Author StopPress Team

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

Whether it’s a tipi, a treehouse or a big boot, there are plenty of strange Airbnb rentals available. But a spot in a stadium is one we haven’t seen before. That’s what Airbnb and NZ Rugby have done to celebrate the Bledisloe Cup Match on August 15, with a competition offering four people the chance to win an overnight stay in a remodelled, All Blacks-themed box. PLUS: Airbnb’s new ad and the ensuing parodies.

Shoplifters are the scourge of retailers and, according to Retail NZ, theft from customers and staff was costing local businesses $1 billion a year in 2013. But Harvey Nichols has decided to put the kleptos to good use for an ad campaign that uses real CCTV footage spliced with villainous cartoon heads for a campaign offering customers legal freebies.

In a bid to assist mothers who have heard the Frozen soundtrack once too many times but don’t really want navigate the online catalogues of children’s music, Pandora has teamed up with Huggies to develop a radio station dedicated to musical tastes of the youngest of young’uns.

Big data is being hyped by pretty much every marketer at the moment. But the phrase itself has for some time been a bit of a misnomer, because what we understand as ‘big data’ can these days be carried around in a flash drive smaller than pen. As it turns out, this hasn’t always been the case. In its early days, data storage quite literally necessitated a big solution. Pictures taken in 1956 illustrate just how burdensome it was for IBM to transport the now measly 3.75 megabytes of storage space.

As evidenced by the Shot on iPhone 6 campaign, or GoPro’s range of impressive clips, just because a camera is small and relatively inexpensive doesn’t mean it can’t shoot good quality video. And LG has aimed to prove that with a new campaign that uses its new G4 smartphone to cover four crafty Kiwi businesses in glory.

The first edition of the FIFA video game series was released in 1993. Over the years, the annual release of the latest edition has become something of an event in the gaming community, with aficionados of the franchise eagerly awaiting the updated version of the game. In all the years since the launch of the first edition of the game, various biggest football stars of the moment have appeared on the cover to entice sports fans to make the purchase. And this year, for the first time, the coveted cover feature a woman as US forward Alexandra Morgan will share the space with Argentine forward Lionel Messi in the US version of the game. Australia and Canada will also follow suit, featuring Steph Catley and Christine Sinclair respectively.

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

Upon the launch of the alcohol-free TAP bar in Auckland recently, we wondered how far other bars and restaurants go around the world in order to stand out. And there were some truly bizarre hospitality joints. A bathroom-themed restaurant? Check. A natural-disaster-themed café? Check. A bar where monkeys serve you? Check.

To promote the Samsung Smart TV range, Grey Argentina registered the domain name lgsmarttv.tv. And in doing so, came to the realisation that .tv doesn’t stand for television as they initially thought. It’s actually the domain address for the small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Having serendipitously been made aware of the existence of the island, the creatives at the agency centred the entire campaign on the island, drawing attention to how its very existence was threatened by climate change.

This week Bloggersclub.com launched a temp division for social media management called Social Media Mentors aimed to give brands that “extra pair of hands” needed to voice themselves, and though its only early days, there has been plenty of interest so far.

Given the growing willingness of Kiwis to pick the fruits offered by international e-commerce, NZ Post has developed YouPost as a means to enable shoppers to get their hands on items even if the stores don’t deliver to New Zealand. And to promote the offering, the organisation has now released a 45-second TVC that tells the story of Dan, a stringed instrument enthusiast, who managed to get his hands on a rare banjo even though the store, located in New Orleans, didn’t deliver to New Zealand.

For better or worse, the gravitational pull of the mobile phone has become remarkably strong. That has its drawbacks, of course, and, in a recent US study on nomophobia, the clinical description for the fear of being out of mobile contact, 63 percent of respondents said they checked their phone for messages or calls once an hour, nine percent said they checked their phone every five minutes and 63 percent said they would be upset if they left home without their smartphone. Now Spark is ensuring that those tethered to their phones don’t have to shower without them either after announcing a prototype dock designed to work with Sony’s new waterproof Xperia M4 Aqua.

Today Spark Home, Mobile and Business appointed Clive Ormerod as its new general manager of marketing.

In response to the high number of pedestrian deaths caused when people cross the road while wearing their headphones, Spotify has introduced a new feature in some markets that spots the streaming service’s mobile app from playing music when the listener approaches dangerous intersections. By tapping into the iBeacon technology installed at some of the worst intersections, the app is able to adjust the volume of the music when needed. In doing so, the app causes the Spotify user to pay attention and exercise caution when crossing the road.

Trade Me Jobs, the New Zealand Heart Foundation, Lotto Powerball, Adidas and Pak ‘n Save share a crowded winners’ platform this week.

Vimeo has long been lauded as the go-to platform for discerning filmmakers and serious creatives who want to share their work. Now, it’s teamed up with technology giant Samsung to produce a video series that explores the ideas and infinite meanings of connection and “examines the human relationship with technology”.