Spotify recently admitted that YouTube is the world’s biggest music streaming service. And many of the most popular music videos can be found on the Vevo channel. So, as is the custom at this time of year, it’s crunched its annual numbers and released a top ten list of the most-watched music videos across Australia and New Zealand in 2014.

We live in increasingly digital times. And the language often used to explain some of those digital developments is downright confusing. Fear not, dear luddites, for String Theory has created a dictionary “to shine a little light into the impenetrable murk of digital terminology for the benefit of the non-expert, the vaguely interested or anyone who just wants to give the flimsy impression they know what they’re talking about”.

In November, Jamie Curry orchestrated a treasure hunt in Sydney as part of the #colouryoursummer campaign, which Coca-Cola has launched in an effort to get millennials thirsty over the warmer months. And this campaign has now also spread across to this side of the ditch, with the launch of the Kiwi version. And in continuing the trend of collaborating with YouTube personalties, Coca-Cola Oceania has announced that two up-and-coming Kiwi vloggers will also create videos for the local campaign.

You can generally rely on ads for cameras to look good. And Canon has been obliging for years on that front, with one of last year’s efforts winning an Emmy. Now, as part of its Come and See campaign, Canon Europe has employed the services of photographers Christopher Pillitz and Jamie Hall to do their thing—and show off some of its new technology at the same time.

Richard Conway, founder of Pure SEO, came to New Zealand from the UK in 2008, and could not get any work because most employers won’t hire without any New Zealand experience. Those who were willing to give him jobs wanted to pay him peanuts.

When Apple first contacted the producers of ‘Sunday’, an independent film set in post-earthquake Christchurch, made by a group of New Zealanders and Australians, the producers weren’t surprised. What they’re doing is a world first in film distribution, and an experiment in tackling Internet piracy. As of 7 December, ‘Sunday’ will be the first independent film to be launched over five different distribution platforms at the same time.

At this year’s edition of the Young Gun Awards, Colenso BBDO’s Ben Polkinghorne and Brett Colliver, FCB’s Matt Williams and Y&R NZ’s Liza Dupre all picked up awards, standing again as testament to the quality of the creative work that comes out of New Zealand every year. But, most often, the journey to these awards doesn’t start within the agencies; it starts at the nation’s ad schools, where the students’ creative talent is shaped into commercial tools capable of developing campaigns that resonate with the masses. Thus, each year as the academic curriculum comes to a close, the industry takes a brief moment to look at the work that the students have produced. StopPress takes a look at some of the best student work from the previous year.

How does one make a IT storage hardware solutions and cloud computing company look cool? How about sponsoring a giant truck to jump a speeding Formula 1 car, setting a world record in the process?

Nothing says Christmas like a massive hunk of steel. And nothing says Honda like a bunch of toys like Jem, GI Joe, Skeletor and Stretch Armstrong.

Brand ambassadors remain an effective experiential marketing tool by which brands can connect with consumers, says EMANZ chair Mark Pickering. But more so than ever before, these representatives on the ground need to be trained properly.

After Vodafone made the decision to move its global media business to MEC earlier this year, it was expected that Vodafone New Zealand would eventually follow suit and, as reported last week in a story about the arrival of GroupM in this market, it was widely known that the handover had already begun. For some strange reason, Vodafone was at pains to point out that nothing had been signed, but it sent through official confirmation today that it is indeed swapping SparkPHD for MEC as its media buying and planning agency in this market.

“What would you recommend that looks good on Instagram? I’m not gonna eat it, it’s just for my food blog.”

Everybody knows somebody who has become obsessed with a ridiculous health regime. Aussie burger chain Grill’d has released two new ads that take the mickey out of those people, who often just can’t resist sharing their fantastic new diet and exercise discoveries.

Clemenger BBDO has done it again for NZTA, this time with a new TVC that shows how everyone has a part to play in stopping a drunk driver. Released this morning on NZTA’s Facebook page, the ‘Local Legends’ ad plays close to home for anyone who might feel anxious trying to convince someone they don’t have much influence over not to drink and drive.

President of the Harvard Business School Association of New Zealand Marc Potter explains why we need more people such as Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor to exploit brand New Zealand and why this would be good for Kiwi business.

In September, Microsoft Surface and FCB hooked up with street artist duo BMD to showcase the utility of the tablet in allowing artists to collaborate and bring ideas to life. Since StopPress ran a previous story on the campaign, the pair of artists have actively been engaging with fans via the Surface Facebook page and collecting ideas with the aim of bringing one to life on a wall in the viaduct at 100 Halsey Street. More than 500 ideas were shared with the artists over the course of the campaign, and the duo eventually settled on an entry from a Facebooker Rob Thorne.

Totino’s Pizza recently released what is undoubtedly one of the strangest ads ever after it let Tim and Eric loose on their brand. And it’s continued the madvertising trend by proving Buzzfeed wrong and using some supposedly unusable stock images.

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

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