The physical debate was held between a select group of Cape Town's top bloggers, ad agency and PR heads, chaired by Nikki Cockcroft, chairwoman of the DMMA, and hosted and facilitated by Suzanne Little, DMMA Head of Marketing. However, the debate extended to the online world as well, with the #DMMAdebate hashtag trending in SA on Twitter before the day was out.
According to ORM company BrandsEye, the two hour debate resulted in:
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The consensus following the event was that no definitive rule regarding the payment of bloggers would be able to be established from a credibility perspective and each scenario would need to be assessed on an individual basis. Those in the marketing space agreed that each portal was different and that bloggers needed to be approached with a clear outcome in mind. Bloggers, PR representatives and advertising agency heads were given the opportunity to connect and understand what is expected of each other in these circumstances, ultimately resulting in a better relationship going forward.
Although there was no concrete conclusion drawn from the debate, it did open the channels of communication between the respective parties and assisted in providing a deeper understanding of the various roles.
The DMMA has collated all the questions that arose during the debate and via Twitter and formulated an informal survey for bloggers to share their opinions. A report detailing the findings of the survey will subsequently be distributed to DMMA members. Bloggers interested in adding their voice to the informal South African digital research survey can complete the questionnaire and submit their answers.
The DMMA is offering a free one-year trial membership to bloggers with less than 15 000 unique browsers a month. For more about membership email az.oc.ammd@ofni.
