Author StopPress Team

Low-alcohol beers, wines and ciders are growing in popularity, due to a combination of changing drink driving rules, more concern about the health impacts of drinking and changing social attitudes to overt drunkenness. So far there have been a range of approaches used by the booze companies to sell their lower-potency wares, from DB Export’s comical surgeon, to Heineken’s Light Club or Brancott Estate’s Flight. But this bold approach to advertising zero alcohol beer spotted in Nishiki restaurant in Auckland stands out as one of the most creative. As it says: “Looks like a real beer. It’s beery beery yummy!!” They grow up so fast.

Church Road Winery, The New Zealand Blood Service, 2degrees and ANZ step up to the podium this week.

With a plethora of platforms in the market, New Zealand’s media climate is experiencing some seismic shifts. Here’s PwC’s latest research on the various platforms and how they are performing in the country.

Haier, with Sherson Willis, is testing the truth behind the saying ‘men are from Mars and women are from Venus’ by watching Urzila Carlson and Pete and Andy tackle household tasks in the ‘#HaierHomeHack series’.

Climate change will be the problem of future generations if adults fail to act now, according to a new campaign by the Ontario Government.

Japanese Baseball fans got a fright as two of the country’s most well-known horror characters took to the field to promote the upcoming Sadako vs Kayako, a mash up of The Ring and The Grudge.

The All Blacks ended its 21-year sponsorship with Coca-Cola in January this year and teamed up with Pepsi, aligning itself with its subsidiary Gatorade as its hydration partner. A new ad has been released celebrating the partnership (which features a very serious Sam Cane).

With all this news of mergers, there’s a new hashtag in town, ‘#nzmergerbot’, and the possibilities are endless. Here are a few of our favourites.

Getty Images wants New Zealanders to release their creative flair in its ‘Let’s make something with video’ competition.

‘Meanwhile in… New Zealand’, Kiwi kids are enjoying winter ice cream up Mt Hutt according to Air New Zealand’s latest installment of its long running campaign, which is an effort to encourage Australians to take advantage of daily flights to Christchurch.

A round of applause to Sovereign, Wendy’s and Kiwibank.

​For those who hate waiting rooms, the elevator type music and year old magazines, ZocDoc, an online medical care scheduling service, has found a solution in virtual reality.

Wonder what the future will look like? Hyper-Reality, a short film, takes a look into the crystal ball to reveal a world in which technology envelopes every aspect of human life.

Mary Meeker, a venture capitalist from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has gained a reputation as something of a tech oracle as a result of her famed Internet Trend Reports. She has been sharing educated views and revealing data on how technology is changing the world, transforming markets and offering new business opportunities since 2001. And here are some of our favourite slides from this year’s presentation.

Vancouver real-estate agent Patricia Houlihan gave herself super powers and has gone viral in the process.

​If you’re looking for a tangible metaphor of the fragmentation in media, look no further than the 2 Cheap Cars billboard currently on show in Auckland. The company’s single billboard has been split into three disparate sections, creating a completely disjointed message.

Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.

Sovereign has launched a health age generator to promote its health insurance loyalty programme, which gives Kiwis an idea of their ‘health age’ as determined by their lifestyle choices. And to draw attention to the initiative it’s brought aboard a Weta visual effects artist to show the health age of three people with different lifestyles.

Many marketers are struggling in managing the mass of content that they are required to publish across media channels, according to a new global study from Accenture. Of the 1,078 senior marketers surveyed across 17 countries, 53 percent said that they spend more time on operational details—including, but not limited to, requirements documentation, securing legal and leadership approval and content tagging—rather than core marketing and branding activities. And Kiwi brands are facing many of the same issues.

Take a bow House of Travel, Huggies and Cheers.

House of Travel has teamed up with ColensoBBDO, Exit Films and Zenith Optimedia, to remind Kiwis about the importance of getting the best holiday experience for the best value. ‘The best holidays are created together’ reflects the way its consultants collaborate with customers to create moments that people will remember forever.