Author StopPress Team

Not-for-profit organisation Bias has released a new campaign that has since 3 March bounced around the internet, collecting millions of views along the way. The short spot, which is based on the premise that we are all the same under our skins, shows several couples, who while dancing behind a giant X-ray screen are reduced to skeletal figures. When the couples step out from behind the screen, they are revealed as a diverse assortment of characters, illustrating that our biases and judgements are only skin deep.

Spark’s subscription video on-demand (SVOD) platform Lightbox has been experimenting with some marketing avenues, through the use of bloggers and social influencers in order to support its traditional media channels.

Ford has been giving Toyota a bit of grief in its advertising after sales of its Ranger topped those of the Hilux last year. And now it’s taking a swipe at a bunch of other car brands—and the ponces who drive them—with an ad for its new Territory SUV.

ASB is the latest brand to bask in the reflected glow of the All Blacks after its partnership with New Zealand Rugby was announced today. And, in celebration, the bank has rebranded for a day.

Samsung put on a big show for the launch of its new phones early this week. But just a few days before that showoffery we heard a story from the BBC about the environmental problems of a throwaway culture, the mining of rare earth minerals—and the mining of old phones—and the unwillingness of manufacturers to give plans to those who want to try and repair their broken products. So, rather than leaving a number of old phones festering in the bottom drawer, we decided to collect a few and hand them over to Starship. And this is what we found bursting out of an old Galaxy Note 2.

People who like new things were treated to the live-streamed unpacking of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And, instead of referencing its main competition Apple with its long-running ‘the next best thing is already here’ campaign, it’s changed its tune slightly, backed its more stylish metal and glass-laden phones and gone with the line ‘next is now’ for its early promotional clips.

In an ongoing series, StopPress chats to a few cerebral types in the industry on the expanding influence of digital technology and how agency life is changing in response to this. Last week, in the first edition of ‘Rise of the Machines’, we featured the creative perspective, and we now shift attention to the media side of the industry as we ask Jane Stanley, the PHD group strategy director and managing director of PHDIQ, a few questions.

The collection of screeds of data offers seemingly limitless possibilities, from lights that flash when your favourite teams scores to fridges that can order more milk to services that can tell us where a free park is. And many companies are trying to show what can be done with it all (GE’s Datalandia was one of our favourites). Sid Lee Paris has joined that club and, in conjunction with Arduino, set up 17 sensors that show exactly what goes on in its office.

Yesterday, Tinder launched its new paid version of the app, called Tinder Plus, which includes new features. But it isn’t showing the love to ‘older’ users, charging over-30s more to use the app.

Peruse enough mainstream news sites and you’re likely to eventually see the Getty Images label tagged to the photography featuring on some of the stories. This is because the company today serves as an image provider for many publications throughout the world. Due to this affiliation with news, it’s important for Getty to provide imagery that accompanies current affairs suitably.

Whether they’re fast-walkers or slow-walkers (Simon Pegg’s preferred option), zombies will stop at nothing to get at braaaaiiiinnnnnnsssss. And, in this German Audi ad promoting its reliable—and reliably expensive—servicing options, dodgy mechanics will stop at nothing to get your business.

Late last year, Meridian shifted its advertising account to Barnes Catmur after a four-ish year relationship with Assignment. And the new couple have released their first ad to promote its moving house offer—with Jeremy Wells reprising his role as the entertaining spokeshuman and becoming a very literal embodiment of the brand.

You don’t have to look far to find a joke about Justin Bieber. Just about everyone has dropped a line about the tantrum-prone singer. And given the enjoyment people derive from laughing at the expense of the baby-faced one, Comedy Central has organised an official roast of the Biebs.

In an age of media plenty, traditional business news outlets have never had so much competition. Being deemed essential is a good plan to counter that. And the Wall St Journal is backing itself. So it’s got a few big, successful names—producer/entrepreneur will.i.am, SAP chief executive Bill McDermott and fashion designer Tory Burch—to show that no matter how busy they are, they make time to read it.

Have you ever just loved a piece of technology so much that you want to eat it? Probably not, but now you have the option, because Dole Japan has created an edible, wearable, smart banana. Yes, you heard correctly.

Samsung has released an app called ‘Look At Me’ which aims to help children with autism maintain better eye contact with their parents and peers.

Digital is no longer the siloed side project that’s only tapped into if there’s enough budget left over. It’s now an integral part of the comms strategy of most major brands, and its prominence is only becoming stronger as the online audience grows. To investigate the changing face of digital, StopPress has launched ‘Rise of the machines’, a new series in which we chat to few brains in the industry about how the channel is evolving. First up is DDB’s digital creative director Haydn Kerr.

As revealed by the recent stats released by TubeMogul, programmatic ad-buying is growing very quickly. But, as with anything new, the willingness of advertisers to adopt this approach has been slower than it could’ve been due to the fact that it seems quite complicated. So, in an effort to demystify programmatic ad buying and thereby encourage more media agencies and marketers to adopt it, Chango has released a series of videos that address some of the questions that have been raised by those in the industry.

According to Spark Home, Mobile and Business chief executive Chris Quin, fewer than 40 percent of small businesses have a website. And of those that do, only a quarter have a website that’s mobile responsive. So, in an effort to remedy this problem, Spark has released new promotion that offers business customers 24 months’ access to a Putti mobile-responsive website.

The travel industry has been one of the sectors most affected by the rise of e-commerce, with customers increasingly doing their booking of flights, hotels, trips, rental cars and transfers online. Expedia, the world’s largest online travel site in terms of booking volumes, is at the forefront of that shift and, as part of its ‘Out There Starts Here’ campaign, it’s created a number of great ads for the New Zealand and Australian market. Now it’s launched another one that sees the travel dreams of several characters become a reality.