As well as being popular with the viewers, the 7 Days gang are also popular in commercial circles, with Paul Ego voicing ads for Pak ‘n Save, Guy Williams fronting campaigns for All Good and HPA, Ben Hurley MCing cricket games and Dai Henwood voicing Mitre 10 ads, spruiking fires and taking the Eddie Murphy approach for Toyota. Now Godfrey Hirst, Australasia’s biggest carpet manufacturer, has employed Henwood’s services and taken viewers on a trip around the country to announce its nationwide flooring sale.

Humans love a good list. And research companies love putting them together. So, for the first time, Ipsos has put New Zealand brands under the spotlight of its Influence Index. And among the usual suspects from here and around the world, there were a couple of bolters, with the Department of Conservation and Consumer NZ featuring in the top 15.

The Jono and Ben team penetrate layers in a recent skit about New Zealand drink-driving ads, which becomes a parody of a drink-driving ad of a parody of a drink-driving ad (we could go on).

At a time when he is being coaxed into commercial activities through nostalgia, TRA managing director Andrew Lewis reflects on why it’s important for brands to attach their experiences to consumers’ memories.

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

Game of Thrones is a show largely built on political intrigue, the dynamic between good and evil, the horror of war and ambition, giant dragons, the always-approaching threat of winter and the gratuitous chopping off of appendages. Of all these possible areas of interest, Denmark-based creative agency Seligemig decided to focus on the last one for its campaign leading up to the release of season five of the hit show.

During Chopper Appeal month, Westpac in partnership with with DDB, Facebook and Starcom released a series of four confronting videos that show the horror of a woman trapped in a car. Shot by the Sweet Shop, the first three videos play out over the course of an evening, providing a glimpse at the claustrophobia and loneliness that typifies a car crash along one of the many remote roads in New Zealand. PLUS: a look what motivates people to donate.

Fairtrade sales increased by 28 percent in 2014, reaching $89 million in sales as a result of more availability of chocolate, coffee and bananas, which grew the most with a 78 percent rise. And, as part of a campaign to thank Sunday morning shoppers for taking the ethical option and supporting farmers in developing nations, All Good Bananas has employed the typically over-enthusiastic services of Guy Williams.

Rapp’s Andy Bell argues that many organisations suffer from a version of global amnesia, which means that customers constantly have to re-tell the same stories.

16 years ago, the 100% Pure slogan was born (after being conceived by an Australian agency). And, despite a few naysayers pointing to the fact that it’s not entirely true, it’s widely recognised as one of the world’s most successful tourism marketing campaigns. For the past three years, it’s had a distinctly fantastical feel as part of the 100% Pure, 100% Middle Earth campaign, but rather than chuck it all out and start again, it’s decided on an evolution, both in terms of the comms and the visual identity. PLUS: Andrew Fraser on Tourism New Zealand’s growing digital focus.

Just as the campaign to start a national debate on flag kicked off, the country went batty for Prince Harry. And, following on from his unscheduled stop at a pub quiz in Stewart Island, Tui reckons he might be keen for another tipple when he makes it up to Auckland. And, as the everyman prankster prince, Tui would surely be an appropriate brew. We look forward to seeing the international media take that out of context too.

Not too long ago the high-pitched robotic noises of a modem connecting served as our only gateway to an online world that was typified by webpages that slowly lagged into existence. Over time, the lag has reduced and ongoing roll out ultra-fast broadband (UFB) holds the promise of snuffing it out entirely. StopPress chats to a few industry players about why the roll out of ultra-fast broadband is important for Kiwi consumers.

The Hauraki Breakfast jesters Matt Heath and Jeremy Wells have finally completed their project to create a regal port-a-loo. This morning, the pair released the final of three videos, showcasing the glorious final product.

While the nation’s other SVOD players are taking legal steps in regard to Global Mode, market newcomer Netflix has thus far been quiet in terms of its position on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to access international content. The company has not joined MediaWorks, TVNZ, Sky and Spark in the case, which is set clarify the legality of Global Mode in the local market. And this could largely come down to the fact that the company has little incentive to support the action.
PLUS: a look at the leaked emails from Sony executives on Netflix’s approach to geo-filtering.

For better or worse, modern lives revolve around screens. Big screens on the wall, small screens in your jeans, medium sized screens on your lap. And there is a growing acceptance that this addiction to screentime isn’t particularly healthy and may be affecting our mental state. And a new short film called ‘All Your Favorite Shows’ from production studio Ornana and Danny Madden that fuses fiction with reality to show the potential danger.

Last year, when Air New Zealand took its safety video franchise to the beaches of the Cook Islands, the move was slammed by some quarters of the online community for perpetuating gender stereotypes by featuring Sports Illustrated swimsuit models in their bikinis. The airline has now returned to the beach for its latest safety video. But this time the clip focuses on athletes—both men and women—who are shown weaving and carving their way along the curling waves of Piha, Raglan, Malibu and the Gold Coast.

Pick-up games of football are pretty common Barcelona, where friends—and sometimes enemies—often meet up to kick the frustrations of the day away at one of the many five-a-side pitches strewn throughout the city. And for the launch of its new global campaign, Pepsi took this experience so familiar to everyone in the city and flipped it on its head by introducing a drone and a spectacular light show.