Toyota has teamed up with Marc Ellis’s small creative agency Media Blanco to launch an online showcase of the musical talent of buskers worldwide via a campaign called ‘Feeling the Street’. Hosted on a specially dedicated website, the campaign asks visitors to vote for their favourite buskers, with the overall winners becoming part of super group that will perform in New Zealand later this year.

Virtual reality is something Facebook bet big on with its acquisition of Oculus Rift for $2 billion. Google has also entered the fray with its very clever, low-cost solution Cardboard. And Samsung is also onboard with its Gear VR, which it’s showing off with a clip showing a dad experiencing the birth of his third child from afar and a bunch of Aussies diving with sharks in an unexpected location.

Subscription video on-demand is often compared to linear television as a superior alternative that gives users the freedom to watch what they want when they want to, without the annoyance of advertising. Yet, despite these advantages, Kiwi SVOD provider Lightbox still sees value in using the reach of traditional television to spread the news about its offering and has just released a new, somewhat crazy, campaign for Vikings.

Buzzfeed got a group of people together and made a video of them sampling chocolate from five different countries. The aim was that the participants had to guess the chocolate’s origin according to the taste. And yes, you’d be pleased to know, Pineapple Lumps got a well-deserved mention.

Bruce Murray, the executive digital producer at Y&R in Auckland, questions whether it’s the right time for agencies to start looking into how virtual reality could be integrated into their comms strategies.

Everyone becomes a little bit Irish on St Patrick’s Day. And plenty of brands do too. Here’s a rundown of some of the best efforts from here and around the world.

Netflix, which is soon to launch in New Zealand, has been leading the way when it comes to native ad content, with some classy, expensive and bespoke executions. And its latest effort via The Atlantic aims to promote the third season of its original series House of Cards by focusing on the real partnerships and power dynamics between US presidents and their spouses.

Andrew Hawley, the managing director of Touchcast was recently elected to the CAANZ executive board, an appointment that served as commendation for the quality of the digital work his agency has delivered since its inception. Recently, Touchcast was ranked 6th fastest growing company in New Zealand, and 46th fastest growing tech company in Asia Pacific. Touchcast’s work has featured at the RSVP and NZDM Awards in New Zealand, the Caples Awards in New York, at Cannes, the Future Marketing Awards for Asia Pacific Region, and the Best Design Awards in New Zealand. He has been on the digital jury of the Clio awards in Miami, and has judged the Axis and Effie Awards in New Zealand several times. And given his interest in creating digital experiences, StopPress recently sent him a few questions on how the interactive channel is evolving and what challenges this is introducing.

In the early ’90s, video cameras for personal use were large clunky devices that most often delivered grainy footage to video cassettes that would almost invariably collect dust in a box located in some forgotten corner of the house. But as technology advanced the cameras became smaller and cheaper, and the quality they delivered improved drastically. Nowhere is the this trend more evident than in the story that underpins the rise of Go Pro. The evolution of camera technology has allowed an entire generation to capture footage and share experiences that were once restricted to only the person participating in them.

Durex has poked a satirical stick at tech advertising in a new campaign that questions what type of smartphone technology might help to improve a couple’s sex life. In keeping with the irreverent tone that has come to typify the brand, the ad then concludes by saying that the answers lies in the off button.

Ahhhh, y-fronts. The long-serving, long-suffering undergarment of choice of Homer Simpson, Walter White and probably millions of Kiwi men over the years. And Jockey is celebrating its invention of the famous style 80 years ago by taking us back to 1960.

Recently, a quirky Kimberly-Clark ad for its U by Kotex Ultrathins range, was transported from Australia to the Kiwi market. Featuring a selection of ladies putting on exaggerated cowboy walks, the new campaign, called ‘Ditch the cowboy walk’, aims to draw attention to that fact that the new product eliminates the “gross feeling” that accompanies wearing a pad.

Last Friday, Volvo senior vice president Alain Visser stepped off a plane at Auckland Airport and headed to Greenlane to open the doors to a new showroom set to house the Swedish brand’s range of vehicles. We stepped into the flash new location to chat Visser about the evolution of the brand in New Zealand and abroad.

After serving a tenure of just over nine months, Michael Pryor has resigned from his position as the chief executive of the Marketing Association due to personal reasons.

Contagion’s Tom Bates pinpoints some of the early key trends emerging at the event.

In a hilarious and slightly disturbing call for entries for the Creative Club São Paulo, Borghi/Lowe Brazil created a video of the story of a mole’s hard life struggle before finding success and fame in the world of advertising.

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

Kevin Bacon stars in a new campaign from Gray New York promoting eggs on behalf of the American Egg Board, because what goes best with eggs? Bacon, and in the Kevin variety apparently.