As Eddie Izzard showed in one of his typically entertaining stand-up routines, flags were crucial when it came to claiming territories. The mark of British colonialism still sits in the top left hand corner of the New Zealand flag that was first flown in 1902, but not everyone wants it to stay that way, including John Key, so, as part of a $27.5 million two-year project, the government has launched the first public phase of a campaign that aims to get Kiwis engaged in the process of deciding whether we need a new one. PLUS: some of the ideas suggested so far and lessons from vexillology.

Using the proficiency of young’uns in all things digital as their premise, Hyundai and Shine have released a new TVC that illustrates how easily Hyundai family wagons can be connected to Bluetooth. The 30-second spot plays out as a race between a pair of parents and their daughter as they vie to connect their phones to matching Hyundai wagons. Rather tellingly, while the parents are hurriedly paging through the instruction manual, the daughter connects the phone and calls her parents through the hands-free interface.

Every week, the Salvation Army receives 300 new requests for help from Kiwi families going through difficulties. And contrary to the popular misconception that the organisation only exists to help the poorest in society, public relations director of the Salvation Army Steve Chisholm says that it’s also common for those in the middle class to approach the not-for-profit organisation when they fall on hard times. So, in a bid to change this perception, the Salvation Army has released a new campaign that posits the Salvation Army as a safety net for ordinary Kiwis.

AUT University has after ten years ended its partnership with Consortium and will from now on work with a number of agencies on a project basis. The institution has appointed Shine to develop its mid-year marketing campaign, but the director of marketing Shelly Gane says that this is not to be understood as the appointment of the agency beyond this project. PLUS: Unitec reviews its creative account.

McDonald’s is working to bring the lovin’ back into its brand after its sales dropped seven percent in 2014. CEO Steve Easterbrook said this week he plans to completely overhaul the company, cutting costs, sprucing up its menu and restructuring its empire. But to remain relevant, McDonald’s is going down some wacky avenues, pursuing a revamp of its Hamburglar character and adding kale to breakfast meals.

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

It’s been a good year for Brother Design, with the agency winning first place for its Pams confectionary range in the ‘Confectionary, Snacks, Desserts’ category at the international Dieline Awards in the United States as well as nabbing the supreme award at 21st edition of the local Pride in Print Awards.

New products fail more than they succeed. But that doesn’t seem to stop brands from continually ‘innovating’ and making more of them, no matter how impractical they might be. And Rhodes and Rose has riffed on that with a great promo for the Flextrek 37,000,000,000,000.

A year ago, Angus Richardson introduced the first .kiwi URLS through his company Dot Kiwi. And since then, thousands of Kiwis have signed up to give their website—whether business or personal—a more Kiwi flavour. Included among these are the Mad Butcher, Porter Novelli, the Vodafone Warriors, Kiwibank (via a subrand), Tennis NZ and Rowing NZ. We look at some of the funny URLs registered thus far and chat to Richardson about how the business is going.

Google is always looking for creative and enticing ways to get people using its services, and its latest initiative is to give amateur paranormal investigators the power of Google Maps to search for the Loch Ness monster from the comfort of their homes.

Ever since Spark unveiled its new brand, it has worked hard to redefine itself as an innovative and nimble organisation capable of appealing to Kiwis across all demographics. And given that many within its target market are shifting their media consumption to the digital space, this has seen Spark follow the audience by releasing some major digital plays over the last year. And Kate Thomas, a senior communications manager at the telco, says this is only the start of the journey.

Last month, ANZ teamed up with the RSA to launch an online campaign (conceptualised by FCB) that gave Kiwis the opportunity to publicly honour the heroes who were part of the troops that landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and the RSA says “its blown away” by the success of the campaign.

Adobe has released the finding of a survey of 648 marketers across the APAC region, and the report points out that senior players in the industry are struggling with similar issues as the importance of digital to marketing continues to grow.

There’s nothing more satisfying that than a good graph that shows trends over time and Bloomberg, one of the many media organisations focusing more on data journalism, has knocked it out of the park with a recent infographic that tracked the pace of social change in the US by looking at how long it took for inter-racial marriage, prohibition, women’s suffrage, abortion, same-sex marriage and marijuana tobe legalised.