Author StopPress Team

Whittaker’s and Griffin’s have colluded in sugary goodness to produce a limited edition product mashup called the ‘100s and 1000s Bar’ that combines Cookie Bears, chocolate and a significant sprinkling of hundreds and thousands. And to promote their product fusion, which was released on 21 July and will be available for only three months, the co-conspirators have launched a competition via a Facebook-hosted microsite that encourages Kiwis to cover random items in hundreds and thousands and then send in images of the results.

Motorola has launched a tattoo that allows smartphone users to unlock their phones instantly. So is it a henna tattoo of a QR barcode? Is it a microchip inserted into the skin? Or is it an actual tattoo etched onto the body with electronic micro fibre ink?

Every brand and his dog seems to have been trying to get in on the selfie craze recently, and, as yourselfieideaisnotoriginal.tumblr.com shows, it often smacks of desperation. But if you’re going to get punters to take a photo of themselves, at least make it challenging. Samsung, one of the few brands to have had success when it comes to selfie-related campaigns, is doing just that, with what could be seen as a tech-related version of the ice challenge.

While tagging is often seen as an activity worthy of punishment, brands often seem to get away with it. BNZ and Unitec have done it in recent years. And Comedy Central got in on the stencil action recently to promote the new series of Chris Lilley’s Jonah from Tonga, which plays on Mondays at 9.25pm. But as a Sideswipe reader asked, why the hypocrisy and is it appropriate to have a big brand-sanctioned schlong on the streets?

Carlton Draught has just started rerunning a 30 second TVC that originally aired in the the 1980s. With an action packed montage, perfectly poured beers and an impossible amount of enthusiasm, there is a lot to love here.

Karl Lagerfield called selfies ‘electronic masturbation’ and a number of studies have shown the compulsion to take selfies is actually a serious mental health condition. The online narcissicism appears to be continuing unabated, however, with selfie sticks seemingly flying off the shelves. But why simply post a classic duck face to your social networks when you could take it up a notch and burn your beautiful face onto a piece of toast.

Lydia Ko took out her fourth professional win yesterday, making the 17-year-old golfing phenom the youngest ever player to make it to US$1 million in prize money. ANZ sponsors Ko (and the ANZ Golf Show) and it’s celebrating her win with a simple social game via Whybin\TBWA that offers Facebookers a chance to win $2000 if they can guess where she’s hit her tee shot.

Following on from the 2013 redesign of its bottle, Tuatara has once again played around with the aesthetics of its beer-carrying devices—and this time the company has received a helping hand from the vampires behind Kiwi mockumentary Delicious Necks.

One of the country’s larger PR companies, SenateSHJ, has merged with PR Partners in Auckland, bolstering its expertise in consumer and ICT sector and making it one of the largest privately owned communications consultancies in Australasia.

At its essence, on-site marketing is about getting a message in front of consumers at a time when they are most susceptible to purchase. And while this might seem simple enough, Chris Coffey, the founder of the In Group, explains there’s a little more to it.

Uber may not be flavour of the month with the powerful taxi industry, but it’s gaining plenty of fans around the world, including Google, which invested US$258 million in it last year. And, as part of a global promotion, it’s hoping to draw attention to the on-demand driver service by offering Aucklanders a chance to have some of Auckland’s finest ice cream delivered to their door.

A new kind of documentary may be coming to a screen new you. the difference with this one is that it is all about Emojis, those entertaining, little images such as the smiling poop.

Radio Hauraki’s newish breakfast team has been getting plenty of love recently, largely as a result of the brilliant Like Mike segment, in which Jeremy Wells channels his inner Mike Hosking in an effort to improve its position as the 13th most-listened to breakfast show in the country. And the station is continuing that quest and aiming to improve its standing in the eyes of those who respect sleep deprivation and alcohol-based fun with a 24 hour stunt called #nosleeptilbreakfast, which saw the hosts take a trip to Waiheke, visit salubrious tourist haunts like Showgirls and SkyCity, hug Leigh Hart’s dog, stay awake and booze all night and then bravely/foolishly do their morning radio show.

Automotive marketers, the bar has been raised, because David Johns of Australian agency Chimney has put together a stunner of an ad to sell his 1999 Holden Barina. PLUS: other glorious homemade car ads.

