Ahead of Nedbank IMC 2026, CEO Dale Hefer breaks down the skills that will separate the next generation of marketing leaders from the rest
Katlego Sekhu
Marketing leaders are being asked to do more than land campaigns. They’re expected to manage a growing list of platforms, prove financial impact, and now factor artificial intelligence into strategy, all while an increasingly vocal, critical Gen Z audience is quick to call out anything that doesn’t ring true.
Kaya BIZ with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Dale Hefer, CEO and Founder of Nedbank IMC, ahead of the 2026 conference, themed Shift Happens™, about the capabilities that will define the next generation of marketing leadership.
Her answer wasn’t a list of new tools. It was a return to fundamentals, paired with a sharper read on community.
AI rewards what you already have
Hefer is blunt about where AI fits into the skill set. “If you put a bad brand into AI, it’s not going to spit out a better one at the other end,” she said. An unethical brand won’t be fixed by a chatbot either.
For Hefer, the capability marketing leaders need most isn’t AI fluency, it’s discipline: research, careful testing, and a clear understanding of what makes a brand different. Too many people, she noted, struggle to answer a simple question when asked to name their unique selling point on the spot.
Community over campaigns
The other capability Hefer flagged is a shift away from broad, global thinking toward community-building. She pointed to a Nedbank IMC 2026 speaker, the CMO of KFC India, whose message is to abandon global marketing in favour of speaking to specific cultures, a trend she sees accelerating across Africa.
“The antidote to change is community,” Hefer said. With the average person active on six social platforms a month, and Gen Z quick to challenge anything that feels inauthentic, marketing leaders need the skill to build and understand real communities, not just reach bigger audiences.
Proving the spend
Marketing has always had to compete for budget and boardroom credibility. According to Hefer, the leaders who win that fight next won’t be the ones with the newest tools. They’ll be the ones who master the oldest skills, applied to a much noisier world.
Hefer also flags measurement as a skill many marketing leaders still lack. Proving the effectiveness of marketing spend “has always been a bit of a grey area,” she said, even as the industry passed one trillion dollars in global advertising spend last year. The leaders who earn a genuine seat at the boardroom table, in her view, will be the ones who can quantify marketing’s impact in financial terms, not just creative ones.
Marketing has always had to compete for budget and boardroom credibility. According to Hefer, the leaders who win that fight next won’t be the ones with the newest tools. They’ll be the ones who master the oldest skills, applied to a much noisier world, and can prove it.
Hear the full interview with Dale Hefer on Kaya BIZ with Gugulethu Mfuphi.
Nedbank IMC 2026 takes place on 17 September at the Mosaic Theatre, with Kaya 959 as official radio partner.
