It’s that time of year again, the internet is abuzz with excitement over another smartphone as Samsung releases its Galaxy S7. With Samsung phones so popular around the world we thought we’d see what’s driving all the hype in New Zealand.

Irish aging support charity, Alone, has released a heart-wrenching campaign about the harmful effects of loneliness.

Uber has expanded its rideshare network across New Zealand by launching in Christchurch this week, the latest city on its list of 400 in over 58 countries.

Skinny, and its customers, have plenty to celebrate this month with it taking out the Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers award and the Consumer NZ People’s choice award 2016.

Saatchi & Saatchi Argentina takes Shwepps down memory lane in a ‘One Day You’ll Understand’ campaign.

DDB’s Liz Richards and Nick Dellabarca are in Austin at SXSW 2016, and they sent through a few outtakes from the past few days.

The New Zealand Transport Agency and Clemenger BBDO are pulling on parents’ heart strings in a new campaign, hoping they will get tough with their teens and enforce the rules of a restricted licence.

Contagion’s Tom Bates caught up with Wellington-born Paul Noble-Campbell, who, somewhat unusually around this time of year, identifies as a local of Austin, Texas, working as a partner and customer experience innovation consultant at Upstream.

Neon is celebrating the launch of Game Of Thrones season six by inviting a fan to meet one of the characters.

Getting people to care about the Arctic isn’t easy. It’s far away from pretty much everywhere and very few people will ever visit it in there lifetimes. This disconnect is something that Greenpeace tries to overcome every time it releases a new ad campaign. And in an effort to drum the message home, the oraganisation’s latest campaign tells the story of someone anyone could connect with: a young, creative child.

Since 2006, the actor Jonathan Goldsmith has graced Dos Equis ads as ‘the most interesting man in the world’. However, his influence has now gone intergalactic as he has taken a one-way trip to Mars.

The growing prominence of ad blocking is proving a major headache for online publishers that rely on advertising to finance their businesses. And with every new person that downloads an ad blocking software, the problem only becomes bigger. Well, Swedish publishers may have found a means by which to stop the software from undermining their ability to sell ads—and it comes in the shape of teamwork.

We salute Samsung, Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand and Red Bull this week.

Summer may be over, but not for Tui and Corona as the brands set to go head to head in the surfer market. Playing the first move is Tui with a new campaign by Colenso, featuring a ‘From where you actually are’ billboard.

In what has been something of an annual pilgrimage over the last few years, Contagion’s social influence director Tom Bates headed to the SXSW festival again this year. And during the early part of his visit, he caught up Contagion alumus Firtha Hookway for a brief chat on what she’s been up to and what she thinks marketing and advertising types should be focusing on in 2016.

Adblock users across the world experienced disruption over the weekend, but not through the typical form of advertising. To celebrate World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Colenso BBDO partnered Amnesty international with Adblock to share with users messages of cyber censorship victims.

For this year’s edition of the Axis Agency Challenge, ad folk were asked to click on the online Rand-O-Matic machine, which served up random couplings of words that had to be combined into a creative idea. An opportunity of unbridled creativity is not something agency folk shy away from, and few creatives across ad land dedicated some of their already packed schedules to finding amusing ways to combine the incongruous words spat out by the Rand-O-Matic. Of all the bizarre ideas that emerged, none entertained the judges quite as much as FCB’s titillating reinterpretation of Cluedo.

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

In both the real world and online world, advertising is rife. Billboards block the view of public spaces while pre-roll ads stand between audiences and their videos. But is there a way to stop it? A public access project, the law and even an app suggest there is.

In 2008 Canadian musician Dave Carroll was travelling with United Airlines. During a layover he heard a fellow passenger remark that baggage handlers on the tarmac in Chicago were throwing guitars. He arrived at his destination only to discover his $3,500 guitar was severely damaged. After an unsatisfactory response from the airline, he used his musical talent to create a song he dubbed ‘United breaks guitars’ with a music video and all. The song went viral and the incident created a PR disaster for the airline. But now, when Googling the airline, there is no mention of the incident. This is an example of the power of search engine optimisation (SEO) and its role in protecting brand reputation. We chat to Pure SEO’s Richard Conway about this idea and the threat of negative SEO.

Around two weeks ago, Facebook extended the reach of its walled garden by launching its Canvas platform in all international markets. We chat to House of Travel’s marketing director Ken Freer about his thoughts on launching his first campaign on the platform.

In the same way Apple aims to revolutionise the world with its products, Sacha Baron Cohen wants to revolutionize the world with his characters.

As the world celebrated International Women’s day and efforts were made to bring a fresh face to the ongoing issue of gender inequality, some found success while another missed the mark.

Many MasterChef contestants quickly fade from view. But, with a big social following, the launch of a popular cookbook and a gig as Woman’s Day’s food columnist, Chelsea Winter has created her own thriving culinary empire. Here’s what she eats for media lunch.