Auckland street artist Paul Walsh has achieved internet fame after his transformation of the city’s utility boxes.

At a time when new technology is increasingly presented as the answer to every problem, Damon Stapleton argues that we still need innovators and creatives to think up solutions for the problems caused by the technology we often revere.

I was once gifted a cell phone by my Dad when I was about eight or nine around the year 2000. The phone was nothing special, it was what people would call a “brick” by today’s standards (though in saying that phones are now bigger than they ever were). It was given to me because my Dad was paranoid about my safety and wanted to stay in contact with me. I hardly ever used the phone. The games on it were crap, it was in an ugly case and its functionality was limited (though my friends thought it was pretty cool). Now every eight-year-old their dog seems to own some sophisticated piece of tech. Whether it be a smartphone or a tablet of some variety. And according to a New Generations survey kids have an annual spending power of $257 million and are more tech-savvy than ever.

Australian lifestyle brand Urban List is expanding into the Auckland market and is looking to establish partnerships with businesses on this side of the ditch. The website, which was first launched in 2011 and provides content on dining, shopping, health and beauty, has grown quickly in the Australian market, attracting a following of 1.2 million unique visitors per month across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

The annual New Zealand Best Awards celebrate excellence in graphic, spatial, product and interactive design. Here’s a few of our favourite finalists from the ‘Interactive – moving images’ category from the likes of Waxeye, Assembly, Media Design School, Powershop and Locales.

There seems to be a month for everything now: Dry July, Movember, the Feb Fast and as of this year, Junk Free June. And perhaps there’s a reason for that, maybe they’re successful fundraisers because Kiwis like a challenge, and a month doesn’t seem like such a long time to kick the booze, not shave your dirty tache or hold back on the snacks (at least on paper). Whatever the allure is, it seems to work and as results have shown social-media campaign Junk Free June was a huge success raising well over its media spend and attracting thousands of social media followers and daily hits on its website. Here’s a rundown on the campaign.

Cancer Society created a mobile donor engagement campaign via Chemistry Interaction, which connected Kiwis with a series of touching video thank you messages from Cancer Society staff and volunteers in celebration of Daffodil Day next Friday. It also created limited edition ‘Cups of Hope’ with St Pierre’s Sushi, where a donation from each cup went to the society. A TV campaign is also running, with creative by Whybin\TBWA and Waitemata Films illustrating how most of us have some sort of connection to cancer.

We’ve all had that moment, as we tell our friends about a great song we’ve heard, plug in our phones/laptops into some sort of speaker system, push play on our Spotify as we stare at them with a look of anticipation and glee on our faces (like above photo) while we wait for the song to start, but it doesn’t.

StopPress understands that the creative partnership between Volkswagen and Colenso BBDO has unravelled, with sources close to the business revealing that the car brand last week cancelled its contract with the agency.

‘Don’t work with animals or kids’ is a common principle thrown around advertising. However, Ziploc has conflated the core pillars of this piece of advice to produce an ad series that features animals serving as the beastly representations of an unruly children.

The battle of the big outdoor players has continued, with APN Outdoor adding 113 more panels to its arsenal after acquiring New Zealand-based billboard business Roadside Attractions from Twisted World Limited for $6.5 million.

For those die-hard Space Jam fans, a few of your favourite characters have returned to star in a new Jordan shoes commercial.

Often hardcore sports fans act if they are part of the team they are supporting. This definitely seems to be the case of football fans. When discussing how the team performed the word “we” is thrown around a lot. “We really stuck it to them this time”, “We sure came out on top in that last game”, “We caned those guys”. You get the picture. Rexona’s new ad attempts to channel this collective consciousness showing that while game day preparation for an All Black will differ significantly to that of a fan, many of their movements are similar, illustrating how ‘we’ (fans and players) move together. PLUS following on from our last round up, here’s the 411 on what a few other brands are up to around RWC 2015 including: Airbnb, Jockey, Vogel’s, Land Rover and Steinlager.

Since the heady days of 2013, when Uber and Airbnb started blossoming (or spreading like weeds) around the globe and raising millions of dollars in funding, ambitious app designers have been looking for problems that could be solved by combining smartphones and financial incentives.

Red Bull is often presented as one of the best examples of content marketing, largely due to the effective way in which it has associated its brand with extreme sports events. Big wave surfing, motocross, BMX racing and sky-diving are just some of the sporting codes that have featured the Red Bull logo over the years. And now, Red Bull is collaborating with another person who dabbles in the extreme—but this time it doesn’t involve sport in any way.

Trade Me, State, Air New Zealand, Rexona and Anchor take a victory lap this week.

Whether it’s Google and Luxottica, Spotify and Uber or Whittaker’s and Lewis Road Creamery, strategic partnerships and co-branding initiatives can be a good way to breathe some new life into both parties, increase distribution and, if you’re lucky, add some joy to the lives of consumers. And Kiwi fashion label I Love Ugly’s collaboration with global accessories brand Jansport is already paying dividends.

After nearly a century, Anchor milk has jumped back aboard the All Blacks bandwagon, partnering up with the team just before it heads into World Cup territory.

Last year, when Act’s David Seymour released his sensational campaign video in the lead up to the election, Kiwi social media responded with glee, poking satirical barbs at the awkwardness on display. And while Seymour has since left the spotlight to tend to his followers in Epsom, another awkward YouTube star has emerged: a blonde protagonist Nelson Patchett, trading under an organisation called SI Empire which aims to help the Plebeian men of New Zealand become alpha males.

It’s easy to make fun of ad agencies, what with their creative offices and casual dress codes and intangible creations. If they don’t have the founders’ names in the title, often in acronym form, it’s important they exude coolness. But can you tell the difference between agency names and porn? A new website by Canadian agency 88 Creative puts it to the test.

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

There has been a fair amount of activity behind the scenes at the nation’s institutes of higher education over the last few months. Here’s a look at what’s been happening at Otago, AUT and Unitec.

The marketing industry has already dabbled in sharkvertising, madvertising, nudevertising and even sleepvertising. But there’s always room for more. And for the launch of its insurance offering, Trade Me has probed into the netherworlds of what could be described as analvertising (not to be confused with analyvertising, which refers to ads that provide insightful analyses on pressing social issues). This new sub-category of the ever-growing encyclopedia of marketing experimentation is introduced through a series of irreverent spots by Assignment Group, during which Trade Me makes the point that the paperwork and admin involved with insurance can (quite literally in this case) be a pain in the butt.

The Japanese are well known having produced some of the best scary movies in popular culture. But what they aren’t known for all that well is producing scary films for the purposes of promoting health products. As strange as this might sound, Japanese ad agency Tokyu has developed a new short horror film with the aim of maximising the number of calories the viewer burns through while watching.