Seven ways to make e-marketing work in a tough economy
[Guy Maser] In a challenging economy, you must find new ways to make marketing work more effectively, get more out of marketing investments, and measure and account for marketing decisions. In short, you must make changes.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Southern Africa unveils single tourism brand
The 2010 Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) brand has been unveiled by nine Southern African countries at Durban's Tourism Indaba 2008 in a bid to encourage tourism in these countries.

ZEC says run-off vote could take place soon
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Deputy Chief of Operations Utoile Silaigwana on Sunday said the presidential run-off vote could take place soon, possibly before 23 May. Silaigwana said the Electoral Act allowed the run-off to be held within 21 days if candidates failed to get 50% of votes. The MDC, which had been threatening to boycott the run-off, has changed its stance. MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai appealed to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other observers to oversee the second round election amid political violence that had flared up in Manicaland and Mashonaland ahead of the poll. The two parties, which were neck and neck in parliamentary polls, refused to entertain forming a coalition government after MDC ended the 28-year majority of Zanu PF in Parliament. - BuaNews

Government bans issue of French weekly
The Algerian government banned the distribution of the 4 May 2008 issue of the Paris-based news weekly Jeune Afrique, which has an article on the local region of Kabylie.

UGANDA

Warid unveils first mobile customer care service units
[Walter Wafula] Warid Telecom has unveiled four new advanced mobile customer care vans dubbed “Warid On Wheels” (WOW), with an aim to deliver mobile telephony service assistance to its subscribers.

B2B in a Web 2.0 world, Part 1: Digital media relations
[Ned Madden] It used to be so simple. A public relations specialist would send press releases to the major papers, make some calls, and read his client's news in the paper the next day. However, the emergence of Web 2.0 means the entire PR game has changed.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Counterfeit products flood Malawi market
[Gregory Gondwe] The Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) has lamented that fake products have besieged the market and the responsible authority has been left helpless in the absence of a regulating piece of legislation.

ZIMBABWE

Importers abandon merchandise as duty payments soar
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwean importers were caught off guard last week after customs duty payments went up by almost 6,700% following the floatation of Zimbabwe's domestic currency on the official market.

Banks back the Africa Investor Nigeria Projects Summit
Africa Investor has announced its Nigeria Projects Summit has attracted record levels of support from leading Nigerian financial institutions at a press conference held in Abuja. Sponsoring institutions include Zenith Bank, Vetiva Capital Management, Oceanic bank and Stanbic Ibtc Bank.

UGANDA

GTV adds new channels
[Walter Wafula] Kampala - Gateway Television (GTV) has increased the variety for pay-television consumers by adding three new channels to its menu: G Africa, G Series, and KidsCo.