Arran Birchenough, the country manager for Getty Images in New Zealand, shares some insights on how brands can find that stock image sweet spot that lies somewhere between the generic and the overly contrived.

Chromesthesia describes situations in which hearing certain sounds automatically evokes—in the words of Wikipedia—an experience of a colour. This is one of the rare examples in which a person is able to see a sound, giving something that is intangible to the eye a corporeal representation. But the isolation of the senses also goes the other way, in that the concept of sounds—in particular music—is not necessarily easy to capture in the visual form. For companies in the music industry, this limitation has until now meant that their logos could not necessarily embody the sounds that they sell. Wireless audio company Sonos has however managed to bridge the gap with its new logo.

Karen Walker’s campaign for her new season range of eyewear features the obligatory stunning model. But it’s a lot hairier and toothless than usual and it marks the first time the brand has used a ‘celebrity’.

Did you know that theres a guy that specialises in capturing your gnarly C.O.D deaths? How else did you think they got that awesome footage?

Moa Beer launched its new pioneer-focused packaging late last year. And its latest marketing initiative continues down that patriotic road by trying to bind us together through the sharing of stories of everyday New Zealanders, something it’s calling ‘How to Brew a Country’.

To be fair it’s not an ad for themselves, but rather for Friskies and is the latest addition to the ‘Dear Kitten’ series.

Breaking the rules is a standard trope used to encourage consumers to make an extravagant purchase. And while it doesn’t necessarily redefine this oft-used premise, Audi’s new spot via Venables Bell & Partners is an entertaining and far-fetched look at the consequences that could follow on from breaking the simple rule of not waiting at least an hour after eating.

To highlight the fact they have over 2000 domestic flights each week, Air New Zealand enlisted the help of some local celebrities for their latest spot.

Corona is supporting the Piha Surf Life Saving Club in a bid to raise funds for the redevelopment of the facilities located at the popular, and unquestionably dangerous, beach on Auckland’s West Coast. To assist the fundraising efforts, Corona has arranged an auction of surf photography as well as launching a pop-up bar to quench beachgoers’ thirst during the summer months.

Realestate.co.nz has coupled a stereotypically nerdy middle-aged man with an annoyingly talkative woman in a new spot that aims to show that the company has options for house hunters of all persuasions.

Founded 25 years ago and based in Melbourne, retail design specialist Greater Group recently crossed the Tasman to open an office here at the Steelworks Building in Mount Eden in Auckland. This is the fourth arm of the business to open and follows on from the opening of the branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai. And to lead this latest addition to its operation, Greater Group has sent across its general manager of global brand and strategy, Danielle Barclay, someone who is quite familiar with working in New Zealand, having worked her for several years earlier in her career. So StopPress asked her a few questions about what she hopes to acheive now that she’s back on this side of the ditch.

Happenings in the digital industry at Spark Digital, BKA Interactive and Yellow.

Nike has been one of the leading proponents of the quantified self trend with its suite of Nike+ products and Fuelband. Now, with the help of AKQA, it’s put some of that data to good use with the Your Year app and has created over 100,000 personalised animated films based on the activities of some of its more active users. And as well as celebrating the athletic achievements of its users, the videos also aim to inspire them to outdo their 2014 accomplishments.

An app a day keeps everything away, so why interact with the real world?

Facebook has appointed experienced media man Spencer Bailey as the head of the New Zealand arm of the business. The appointment of Bailey brings an end to Stephen Scheeler’s stint as the acting head of Facebook New Zealand, and this sees Scheeler return to his previous role of head of retail and automotive for both Australia and New Zealand.

In the world of smartphones, bigger is increasingly better. Samsung got in early with its Note range and got a fair amount of criticism for it. But, much to Samsung’s delight, Apple has recently followed suit with its iPhone 6 Plus. Both those phones pale into insignificance when compared to the Nabi Big Tab, however, which employed the services of a magician to show off its wares. PLUS: How big touch screens are being used in retail and marketing and what screens might look like in the future.