South Africa, June 2 -- A session that captured this particularly well was titled Who Owns Trust Now? Retail in the Age of Fragmented Platforms. It pointed to a world where many of the platforms that retailers rely on to reach customers are fragmenting, becoming politicised, and losing trust.

The implication for marketing leaders is uncomfortable but clarifying; trust can't be outsourced to third-party channels, and it can't be solved by creativity alone.

It has to be baked into the way brands collect, use and protect customer data.

For South African CMOs in FMCG and retail, these global insights land in the very local reality of PoPIA and its steadily tightening approach to privacy and direct marketing compliance.

South Africa is uni...