As in 2011, government once again handed out $3.28 million dollars to the various political parties. But while the spoils remained same, the number of recipients increased from 11 to 17 political parties for this year’s allocation. The question now, however, is what the parties plan to spend the money on, and what they hope to acheive through their pre-election campaigns. So, in an effort to find out a little bit more about Labour’s promotional moves, we sent a few questions to the party’s campaign manager David Talbot. Here’s what he had to say.

The robots are here. And they’re increasingly doing the jobs of humans. Recently, there’s been a bit of chat over AP’s decision to get computers to write some business stories and writing in Wired last year Kevin Kelly surmised that “before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation”, just as they were over the industrial revolution. Jono and Ben took this idea and ran with it for a recent skit that shows expendable labour getting their own back on technology. And with some studies showing TV is still very strong and others showing ‘screen-stacking’ is increasingly prevalent, there’s a rather self-aware scene at the end.

Continuing our ridiculous series on what the government could buy with the measly tax dollars it earns from tech multinationals, we decided to turn the barb toward Google, which was recently revealed to have paid only $227,000 in tax over the course of 2013. And while this is ten times more than the pittance paid by Facebook, it still didn’t quite measure up to what one would expect from an organisation that made US$15.42 billion of revenue globally in the quarter ended 31 March 2014. When the Herald reported on Google’s tax bill, it went for the optimistic headline ‘Google’s NZ tax bill on the up’. And since the team here at StopPress also tends to be optimistic about everything except for the livers of those working in the ad industry, we decided to compile a list of all things National could splash out on at its probable re-election party later this year.

Despite the fact that more Kiwis are buying online—and buying with their mobile devices—many Kiwi businesses aren’t taking that into account when it comes to their websites. And that’s costing them dearly, says a report from direct marketing and digital agency Twenty. It says bad user experience cost Kiwi businesses over $1 billion in sales to overseas websites last year, a big chunk of the total $2.3 billion spent online by Kiwis for the year in total. And it might be worse this year, with the jump in online spending since last year twice as high for offshore than for local.

There are a range of logos and ads that feature unintentional (or occasionally intentional) genitalia. And Airbnb, the extremely popular “global community marketplace that connects travelers seeking authentic, high-quality accommodations with hosts who offer unique places to stay”, appears to have added its name to that list with the launch of its new brand identity ‘Belong Anywhere’.

Tipp-Ex is a slightly surprising brand to be renowned as a social innovator, but its previous interactive YouTube videos about bear hunting and birthday parties have cemented that position. Now it’s tapped into the ‘wisdom’ of the crowd once again (along with BIC) and convinced them to help rewrite Pharrell Williams’ book Inspiration. PLUS: Weird Al’s riff on Happy.

The crews that assist touring musos are called roadies for good reason—they tend to spend a lot of time on the tarmac moving from one destination to the next. And during these long days on the road, band managers and promoters affiliated with the musicians need to be one step ahead, in the sense that they have to ensure that there’s an audience at the next destination. And while this might be easier for major musicians that have audiences included with just about every venue on earth, the same cannot be said of the up-and-comers who have no guarantee of cheering masses. So, in an effort to rectify this problem, Julien Mitelberg and his team have developed Bandsintown Manager, an app that makes it easier for artists and managers to connect with potential fans and promote upcoming gigs.

Slingshot’s decision to open the door to give Kiwis access to geo-locked sites such as Netflix has come under scrutiny for potentially contravening international copyright laws, but this hasn’t dissuaded consumers from visiting the site. According to the Herald, the number of Slingshot customers accessing movie websites like Netflix has quadrupled since the internet company unblocked them several weeks ago. But with the growing popularity of the SVOD site, there comes the possibility of some serious brain warping. As indicated by three clips from the new US-based Netflix campaign, we could essentially be setting ourselves up for a future of awkward (but somehow endearing) proposals, bizarre visits to the doctor and anti-climactic airport reunions.

As NZ On Air and Colmar Brunton’s recent media consumption study showed, Kiwis still seem to love TV. But while it might be on, the TNS Connected Life survey shows viewers might not be paying attention due to the increasing prevalence of ‘screen-stacking’. PLUS: an entertaining ode to single-tasking.