
Pre-conference masterclass discusses taking African brands to the world
Participants challenged to identify, articulate and commercialise the cultural assets that make their brand ready for a global audience.
A.M.C. MEMBER NEWS
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2025
Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two organisations four months ago begins to bear fruit with shared discussion on tech and AI.
Last week marked the first collaborative workshop held by the Institute of Marketing in Malawi and the ICT Association of Malawi since the signing of an MoU four months ago.
Malawi’s marketers and ICT professionals hold their first joint workshop. Photo: George Damson
The chief objective of the agreement is to leverage each organisation’s strengths in order to deliver high-quality and impactful programmes that foster professional growth and innovation.
According to George Damson, President of the Institute of Marketing in Malawi, this partnership aligns with Malawi’s development blueprint, Malawi 2063, under enabler number five – Human Capital Development.
The workshop’s emphasis was on leveraging on technology for business processes, with a focus on artificial intelligence.
Renowned business leader Wisely Phiri, who is the Group Managing Director at ICT firm Sparc Systems Ltd, set the tone with his keynote address. Jones Kumchenga, an ICT expert, then unpacked AI for business in the Malawian context.
Most participants were not traditional ICT people
“It was an enriching experience,” says Damson, writing in a LinkedIn post. “One of the most encouraging things was that majority of the participants in this workshop were not traditional ICT people, demonstrating that technology like AI is not for ‘tech geeks’ only. It is for everyone.”
Damson continues: “This is just the beginning of many other such initiatives that we are eyeing, spreading our wings into regional and international spaces to bring that knowledge to Malawian professionals in various sectors. Watch this space.”
The convergence of the IT and marketing sectors is being acknowledged across Africa. The African Marketing Confederation (AMC) and Technology Information Confederation Africa (TICON Africa) will host their annual conferences concurrently from 20-22 August 2025, at Accra’s Labadi Beach Hotel.
The event, themed ‘Thriving in Africa’s Evolving Markets: Trust, Trends, and Technology’, will examine how digital innovation is transforming consumer engagement across the continent.
IMM Malawi is a member of the AMC, while the ICT Association of Malawi is a member of TICON Africa.

Participants challenged to identify, articulate and commercialise the cultural assets that make their brand ready for a global audience.

Second outlet planned for Nairobi before year end, with Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco said to be future target markets.

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.