Some believe there’s no bigger sucker than a marketer who thinks they’re missing out on a trend. And Toronto agency John St has managed to illustrate that by gently skewering its own industry and the lemming-like traits of those who inhabit it with a series of very funny clips about catvertising, making things go viral and exFEARiential marketing. And its latest effort, Reactvertising, continues that trend. John St creative Jacob Greer answers a few queries about the success of its comical self-promotional strategy.

As we wrote last week, there are a few Kiwi brands experimenting with the captivating loops of Vine. And, to announce the arrival of its new online boutique, Lacoste asked social media savant Zach King, who gained fame through the digital trickery displayed in his online videos, to help out.

Despite announcing record profits at last week’s AGM, Sky does not appear content to rest on its laurels. The broadcaster recently unveiled Neon, its subscription video on demand (SVOD) offering, and from today it will be screening a new channel called The Zone. Designed to fill the sci-fi void in Sky’s programming, the new channel will screen horror, fantasy, science-fiction, cult and superhero shows via Sky and SkyGo.

Once again, a number of facial follicles are being left to run rampant this month to raise funds for men’s health as part of Movember celebrations. And this year, in an effort to drive sign-ups among ‘mo bros’ and ‘mo sistas’, BBDO Toronto created a moustachioued male stereotype called Bruce to show that, despite the often hideous appearance of those who take part, they really are heroes.

A theme park in Sweden has created the most terrifying outdoor poster of all time, just in time for Halloween.

Given they create butter, ice cream and steak, cows are quite possibly the most delicious of all the beasts. But they’re bad for the environment, and some believe they’re bad for our bodies. So Oatly’s chief executive Toni Petersson decided to embrace the power of music in advertising with a unique performance about oat milk.

Facebook has said it needs to sell 50-100 million Oculus Rift headsets to make it meaningful. But Dos Equis is getting in early and offering fans a dose of virtual reality.

This Sunday the All Blacks will take on the United States in a widely hyped exhibition match in Chicago. While the United States certainly can’t be described as a rugby playing nation, all 61,500 seats at the Soldier Field have been sold out. Such is the star power of the All Blacks that they are capable of filling a stadium in a country where rugby ranks below badminton, ten-pin bowling and pro wrestling in terms of popularity. And given the seeming supernatural ability of those who don the increasingly tight black shirts to make people interested in things that they don’t necessarily care about, it comes as little surprise that Kiwi brands have shown such a willingness to attach their labels to rugby players. StopPress looks at how rugby players are helping brands get noticed.

As part of our series with the One Percent Collective that’s dedicated to celebrating good work and inspiring a bit more generosity, Ant Salmon, managing director of Big Communications, doffs his cap to Andy McDowell and all the others who have done their own thing.

For those of you that thought social media was just for sharing selfies and pretending your life’s way better than it actually is, think again. New Zealand brands and their fans are using the medium for a lot more than that. They are using it together to make things happen. PLUS: we look at examples of crowd-sourcing gone wrong.

A battle is raging between online advertisers and those who don’t want to be followed on the Web, and New Zealand news websites are harbouring a surprising amount of trackers. Journalists and privacy experts have recently been pointing the finger at news websites as some of the worst offenders when it comes to collecting people’s data without any formal disclosure. Much of this is happening through online ‘trackers’, hidden pieces of code in websites that track how a user clicks, or even hovers, on a site.

Following the recent unveiling of its ambitious ‘Boroughs’ project, which will see five high-tech basketball courts introduced in Auckland, Spark has now announced a marketing partnership with the National Basketball Association. As part of this deal, Spark will offer its home broadband customers NBA League Pass and League Pass Premium annual subscriptions beginning next month, giving customers 15 percent off the full price of either a full season or a one-month subscription.

Since Vine launched in January 2013 it’s fair to say the six-second video app has taken off. According to Vine, every month now more than 100 million people watch Vines across the web. Owned by Twitter, the social media platform boasts 1 billion views or ‘loops’ of videos every day, with the majority of users being teens. The largest age group on Vine is 18 – 20 year olds. But are Kiwi brands slower on the uptake than our global counterparts?