Telecom has announced that it will emerge as Spark on 8 August. But the powers that be say the new name is just one aspect of the company’s transformation into “a confident, forward-looking technology company”. In an edited version of an article originally published in the May/June edition of NZ Marketing, Ben Fahy looks at the thinking behind one of the country’s biggest-ever—and most controversial—rebrands and the important role chief operating officer Jason Paris played in the process.

Telecom-owned Skinny Mobile has had a fairly schizophrenic first few years, shifting from a youth brand with a big focus on events and social media to a value brand with more focus on traditional channels. It’s also had a few different big cheeses and launched a number of different brand campaigns through Saatchi & Saatchi and, most recently, Young & Shand. But now it’s appointed DNA as its lead brand and marketing agency after a “thorough review of its business and brand strategy”.

This new PSA from American organisation Evolve puts a light hearted twist on a rather serious topic.

Finally, someone has done something about every surfer’s evil arch nemeses – Captain Chafe.

Advertising solely in English just doesn’t cut it anymore, Aucklanders. The city has the highest percentage of overseas-born residents in the country – 2013 census data says it’s a whopping 40 percent. Over 1 in 5 people are Asian in Auckland, and Hindi is now the fourth most common language in New Zealand, after English, Maori, and Samoan. And don’t breathe easy, Wellington – 25 percent of you were born overseas, too. That’s what Brandworld noticed, and so the content marketing company signed an agreement to work with ethnic media specialist Niche Media to get to work on this diverse audience.

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

Before Antoine de Saint-Exupéry penned the widely loved novella The Little Prince, he worked as a pilot at the airline that would come to be known as Aerolíneas Argentinas. Using this fact as a premise, Buenos Aires-based creative agency Madre has created a poetic spot that’s driven by the actual words of the author, who is disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1944.

The #RePicture hashtag was in fullforce at the Cannes Lions 2014. It was Getty Images’ way of getting people re-thinking the way they look at the world, to let go of stereotyped visuals that are usually used to describe people and concepts. As Getty Images says, “It has often been said that if we can visualize it, we can create it, including a better world. And we can – using pictures, platforms, and influential channels such as media and advertising to ignite important cultural shifts.”

Last year, Skinny Mobile’s selfie-billboards and teen stock imagery were kicked to the curb, when the company rebranded itself to appeal to a wider (and more lucrative) audience than 16-25 year olds. A year in the making, Skinny has now also reskinned website – and, unlike a recent TVC, the new skin has a slick design and user experience journey.

In a 2008 paper, neuroscientists Siri Leknes and Irene Tracey concluded that pain and reward processing involves many of the same regions of the brain. And while this doesn’t necessarily make us all sadomasochists by biological obligation, the success of Hell Pizza’s ‘Angry Dragon’ campaign suggests that there certainly is some truth to this. Over the course of the campaign, a total of 3,526 pizzas were attempted in under two weeks, resulting in the use of 63.25 kilograms of ghost peppers, which measure one million Scoville heat units, and 87.1 litres of Dragon’s Fury Sauce.

Only a few days after picking up a few lions at Cannes, Saatchi & Saatchi’s creative director Corey Chalmers found himself among the winners at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Pitted against over 300 entrants from across the world, Chalmers’ film ‘Whisker’, which tells the story of man trying to win a beard-growing competition, walked away with the prestigious Future Filmmaker Award. The film was a collaborative effort, in the sense that it was written by Chalmers and then directed and produced by Steve Saussey and Yoland Dewey of Stuff and Nonsense Ltd.

There has been a crazy number of brands trying to associate themselves with the World Cup in any way possible. What is awesome to see is brands using social media to jump on all things World Cup related as soon as they happen and put their own, brand related spin on them.

Last year, Hallenstein Brothers partnered with Ekocycle, to produce a range of suits made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles. Now, the Coca-Cola environmental initiative is being taken a step further thanks to Cube, a small-scale 3D printer that transforms plastic Coke bottles into a range of different items. In a short video uploaded onto YouTube earlier this month, Ekocycle co-founder and ambassador will.i.am delivers a short presentation on some of the items that the 3D printer can be used to make.

In a new way of engaging sports fans, the Foxtel Alert Shirt lets wearers feel the footy game as its being played, creating fluttery movements when players are nervous, and a feeling of impact when they’re struck. Does this mean we’ll soon be able to feel Luis Suarez’s bite for ourselves?

Ever since Telecom was legally precluded from using the ShowmeTV name, the industry has been curious as to what moniker would be introduced as a replacement. Since that debacle three months ago, Telecom’s digital ventures (TDV) unit has been very cagey about releasing any further information about its online TV offering. But now that all has been revealed, we sat down with head of programming and local content Maria Mahony to find out more about what Lightbox offers.

Theres an app for everything these days. From one that tells you the best time to go for a pee during a movie to an app that prevents embarrassing drunk dials, it’s amazing that we don’t have an app that reminds us to blink. Now, adding to the list of ridiculous apps, theres one that sells public parking spots.

With the emergence of channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, the role of the traditional media agency is being challenged, changing and by some predicted to crumble completely. ZenithOptimedia’s business director Alex Lawson questions whether we still need a media agencies when everything can go out digitally and for free.

Here’s a wrap of the Grand Prix and gold winners in the Cannes 2014 film category.

Tell Nielsen the truth about your scandalous agency lifestyle. Nielsen even has a drinkable offering in return for your time (‘you” being advertising folk) and your secrets. There are ten cases of wine (six bottles in each) to be won for those who fill in a survey to help Nielsen ‘understand agency life’. Everyone who completes it will receive a short report from Nielsen about the findings.

T-Mobile has joined with DDB Tribal to introduce us to Spanish entrepreneur Jose and his ‘wi-fi’ dogs, who assist holiday makers in searching for wi-fi. The dogs are trained to sniff out frequencies from the nearest router and can be rented by the hour. Or we could just go with T-mobile’s travel plan.

The ubiquity of Che Guevara’s face on the bodies of people across the world stands as testament to the fact that there’s something inexplicably appealing about being associated with a revolutionary cause. Add to this the fact that the spirit of Guy Fawkes has been resurrected as the face of the online anti-totalitarian movement, and it becomes quite evident that people still believe some battles are worth fighting for. Using this revolutionary drive as a premise, Replay Jeans has released a new spot via 180Amsterdam that places its consumers as the revolutionaries fighting against the faceless totalitarian regime bent on destroying the earth.