As Auckland grows, so too does Auckland Transport (AT), the body in charge of the city’s public transport. Since it sprung from the loins of the Super City in 2009, it has, understandably, been focused more on operational improvements than commercialising its assets. But that’s set to change with AT consolidating its outdoor advertising and signing a nine year contract with Ambient Group, which was acquired by the soon-to-launch QMS Media back in May for an undisclosed sum.

Reaction videos have become one of the staple products served through the YouTube interface. For every weird, horrifying or disgusting viral video, there are a slew of follow-on clips showing people reacting to the content. And in an effort to make its YouTube ads a little more engaging, UK-based BT TV has launched a new campaign that asks viewers to guess what celebrities are watching.

Humans regularly pay for having their photo taken (when it’s horrible and it gets posted on social media, or when looking back and wondering why you ever thought that hairstyle was a good choice). But, following on from a tease at its I/0 event, Google decided to let people pay with a photo to promote the enhanced search functionality of its upgraded Photos app.

For those who waste their pay cheque on things like shoes or coffee, beer and other consumables this ANZ online game will see you doing your best to stay on track (in the digital world), mainly because of the lure of the potential win of $5,000

The Best Design Awards’ Best Effects category showcases design that goes above and beyond, bringing a profitable outcome for the clients involved. Here’s a breakdown of this year’s finalists.

Last week, there was plenty of media interest in Bansky’s brilliant ‘bemusement’ park by the sea, Dismaland. And while it’s not particularly suitable for children—and while tickets sold out in an hour—he and his gang of subversive artists have released an ad showing a family visit to ‘the happiest place on Earth’.

It’s never been easier for marketers to learn about their audience. All they need to do is go to social media, look at what they’re posting and what’s trending among their target age demographic. Brands have begun travelling to their audience to market to them too, launching social media campaigns, joining Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, whatever it may be. But something else we’ve noticed recently is brands going to their audience and essentially asking for advice, crowd-sourcing ideas for products like websites, food, even ads. Here are a few examples from here and abroad.

Media companies are continually pushing the strength of their particular medium (or combination of mediums). And one popular way to show off capabilities, get creatives thinking about how to use the medium effectively and line up a few leads is to run a creative competition. NZME has its Advertising Challenge. Adshel ran the Creative Challenge for its charity client Surf Lifesaving NZ. And now APN Outdoor is joining in the fun with Pixel361°, a scheme that invites creative minds to create a digital outdoor campaign to raise awareness of the Men’s Health charity.

In this day and age, it’s becoming increasingly clear that people don’t like being obviously advertised to. We don’t have the time, patience or interest anymore. A modern audience is a more distracted audience, it’s true. Content marketing company Scribble knows this, and it came up with a clever initiative to get Twitter users in the marketing realm (but not necessarily) spreading some ad hate in an attempt to champion content marketing

At the centre of Lotto Powerball’s brand ad, released in July, was a story about the relationship between a dad and his son. And now with Father’s Day fast approaching, the brand has jumped on the opportunity to consolidate its ‘Imagine’ positioning with a touching spot that depicts the classic Kiwi scene of some backyard cricket.

Last year, to launch the Madden 15 video game, EA went to town with a fantastic three-and-a-half minute clip featuring a slap-happy Kevin Hart and Dave Franco battling it out. And to launch the 2016 version, it’s taken it up a notch with a completely over the top fake movie trailer that’s riddled with stars of screen and field.

Auckland’s been the City of Sails and the Big Little City. Aucklanders have been JAFAs and (long before that) Rangitoto Yanks. But none of these holdovers from the good ol’ days of the share market boom, the America’s Cup or the John Banks mayoralties work for the diverse ‘super city’ of 1.5 million people that Auckland is becoming. And after a comprehensive review of Auckland’s economic development strategy, Auckland Council’s economic growth agency Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) is undertaking Global Auckland, a rebranding project chaired by NZME’s chief executive Jane Hastings.

With a print run of 220 million copies, the Ikea catalogue has a distribution level that any author would be proud of. And it’s only fitting then that legendary German literary critic Hellmuth Karasek should be given the opportunity to analyse the pages and share his opinion on the narrative development, characters and language used in the book. Over the course of about five minutes, the critic pages through the catalogue, delivering a very dry analysis.

Benevolent dictator John Key has been on a mission to convince New Zealanders that we need a new flag—from the big ($26 million for the flag consideration project) to the small (writing columns)—and he has said he favours the fern and southern cross combo. Gareth Morgan also wants a change and has pinned his four colours to the mast after running his own competition. And Peter G Deakin from Turangi (if that is his real name, eh John?) has also taken out an ad in The Sunday Star Times explaining his views and showing his penchant for the silver fern.

Over the last seven weeks, the DB Export ‘Brewtroleum campaign’ has been encouraging Kiwis around the country to help save the world by drinking variants in the brand’s range. The only problem with the message was that the world-saving action was that it was limited to times generally considered appropriate for beer drinking. One could not, for example, open a DB beer at 11am in the morning and persuasively argue that this was an essential act. So, in an effort to overcome this problem and enable any person to lend a hand to the Brewtroleum cause at any given time, the brewery has created DB Export 0.0% Citrus—a lemon-flavoured lager with zero alcohol content.

In an ongoing series, StopPress talks to a range of newsmakers currently trying to shine lights into dark places while also keeping their own lights on and looks at whether commercial realities are leading to editorial compromise. Next up, Damien Venuto talks with the NZ Herald’s data editor Harkanwal Singh about turning big data into accessible journalism.

Early next month Kiwis will be celebrating Father’s Day. The one time of the year where dads (if they’re lucky) they will get toast in bed, maybe some chocolate and hopefully a lashing of affection and appreciation from the family. This is also the time when a lot of dad-inclusive advertising comes out, often promoting things like lawn mowers and DIY renovation equipment. But the idea of the dad is changing, and gradually this is being reflected in our advertising. Dad is no longer just into power tools, he also likes staying in and reading books with the kids, cooking and taking on what has traditionally been considered ‘feminine’ roles. Here’s Getty Images’ vice president of creative content’s take on the evolution of the dad and what this shows about our shifting perceptions.

Brace yourselves, parents (and weird people who like to collect things from supermarkets). New World has launched an updated version of its ridiculously popular collectables line. And it’s aiming to inspire some food science with the Little Kitchen.

Tourism activities are always better in the mind than in reality. And Banksy, one of the most subversive artists in the world, has flipped the capitalism-fuelled, often rather empty, completely over the top fun of the modern amusement park on its head with the opening of Dismaland, a “bemusement park”/major art exhibition on the sea in England that’s definitely not suitable for children.

Hubbards Muesli is showing a preference for the digital after launching two new social media-based campaigns: one in celebration of its 25th birthday next month where it asked Kiwis to submit their own muesli recipes on its microsite, and then share the recipes on Facebook for a chance to have their concoction hitting the shelves. The other to promote its latest ‘Outward Bound’ range of muesli, calling upon New Zealanders to share their own ‘Outward Bound’ moments.

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

We’re all used to Barbie clothes and makeup, Transformers colouring books, and Disney characters emblazoned across anything made for children. But the newly-released Star Wars-themed make-up from cosmetics company CoverGirl had us scratching our heads.

Since its launch in 2007, Tumblr has spawned over 248 million blogs that today reach an audience of more than 500 million people worldwide, of which 750,000 are located in the local market. And yesterday, at launch event in Sydney, Tumblr’s parent company Yahoo announced the commercial launch of the platform across Australia and New Zealand. Tumblr founder David Karp chats about his baby going international.