Are you afraid of the dark? Lynx Pitch Black has taken its campaign all the way by turning out the lights at a Seekae concert.

WestJet asks people to complete 12,000 “mini-miracles” and share on social media.

It’s no secret that 2015 has been punctuated by some horrific moments, with the Nepal Earthquake, the Paris attacks, the refugee crisis and the Charleston Shooting standing out as some of the more harrowing examples. But interspersed alongside these events, there were also many positive moments that saw people celebrate and express their creativity online. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter look back at the moments that defined the year.

The upcoming New Year’s resolutions may be easier to achieve thanks to athletic polar bears, vibrating belts, smart socks and maybe even wearable bananas.

Those who blurt out spoilers without considering the consequences of their actions have become widely reviled species that are simply met with groans and sighs of disgust from those in their company. And the new Netflix spot educates viewers on the etiquette that viewers must exercise when in the company of fans of particular shows.

Alongside the recent announcement of Vodafone Xone, the telco released a short video clip explaining the story and motivations behind Vodafone Xone. What was interesting about this clip was that it wasn’t presented as a conventional PR spiel, filled with grandiose commentary on how amazing the business was. Admittedly, the clip was still promotional, but it felt and looked much more akin to a news segment that wouldn’t be out of place on any of the news shows of any of the mainstream television broadcasters. We chat to Vodafone consumer director Matt Williams about how Vodafone tapped into the journalistic credentials of Libby Middlebrook to produce the clip.

Videos shot with 360-degree capabilities are becoming more popular, giving viewers the ability to twist around and see the action unfolding in a clip from myriad angles. Both YouTube and Facebook have released launched 360-degree video capabilities, and various brands have already tapped into the immersive opportunity this offers. As is to be expected, Go Pro has been one of the early adopters, releasing an incredible clip that shows a surfer in Tahiti catching a wave and tucking into a barrel.

McDonald’s is currently showing that it knows how to be boring by running a campaign that simply live-streams footage of the new bacon and egg pies baking in the oven. But while others take their live-streaming and slow TV very seriously, McDonald’s is clearly taking a more tongue-in-cheek approach, calling the live stream Baking News and treating it like a TV news show.

As the year hurtles toward a deadline-driven close, top ten lists of things Kiwis did the most during the year will inevitably stream in. And in keeping with its tradition of breaking down the most popular videos into regions, YouTube has again provided a list of the ten clips that Kiwis were most drawn to over the last year.

A picture tells a thousand words but how will brands tell their visual stories in 2016? Getty images predicts visual trends.

In October, Republik won the Unitec account, inheriting a brand that has over the last few years outspent both the University of Auckland and AUT University in its bid to attract new students to its classrooms. And despite having a new agency, the educational institution has continued this trend of investing in marketing by hosting an elaborate experiential activation at Auckland’s Britomart just over a week ago.

Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and countless travel bloggers might have you believe that “life is a journey, not a destination”, but a new campaign from Fullers by Motion Sickness Studio shows that sometimes the destination matters a little more than the journey—and this is especially true when it comes to the Waiheke and Tiritiri Matangi Islands.

Pepsi is too good to share. Fizzy drink pokes fun at Coke.

We bow humbly before DB Breweries, Toyota, Hunter Furniture and SBS Bank this week.

Industry happenings at Ogilvy, Spark PHD, Spark, The Edge, Yellow, The Sound.

The rise of “wellness” products and services such as cold-pressed juice bars, raw and paleo eateries, boutique yoga studios and alternative therapies has brought with it a specific vocabulary. Some of these wellness words sound like science; some, especially those coming from Deepak Chopra, have the ring of religon, and quite a few are so divorced from meaning that they’re uncategorisable. After overdosing on YouTube philosophical debates one night, Australian web developer Seb Pearce wrote some code to randomly generate New Age copy at the push of a button.

Interactive advertising revenue continues to grow, with segment surpassing $200 million in a quarter for the first time in the third quarter of 2015.

Volvo follows up its ‘Epic Split’ campaign by giving a four-year-old control of one of its latest truck. But things don’t go quite as poetically this time round.

Rarely, if ever, do furniture hunters settle on the first couch they try. The process usually involves trying out option after option, until the right couch announces its existence vicariously through the satisfied sigh of the person sitting in it. And, if a new video series from Hunter Furniture is anything to go by, then this seemingly endless search is also a familiar feeling for those in the business of producing the products we purchase at furniture stores.

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

While there’s plenty of growth in the local cider market, it’s still suffering from a bit of an image problem, particularly among Kiwi men who prefer beverages on the drier side of the scale.

If you know Nick Offerman and his character, Ron Swanson from TV show Parks and Recreation you will know how much the curmudgeonly Offerman loves whisky and silence. If you need further proof, the bearded actor and fine wood worker has just filmed a 45-minute spot for Lagavulin whisky where he sits in a fine leather chair next to a crackling fire, calmly staring into the camera, imbibing his beverage of choice and moving very occasionally. Watch it and drink it all in.

The development of new technology invariably leads to the emergence of new words to describe exactly what this tech can do. And with the emergence of programmatic ad-buying and a range of other digital tools, marketing has become flooded with acronyms, intialisms and buzzwords that wouldn’t make sense to anyone outside the industry. Attend an agency lunch or dinner these days, and you’re more than likely to hear a few of these phrases thrown around by individuals who are either in the know or doing their best to feign it. Jargon overload can be frustrating, but we’re actually pretty lucky. At least we aren’t in the business of selling Turbo Encabulators.

As well as the traditional ads everyone has come to know and love, the rise of ad creep means we might also see ads on receipts, on jerseys, on foreheads, on the upper thigh region and pretty much anywhere else humans may look. But is it going too far when advertisers follows us into the bathroom? Captive Media doesn’t think so.

NZME is continuing to pull all its strings together with this week’s announcement that it was launching CreateMe, a new division comprising the media company’s core commercial content creators and strategists. And it seems in many ways quite akin to a creative agency. We chat to CreateMe general manager Fiona McLeod about the role she sees the new department playing in the industry.

Historically, Mike Pero Real Estate’s ads have featured the founder talking up its lower commissions or profiled some of its salespeople and properties. And that strategy—and the booming property market—has helped it take off, to the point where it appeared on the 2014 Deloitte Fast50 list with revenue growth of 328 percent. Now it’s trying to get more salespeople to join the family, but it’s gone with something a bit more ‘creative’ this time.