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Marketing Café is an event where leading marketers meet in a refreshing and inspiring space for marketing professionals to connect, exchange ideas, and learn from some of South Africa’s top marketing and CX experts. Set in a cosy café-style setting, the event brought together 200 marketers from across industries, encouraging the growth of both personal and professional networks through engaging conversations and thought leadership.
Over freshly brewed coffee, sweet treats, and after-work drinks, attendees explored a range of relevant and trending industry topics designed to spark fresh thinking and boost marketing skills. The unique, relaxed environment allowed teams to step out of the office and into an atmosphere that fostered meaningful dialogue, creativity, and actionable insights to take back to their businesses.
Proud Gold Sponsors with HubSpot
We were thrilled to be part of Marketing Café JHB 2025 as a Gold Sponsor alongside our valued partner, HubSpot. This dynamic event brought together some of the brightest minds in marketing and CX, and we were proud to support such a powerful platform for connection, learning, and innovation.
Sharing the stage with incredible sponsors like MoEngage, HelloKindred, dentsu, Netcore Cloud, Simone Zanetti AI, and PX ProductionX made the experience even more memorable.
Event themes and panel discussion topics
Marketing Café JHB explored a range of thought-provoking themes that reflect the evolving landscape of modern marketing. One key focus was the balance between performance marketing and brand building, as well as aligning marketing strategies with broader business goals to achieve both immediate wins and long-term growth.
Attendees gained valuable insights into multi-channel marketing strategies designed to maximise impact, and how to effectively measure and communicate ROI to showcase marketing’s true value. There was also a strong emphasis on understanding and connecting with Gen Z and future generations, alongside the growing importance of customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) working in harmony.
The event highlighted the exciting potential of human-AI synergy, revealing how marketers can harness both data and creativity to drive results. Discussions also tackled the pros and cons of agency vs. in-house marketing, the shifting role of the future marketing professional, and the need for seamless collaboration between marketing, data, and compliance teams. Finally, the power of personalisation and customisation in today’s hyper-targeted world served as a reminder that marketing must remain both strategic and human at its core.
Speakers
The Marketing Café 2025 speaker line-up was nothing short of powerhouse perfection. From C-suite leaders to visionary creatives, 40 top-tier professionals, from banking, retail, and fintech to telecommunications, media, and automotive industries. Attendees were treated to insights from Chief Marketing Officers, Heads of Growth, Strategy Executives, CEOs, and even a PhD-holding change-makers, all offering fresh perspectives on the future of marketing, customer experience, digital transformation, and data-driven creativity.
With thought leaders from brands like Tyme Bank, MTN, Investec, Samsung, Woolworths, Sir Juice, Mazda, Absa, Standard Bank, DStv, PepsiCo, and more, the event showcased the incredible spectrum of marketing excellence across South Africa.
MO Agency's CEO Panel Discussion with Mazda South Africa and Altron
MO Agency’s CEO, Luke Marthinusen led a panel discussion, exploring marketing automation and hyper-personalisation with Deolinda from Mazda South Africa and Marisa from Altron.
Their time on stage was dedicated to discussing and unpacking Mazda South Africa and Altron’s approach to digital transformation and highlighted key challenges and successes. The biggest lesson was that messy data cannot be fixed by automation—it only exacerbates the problem. Common struggles included disconnected data, resistance to change, and gaining leadership support. The hardest hurdle was securing leadership buy-in and upskilling teams to ensure effective implementation of HubSpot.
Success came from selecting the right system for their needs rather than the most well-known option, ensuring proper CRM adoption, building strong partnerships, and prioritising quality leads over quantity. When considering CRM or marketing automation, the key takeaway is clear: technology doesn’t transform businesses—people do.
Panel Discussion Highlights:
- “It was a challenging process bringing data from 7 businesses together” - Marisa from Altron when discussing how Altron consolidates systems to get a single view of data.
- We don’t just sell metal and wheels, we sell cars that suit a lifestyle” - Deolinda from Mazda South Africa on purpose-led personalisation.
- Change is daunting when it comes to centralising your data. It’s about managing people and systems. You can have the best tools like CDPs and CRM systems . . . but if they don’t work . . . “Fewer leads, but better quality leads” - Luke Marthinusen from MO Agency
MO Agency Team Event Highlights That Have Inspired Action:
Tyla, Digital Strategist
Tyla’s standout speaker at Marketing Café was Alex Corin, Head of Growth at Tyme Bank, who delivered an inspiring session on Unlocking Creative Potential: Techniques for Effective Brainstorming in Marketing. His talk reframed the way we think about idea generation—highlighting that brainstorming is not about finding solutions, but about exploring possibilities. Key insights included the importance of separating idea generation from judgement, the value of framing to see the bigger picture, and the power of encouraging bold, even wild, ideas that build off one another to spark true innovation.
For Tyla, Alex’s presentation was a powerful reminder that creativity flourishes in the right environment—an environment we have the ability to design. She has been encouraged to adopt a “yes, and” mentality, which has opened the door to more original, exciting marketing concepts that stand out in a crowded landscape.
Petrumarie, Business Development Management
Petrumarie’s standout speaker at Marketing Café was Dr Ntombi Mhangwani (PhD), who delivered a powerful session on Cultivating Leadership: A Blueprint for Developing Future-Ready Marketers. Her energy was electric, leaving a lasting impression with the audience and sharing invaluable insights. Key takeaways included the importance of truly understanding cross-departmental conversations—especially in the boardroom—and not just nodding along. She encouraged marketers to embrace change, up-skill continuously, and recognise that innovation starts with mindset.
This has inspired Petrumarie to make a commitment to attend more webinars and invest in her growth to become future fit.
Calvin, CRM and Sales Enablement Lead
One of Calvin’s standout moments from the event was a captivating talk by Simone Zanetti, Founder of the Zanetti AI Institute. He demonstrated the immense potential of AI in marketing through a live showcase of customised AI "bots". The demo illustrated how various AI tools can be seamlessly integrated to form a collaborative team of bots—designed to streamline and supercharge everyday workflows.
Inspired by this, Calvin developed his own GPT to support a particularly challenging part of client onboarding in HubSpot: data importing.
Callie, Digital Marketer
Callie’s most memorable presentation was when Helene Locke from Sir Juice delivered an inspiring talk on "Fail Fast, Learn Fast". Emphasising that innovation is key to future-proofing businesses. She encouraged creating a “burning platform” to drive change and embrace mistakes as a competitive advantage.
This has pushed Callie to take on new challenges at work with the mindset of “if you fail, you’ve learnt something new”. What better way to dive into new challenges and pick up new skills at the same time?
The Wrap Up
Marketing Café 2025 was more than just an event, it was a gathering for inspiration, growth, and action. As proud Gold Sponsors alongside HubSpot, MO Agency was honoured to contribute to a space that provoked innovation, connection, and future-ready thinking. From expert-led discussions to meaningful takeaways that sparked real change within our team, the event reinforced that the future of marketing lies in collaboration, bold ideas, and the people behind them. We left energised, empowered, and excited for what’s next.
