The AAA Digital Marketing Academy is set to prepare and up-skill the marketing and communication industry for the growth in the use of digital media.

Worldwide trends are telling the story:

• The consumer’s trust in traditional advertising and PR is declining.
• Control of brands is shifting to the costumer.
• Customers are more likely to seek product advice online than from advertisements and corporate brochures.
• Over 50’s are the fastest growing group of social media users.

South Africa has been relatively insulated because of the poor connectivity and a static internet population. Over 5 million experienced internet users in the higher LSMs is a significant market. Mobile is already a major factor and the imminent bringing on stream of the new undersea cables and increased and probably cheaper bandwidth, should dramatically push up broadband usage.

At 38% year on year growth digital advertising was the fastest growing media type in South Africa during 2008 and advertising is only a part of a complete digital strategy.

Presidential no hoper Barack Obama was elected to the most powerful job in the world on the back of a digital marketing campaign.

In tough economic times marketers are looking for more measurable results.

I have no doubt that as a marketer you appreciate all this, but can you make it work and who are you going to turn to help, guidance and advice, who are you going get to plan our strategy and how are you going to implement it, and how qualified are the internet and social media marketing gurus?

AAA Digital Marketing Academy is designed to fill that gap. We intend to develop a corps of digital savvy strategists and marketers who don’t only understand the technology but more importantly how to deploy it in integrated communications campaigns.

I am privileged to be the initiator and director of the Academy.

We are initially offering two courses, but will continuously roll out more.

The foundation course is on Digital Strategy which covers the latest thinking on digital and social marketing and a knowledge of the tools available. This is a practical course which will provide an understanding of the field. We will then take each topic and cover it in more detail in a series of verticals courses designed to cover topics covered in the strategy course in depth and  providing actionable skills, graduates will be well equipped to implement campaigns.

The Google Adwords course is the first of the verticals to be rolled out, under the guidance of an industry expert who works with Adwords every day the participant will qualify for the theoretical part of Google GAP qualification. Other verticals will follow.

Nobody in advertising or marketing can afford not to know this stuff, and this is how to get the knowledge you need.

For more information go to AAA Digital Marketing Academy.

Pic from mushon on Flickr