Daily Maverick Marketing Masterclass Season 3 After two successful seasons, the Daily Maverick Marketing Masterclass is back with a third season, titled “We’re Picking Fights”, inviting honest debate on six tough questions.
The series is hosted by Daily Maverick in partnership with eatbigfish Africa, the Association for Communication & Advertising (ACA) and the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA).
Season 1 laid the foundation; Season 2 addressed the discipline’s most pressing challenges, from building brand power and creating value perceptions, to using humour for impact and breaking through clutter. Both seasons drew 400-600 marketers, strategists and business owners per session.
Season 3 adopts a new format whereby each episode is a structured live debate facilitated by David Blyth, founder of Delta Victor Bravo (representing eatbigfish in Africa). Debates will open with a provocation, feature two panellists arguing their positions, and will also invite audience participation through live questions and polling.
“For two seasons we have informed and equipped. This time, we want to provoke debate,” says David Blyth.
The six sessions will address:
- AI – Marketing’s Multiplier or its Executioner? (11 June): When every brand uses the same generative tools, trained on the same data, where does competitive advantage go? And who trains the next generation of marketers once AI has automated the entry-level job?
- The Procurement Paradox – Critical Gatekeeper or Growth Blocker? (25 June): Procurement exists to drive efficiency and manage risk; marketing exists to create disproportionate value. The two aren’t naturally aligned. What is that tension actually costing South African brands?
- Brand Love – Do Customers Really Care About Your Brand? (9 July): The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s research suggests that people buy what they remember and can find, not what they love. If that’s true, what exactly has the industry been selling its clients for the past 20 years?
- Marketing’s Moral Blind Spot – Can Selling be Inherently Harmful? (23 July): We market sugar, gambling, alcohol and ultra-processed food brilliantly, often to the people least able to absorb the harm. When does professional competence become a problem, and what should the industry do about it?
- The Great Restructure – Which Agency Model Works Best for Our Times? (6 August): In-house teams are swelling, traditional agencies are shrinking and fractional CMOs are multiplying. We’re rebuilding the marketing supply chain at speed, with no agreement on what a better model actually looks like; and
- The Invisible Heist – Where Does Your Media Money Actually Go? (20 August): Global research suggests 40% to 60% of programmatic ad budgets never reach a viewable human impression, lost to bot traffic, made-for-advertising sites and undisclosed fees. In South Africa, nobody has run the audit. Should that worry you?
The debates are grounded in real evidence, industry reports and also draw on CMO discussions alongside questions arising from Season 2.
Diarise and register
Sessions run every second Thursday from 11 June to 20 August 2026, from 12:00 to 13:00. Each 60-minute session opens with a five-minute introduction, followed by a 30-minute debate, 15 minutes of audience Q&A and a 10-minute close. Sessions are hosted online and registration is open now at events.dailymaverick.co.za.
Earn CPD points
Attendees can earn 6 CPD points at CMSA Level per masterclass session in the Marketing category. AMSA & MPSA designated members are also eligible to attend and claim these points.
How to claim your points:
- Attend and complete: After each session, a Google Form will be linked alongside the webinar recording;
- Submit for evidence: Completing this form acts as your official evidence of attendance. Upon completion, you will be provided with the specific CPD approval number corresponding to that session; and
- Upload to MASA: You must submit this confirmation and the relevant approval number below onto your CPD record cards for MASA. Please ensure the code used matches the specific session attended.
Session approval codes:
- Session 1 (11 June): MA DB 26001
- Session 2 (25 June): MA DB 26002
- Session 3 (9 July): MA DB 26003
- Session 4 (23 July): MA DB 26004
- Session 5 (6 August): MA DB 26005
- Session 6 (20 August): MA DB 26006
About Daily Maverick
Founded in 2009, Daily Maverick is an independent national news and investigative journalism publisher.
Daily Maverick covers pressing issues across politics, business and the environment, providing in-depth reporting and insightful commentary on the topics affecting the lives of South Africans. With seven million unique browsers monthly, Daily Maverick is one of South Africa’s largest publishers and is available online and in a weekly print edition, DM168.
Its voluntary membership community programme is designed to keep journalism free for all, and it has a community of civic-minded readers who participate actively through contributions to ensure this access continues for all.
Founders: Branko Brkic, former editor-in-chief, and Styli Charalambous, CEO.
About eatbigfish
eatbigfish is a global strategic consultancy specialising in the challenger mindset for brands and business.
About MASA:
A successor to the old Society of Marketers (SOM) started in the 1950s, later the Association of South African Marketers (ASOM), and then the Marketing Federation of South Africa (MFSA) up to 2005, the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA) is the member association and professional body for the South African client-side marketing community and the representative voice for organisations and individuals in the client-side marketing industry.
As the representative voice for organisations and individuals within the South African client-side marketing industry, MASA is dedicated to advancing the professionalism of the entire South African marketing sector. MASA is active in leading and influencing transformation, policy, legislation, education and training, learning and development, and best practice on marketing and related business topics.
Further, it represents the business interests of client-side marketers, and promotes professional and ethical marketing practices, the adoption of common standards, self-regulation and commercial, interest-free, independent and credible marketing industry research.
MASA is also focused on marketing skills development. It seeks to provide leadership, support and mentorship, and is the South African Qualifications Authority-accredited custodian and issuer of the Chartered Marketer, Marketing Practitioner and Associate Marketer designations in South Africa.
MASA also plays a major role within the South African Marketing, Advertising and Communications industry body ecosystem and is a founder member and provides policy direction on the main boards of organisations such as the Advertising Regulatory Board, the Marketing Research Foundation and the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
For more information, visit www.marketingsa.co.za
About the ACA
The Association for Communication & Advertising is the official representative body of South Africa’s advertising and communications profession.
Ranked among the world’s leaders in creativity and media innovation, our member agencies are consistently flying the creative flag locally and internationally. In fact, an inspiring number of South Africans are at the helm of some of the world’s most celebrated agencies and agency groups.
The Association for Communication and Advertising South Africa is a voluntary organisation formed both by, and for, the profession. Our members are committed to fostering trust between marketers and agencies and transforming the advertising and communications industry at large. The aim is clear: to positively influence and impact the professional and operational standards of all South African agencies.
Through engagement, debate and collective agreement, we are united in our quest to continually build the standards of a profession we are deeply passionate about. DM