Nedbank Namibia in collaboration with Future Media, recently hosted marketers, communicators, and brand practitioners at the Nedbank Campus Sky Garden in Windhoek on 18 September to live stream the Nedbank Integrated Marketing Conference (IMC) 2025, which took place in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The IMC, widely regarded as Africa’s biggest marketing conference, attracted over 3 000 delegates in person and online and featured more than 20 African and international speakers under the theme – Marketing is Business. The theme underscored that marketing must move beyond building awareness and show measurable business outcomes. At the live stream session, Nedbank Namibia communications and public relations manager, Selma Kaulinge, highlighted the importance of exposing the local industry to international best practice and new thinking:
“Namibian businesses are the backbone of our economy, and their resilience and innovation are what drive our nation forward. We believe that empowering them with strategic insight and practical tools is essential for succeeding in a rapidly changing world.” Head of marketing at Future Media, Zellmari Brandt, echoed Kaulinge’ s sentiments, stating: “All the talks that we’ve heard so far have just been amazing. The topic for this year is marketing as business and today solidifies that marketing is extremely important and cutting back or moving away from marketing is probably not the best idea for businesses.”
At the live event in Johannesburg, the conference opened with the CEO of the IMC, Dale Hefer, who stressed that marketers need to adopt a business mindset, insisting that marketing’s role is no longer peripheral but must be central to overall business strategy.
On the day, Nedbank group chief executive, Jason Quinn, also gave insights from a CEO perspective by reminding marketers their work must be seen as central to business growth. He reflected on how marketing has evolved from being a back-office function concerned with advertisements to being a critical driver of trust, brand equity and long-term value.Quinn cautioned against the common tendency for companies to cut marketing when times are tough, asking pointedly whether reducing visibility and customer engagement could ever truly solve business challenges.