Author StopPress Team

Anchor recently released a black milk bottle to differentiate itself in the aisle (and show its support for the All Blacks, because nothing else matters and because it got back together with the national team after an 80-ish year delay). We cast our eye to the darkest corners of the internet to find some other dairy-based promotions attempting to stand out. They say dairy gives you weird dreams, so perhaps these marketers overdosed on the products they were attempting to sell.

As the All Blacks depart to defend the Webb Ellis cup in the UK, the nation is gearing up for a few weeks of early morning code watching. It’s obviously a pretty big deal for a rugby-loving nation and, as we saw during the Cricket World Cup, the clicks are likely to follow. But the Herald might be taking it a bit far with the branding of its rugby hub, which is sponsored by—who else?—Steinlager. Syrian refugee crisis? Pfffffff.

Kiwibank’s general manager of brand and communications Nicky Ashton is one of the many big brains speaking at the NZ Marketing Summit on Thursday September 17 at Skycity. Ahead of the event, which is split into four streams—brand, digital, data and live—we asked her a few questions.

Streaming content is a hot topic at the moment. Companies like Netflix, Lightbox and Neon are all fighting for share, the telcos are signing up content deals left, right and centre, YouTube is still growing rapidly (and Facebook isn’t far behind with its auto-play option), and traditional free-to-air, ad-funded broadcasters are upping their game to try and compete. But the latest arrival in this already crowded market has come from an unlikely source: Family First.

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

SelfieJobs, a Stockholm-based startup, is shaking up the recruitment industry with an app that approaches recruitment and job hunting in much the same way that millennials are going about dating. The app requires users to pitch a 22-second pitch video and then swipe through available jobs in their region.

In an effort to draw attention to continued murder of humanitarian aid workers, Action Against Hunger has released a moving campaign that features a young boy called Barrack Obama calling on world leaders to provide support to the aid workers who are trying their best to feed those caught up in the misery of war.

Trendsetters trade on being early adopters, whether it’s fashion, technology or creative pursuits. And, in a world where social media has become so important, sharing something before it goes viral has become a form of social validation (check out Kevin Alloca’s TED Talk for a look at some of the reasons). Now Spotify has launched a tool called Found Them First, which shows you how many artists you streamed before they hit the bigtime.

According to Wikipedia, “at least some of the workers who built the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs received paid sick leave as well as state-supported health care”. And ever since 1500 BC, employees who understandably love the idea of getting paid while doing absolutely no work have been claiming they’re ill and taking days off. Now Destination Queenstown is incentivising that behaviour and has enlisted the help of Australian comedian Dan Ilic to teach his countryfolk how to squeeze in a sneaky spring ski trip.

When we think about going on holiday often our imagination kicks in. We might picture ourselves on some luscious tropical island, lying on the beach, pina colada in hand, listening to the soothing sound of rolling waves or maybe even off on some big adventure, backpacking across Europe or Asia perhaps. Well, now Contiki is giving prospective travellers the opportunity to truly envision a travel adventure, with the use of virtual reality technology.

While there’s plenty of excitement about the possibilities of immersive virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR at the moment, sometimes the simplest innovations are the best and Google Cardboard, which combines mobile phones and the act of folding to create inexpensive virtual reality goggles, is definitely in that category. Google has made its design open source and while Kellogg’s and shopper marketing and digital activation agency Geometry Global NZ have taken inspiration from this technology and, in what it says is a first for the New Zealand grocery market, turned a box of Nutri-Grain into a virtual reality experience.

Rugby rash is spreading quickly among the marketing community, with tournament sponsors, team sponsors and filthy ambushers all riding that World Cup train like Tom Cruise in an action movie. We’ve already seen plenty of local activity and here are a few from the host countries.

Being a master in the kitchen requires a bit of creativity – a sprig of this and a pinch of that. IKEA has transferred this idea to its buy and assemble model in its new quirky ad, which shows the core ingredients it takes to create a tasty kitchen.

The New Zealand Defence Force, Western Sydney University, Farmers and Bayleys step up to the podium this week.

Whether its the release of the latest version of Call of Duty or a news report on a war, the representation of the military in popular culture is regularly limited to shooting an assault rifle at some or other enemy. And yet, particularly in the New Zealand context, the role of military personnel is more often associated with helping those in need, whether local or abroad—and herein lies the primary focus of Saatchi & Saatchi’s new campaign for the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF). Featuring scenarios based on real experiences in the forces complemented with behind-the-scenes online films explaining more of the story behind each event, the new campaign makes the point that helping comes naturally to Kiwis. And this message is particularly pertinent at a time when the Syrian crisis is the focus point of local and international debate.

Subway has released a new campaign via Ripe Solutions about how you get out of your body what you put in, as well a ‘Sub builder’ an online calculator tool designed to help Kiwis make healthier decisions around their sub fillings. Along with a new ad, Subway is also giving consumers some good—albeit obvious— advice via its new slogan, ‘Eat well, go live life’.

Visible across almost every media channel, the name Annabel Langbein has become a brand in its own right. We chat to the woman behind it to find out how she created a media empire that now has its eye on the US market.

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

VNO has launched a thermo label on its white wines that that tells the consumer when it’s the correct temperature for drinking. And to give its thermo-labelled wine some personality, it’s released a radio ad where the wine is personified by a breathy, sultry man urging the VNO owner to drink the wine.