioritising their wellness despite tighter wallets, meaning sportswear remains one of the most resilient areas of fashion.
Deadline looms for African marketing and supply chain awards
Nominations for the 2026 African Marketing Confederation and African Supply Chain Confederation awards close on 31 July.
Researchers study why negative brand news fails to deter some customers
Consumers may stick with troubled brands because their emotional attachment overrides the perceived risk, study finds.
Marketing’s role in book on how Ghana can deliver public service excelLENCE
Book draws a line between customer experience – the private-sector marketing discipline – and what its authors call ‘Citizen Experience’.
Once close to oblivion, SA retailer Edgars is making a comeback
Six years ago, the historic South African department store chain was in voluntary business rescue. Now it plans to open 50 new stores.
