Be a leader, not a follower

First up, James Barty, one half of the driving force behind the King James agency, suggests that a clear distinction should be made between the message and the medium. As with any other communication platform, the same principle applies in the digital world - the idea rules.

He also cautions against following trends. In essence what this means is that by the time a trend is identified its already old hat, fresh ideas are the trailblazers that will grab the attention of the consumer.

"Big, hairy, audacious ideas are what move people to change their behaviour. Tech is not the idea, it's the enabler, and as the mechanism, it should not be a distraction," he explains.

On the other hand, Barty adds, sometimes the unsexy stuff is the most effective.

Necessity's the mother of invention

Based on the thought that most great ideas are often a result of finding a solution for a common problem, Uber has grown from an e-commerce taxi service into genie-like service where your wishes are granted on demand.

Patrick Studener, international launcher for Uber, says the company started out by developing an app that connected party goers in San Francisco looking for a ride home with cabs in the area. Like all good ideas, this service has taken on a life of its own and is now available in more than 20 countries, with South Africa being a recent addition to this list.

Uber clearly works on the premise that anything is possible, and often develops services that spring from suggestions by its employees, however unlikely they may sound, such as its on-demand ice cream delivery service.

"The creative angle is to do something exciting that will have people jumping out of their seats. If it's a great product, they will use it again," Studener says.

Now, say it with meaning

An idea must have meaning is the message from Laura Jordan-Bambach, the new creative partner at Mr President agency in the UK and one of the international judges for The Bookmarks 2013.

The vision of the agency, redubbed Mrs President in Bambach's honour, is: "We don't want to create sh*t for the sake of sh*t. We don't want to make anything that doesn't leave a mark; it must have a purpose." She emphasises that in the realm of social investment, such projects shouldn't just be used to appease the corporate conscience, but must rather change behaviour.

But, at the same time, she makes it clear that campaigns must still sell the product for the client.

Bambach cites one of the entrants in The Bookmarks, the Ke Yona campaign to build a soccer team from hopefuls from disadvantaged backgrounds to play in the Nedbank Cup, as a prime example of how this concept should work.

Within the industry, she was also instrumental in creating the Cannt Festival, as opposed to the Cannes, which is a fun advertising awards acknowledging the agency's backroom boys and girls, who don't get the recognition at the more glitzy ceremonies.

Another brainchild of Bambach's is SheSays, an organisation aimed at getting more women to the top of the advertising world through free mentorship and networking events.

Making converts

Judging by its omnipresent advertising across both digital and more traditional media, on-line fashion retailer, Zando, is determined to slice out a large piece of the South African e-commerce pie for itself.

According to Sascha Breuss, managing director for Zando South Africa, although the idea of a large-scale on-line shopping platform in South Africa is still relatively new compared to other markets, 90% of the country uses social media, which means this usage is likely to evolve into e-commerce.

He backs this up with research that indicates that 66% of South African internet users already consider themselves on-line shoppers, proving they are early adapters.

The Zando profile shows that most of the visitors to its page are metropolitan females between 25 and 39, which is pretty much the universal norm as they are the ones who shop for the whole family.

Bruess believes that what gives the Zando offering the edge is its high level of client service such as fast free delivery and a free return service.

It's also about the tools

Digital space entrepreneur, Dana Buys says that big ideas come with big change.

He started his love affair with computers and programming back in the day when the former were as big as dinosaurs and had equally tiny brains. But they were the catalyst for changing the face of doing business forever.

His thoughts on starting a new digital business are that you must understand the need you aim to meet better than your competitors, as well as identifying the business model and the structure (physical offices or operating in the virtual space) that best suits that model.

He's a big fan of the Cloud and is currently involved in Tallorder, a mobile waiter- and self-service app that improves the efficacy of ordering in restaurants, and Pageman, an affordable media device for businesses of all sizes.

The Bookmarks 2013 culminates in a gala awards ceremony tonight, where all the winners will be announced.