"Be brave. Be kind. Believe."
Be brave. Be kind. Believe. This was the message from Charl Bassil, chief brand officer of BBC.
He presented Reimagining the iconic as a keynote speaker at the Nedbank IMC Conference 2025 that took place on 18 September at the Mosaiek Teatro in Fairland, Randburg.
Be brave, he says, means to confront what needs to be confronted and what needs to be brought to be broguht to the fore and to be honest.
By being kind, he says, this is what we need most in the world. "Algorithms are holding people in their corners. Our job in business, particularly in marketing, is to be kind. Kind to our audience, kind to our consumer, to one another and to oneself."
Lastly, he says we need to believe. "Believe in yourself. "
He adds that Africa has the potential to shape the world through its culture. "Our job is to shape culture. Not to borrow from culture, we are shaping culture. We don't realise the opportunities we have with our platforms to shape culture positively.
"Believe in yourselves, believe in the future, believe we can shape culture positively."
The #NedbankIMC Marketing is Business conference took place on Thursday, 18 September 2025 at Mosaiek Teatro, Johannesburg. Bizcommunity was proud to be a media partner for the stellar lineup of international and local experts who shared their knowledge with 3,000 delegates who attended virtually and in person. Bizcommunity Managing editor Danette Breitenbach was on the ground to interview some of the speakers who included Charl Bassil, CBO, BBC; Bryony Rose, YEXT; Vaughan Croeser, VP Marketing, ABinBEV; Ryan Sauer, CEO Redwood Analytics; Stacy Jane Saggers, Kantar Insights Division; Melusi Mhulngu CEO, We are Bizarre; and others speaking on marketing trends from from data dashboards, to how culture drives revenue growth, how 42% of the world's youth will be in Africa by 2030, how Africa can get a competitive advantage with AI, data and tech and creative leadership.