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

Whether it’s a tipi, a treehouse or a big boot, there are plenty of strange Airbnb rentals available. But a spot in a stadium is one we haven’t seen before. That’s what Airbnb and NZ Rugby have done to celebrate the Bledisloe Cup Match on August 15, with a competition offering four people the chance to win an overnight stay in a remodelled, All Blacks-themed box. PLUS: Airbnb’s new ad and the ensuing parodies.

Shoplifters are the scourge of retailers and, according to Retail NZ, theft from customers and staff was costing local businesses $1 billion a year in 2013. But Harvey Nichols has decided to put the kleptos to good use for an ad campaign that uses real CCTV footage spliced with villainous cartoon heads for a campaign offering customers legal freebies.

Powershop has ruffled a few feathers once again with an ad by Doublefish playing on the Greek crisis to promote its referral scheme for existing customers, but its flagrant use of advertising seems to be working as though its CEO admits the market is tough he says Powershop is holding its own.

I can still remember when I first began noticing Spotify back in 2012. Perhaps I was a little late in the game, but I didn’t start paying attention until my Facebook feed became filled with “[Insert friend’s name] listened to [insert track] on Spotify”. At first I found this mildly annoying thinking “What the hell is Spotify” while simultaneously feeling shocked to discover some of the crap my friends were listening to. But soon enough I found myself on the platform, figuring out what it was all about, running to my computer like most early users to turn down the blaring ads and like most other early users I was pretty adamant I wouldn’t be paying for it. But things change and New Zealand has embraced the service with open arms as one of the highest growing streaming markets in the world. We had the rare opportunity to have a chat with Spotify about how it’s doing in New Zealand, its branding partnerships, New Zealand’s piracy problem, the threat of Apple Music and more.

When it comes to surprises, the most you’re likely to get from the established taxi industry is another arbitrary fee ($3 extra to pay using EFTPOS? Come on). But, in keeping with its desire to turn the transport industry upside down, Uber often looks to surprise its existing users—and add more new ones—by delivering more than just humans. So, as part of a global campaign that is set to deliver ice cream to 253 cities on Friday, inhabitants of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown will be able to request a tub of Giapo’s hokey pokey gelato. And it’s working with Hyundai on the promotion as well.

In a bid to assist mothers who have heard the Frozen soundtrack once too many times but don’t really want navigate the online catalogues of children’s music, Pandora has teamed up with Huggies to develop a radio station dedicated to musical tastes of the youngest of young’uns.

Big data is being hyped by pretty much every marketer at the moment. But the phrase itself has for some time been a bit of a misnomer, because what we understand as ‘big data’ can these days be carried around in a flash drive smaller than pen. As it turns out, this hasn’t always been the case. In its early days, data storage quite literally necessitated a big solution. Pictures taken in 1956 illustrate just how burdensome it was for IBM to transport the now measly 3.75 megabytes of storage space.

Paul Blomfield, better-known for his work in public relations with the fashion industry, has teamed up with an IT specialist in start-up Jucebox, a company they hope will become a lynch-pin in the fast-growing Internet of Things (IoT).

It’s no secret that the consumption of online video content has ballooned over the last year. Facebook, YouTube, Lightbox, Neon, Quickflix, 3Now, TVNZ OnDemand and Netflix (the list goes on) are all driving this consumption by providing Kiwis with instant access to more content than Kiwis will ever be able to consume in their average 81.16 years on the planet. And now, Yahoo is also entering this already cluttered space by launching Yahoo TV, a new hub dedicated to on-demand content.

As evidenced by the Shot on iPhone 6 campaign, or GoPro’s range of impressive clips, just because a camera is small and relatively inexpensive doesn’t mean it can’t shoot good quality video. And LG has aimed to prove that with a new campaign that uses its new G4 smartphone to cover four crafty Kiwi businesses in glory.

Instead of bussing tables and tediously tending to customers, there are a number of enterprising youths who are turning to a new avenue of employment: YouTube. What are these kids thinking?

Nielsen research director Tony Boyte advises brands and retailers to develop both digital and physical platforms, as consumers are becoming less likely to distinguish been the two. This insight follows on from the latest study conducted by the research company, showing that nearly two million New Zealanders are shopping online. The research shows reveals a 40:40:20 rule is at play, with 40 percent of respondents saying that they were shopping online because of convenience, 40 percent being drawn to the e-commerce prices and 20 percent claiming that they get good value online. And these findings come at a time when Facebook is trialling a ‘buy and sell’ feature in the Auckland market.

The first edition of the FIFA video game series was released in 1993. Over the years, the annual release of the latest edition has become something of an event in the gaming community, with aficionados of the franchise eagerly awaiting the updated version of the game. In all the years since the launch of the first edition of the game, various biggest football stars of the moment have appeared on the cover to entice sports fans to make the purchase. And this year, for the first time, the coveted cover feature a woman as US forward Alexandra Morgan will share the space with Argentine forward Lionel Messi in the US version of the game. Australia and Canada will also follow suit, featuring Steph Catley and Christine Sinclair respectively.

Last week, radio personalities PJ Harding and Jase Hawkins introduced the world to a culinary abomination called Sushiwi, a disturbing conflation of a pie with a sushi roll. So in light of this unorthodox use of the humble pie, we look at some other examples of pies appearing in unexpected places.

Every once in a while, brands jump onto their promotional soapboxes and take aim at what they see as their competitors’ flaws. And while this type of comparative advertising has existed for as long as competing brands have been being sharing shelf space, the Kiwi advertising space has served up a few interesting battles over the last few months.

Honda has tested our limits with a new ad called ‘Keep Up (faster)’ which literally makes the viewer keep up.

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

“It’s not digital vs newspapers,” says NZME commercial director Sandra King. “It’s about the client having as many touch points as possible. If you miss the newspaper pipe, you’re actually missing a great deal of reach and frequency.”

Upon the launch of the alcohol-free TAP bar in Auckland recently, we wondered how far other bars and restaurants go around the world in order to stand out. And there were some truly bizarre hospitality joints. A bathroom-themed restaurant? Check. A natural-disaster-themed café? Check. A bar where monkeys serve you? Check.

Damien Venuto chats to the team in the capital about what this win means for a brand moving away from its previously conservative image.

To promote the Samsung Smart TV range, Grey Argentina registered the domain name lgsmarttv.tv. And in doing so, came to the realisation that .tv doesn’t stand for television as they initially thought. It’s actually the domain address for the small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Having serendipitously been made aware of the existence of the island, the creatives at the agency centred the entire campaign on the island, drawing attention to how its very existence was threatened by climate change.

The Matrix made hackers cool while The Big Bang Theory made neurotic scientists slightly less weird. And now, it’s the coders’ turn, with the rise of the ‘Hackathon’. One guy wants it to go big – so big it’ll be the “sporting” event of the year for tech nerds everywhere. And it could help local businesses find the nerds they need.

Snapchat was an unofficial star of the annual Social Media Awards last night with many brands citing it as a great marketing platform to engage with their audiences, including the Blogger of the Year and People’s Choice Award winner NZGirl.