Today’s consumers are fickle. It’s becoming harder to find loyal customers who won’t jump ship at the sight of a sweeter deal. They demand more for less, and are more willing than ever to shop around rather than sticking with a ‘preferred’ brand or provider. The telco industry knows this better than most. And you can find out how some of the country’s biggest players are dealing with it, differentiating themselves and inspiring customer loyalty and at the MA’s next Knowledge Bites event on Tuesday.

In the age of vines and five-second films, the 15 minutes of a YouTube-hosted documentary seems like a veritable viewing mountain. So, in an effort to keep the decreasing attention spans of its growing digital audience interested, APN’s online publishing team has penned a one-off partnership with filmmakers Loading Docs to host a series of ten three-minute documentaries on the NZ Herald website.

In a world where celebrity weddings tend to get more attention than serious environmental issues, it’s getting harder to avoid the curse of MEGO (my eyes glaze over). That means drawing attention to those issues often requires a more creative approach, which is exactly what Greenpeace has done ahead of World Oceans day through a collaboration with the creators of popular online video series Beached Az. PLUS: Sealord’s augmented reality experience pushes a very different message.

A ball hasn’t even been kicked yet, but this year’s World Cup has already served up a fair amount of entertainment in terms of the ads that have come from major corporates. While Nike, Adidas and Puma have in the past been the trifecta of good sports advertising, other brands are also starting to intrude on this space by producing ads that are comparable if not better than those produced by the sports juggernauts.

McDonald’s seems to have taken a leaf out of Dude Perfect’s book with their latest ad. To highlight their association with the 2014 FIFA World Cup the golden arches has made a video featuring some pretty amazing trick shots. Whether they are all real is still yet to be seen.

Google recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s cube with a special doodle that allowed users to a play with a digital version of the popular toy. And now, following on from the success of this initiative, the website has launched a video that uses the Rubik’s code as a premise to inspire innovation among the youth.

Is the thought of knowing who your neighbours are, sharing fruit with them, discussing neighbourhood crime and having a street barbie rather retro? Well, those golden times of safe, strong neighbourhoods could be coming back if new private website, neighbourly.co.nz, has anything to do with it.

Back in 2005, Cyber Monday kicked off the US and has become the biggest single online shopping day in the country (and possibly helped reduce the numbers of tramplings, brawls and taserings on Black Friday); in China, Singles Day is now the biggest online shopping day of the year worldwide; and a number of other countries have replicated these events. New Zealand has been a little late to this e-commerce party, but, following on from the success of its inaugural Click Madness event last year, The Warehouse Group is set to kick off another one on Friday 13 June.

Former Wall Street security analyst, venture capitalist and all-round data genius Mary Meeker recently published her 2014 internet trends presentation on the KPCB website. Comprising 164 slides of dense data, the voluminous analysis of the industry provides an interesting cross-section of the major trends taking shape this year.

For better or for worse, the world has gone social and as the number of normal humans using social platforms increases, brands have invited themselves to their party. Social Media Club Auckland’s growth shows there’s plenty of interest in the scene from a commercial point of view and now it’s calling for nominations for the inaugural #SMCAKL Awards, with categories including Meteoric Rise on Social Media, Most Epic Tweet, Social Media Whoopsie, Best Display of Social Conscience and Best use of Social Media By a Brand or Company.

Coca-Cola has been on something of a self-flagellation mission of late in its advertising campaigns. In what can be seen as an effort to undo some of the environmental harm it has done due to the sheer number of empty plastic bottles strewn all over the world, the company has been focused on relaying a strong recycling message in many of its recent campaigns.

Fewer than two months after pinning rabbit skins to billboards, the sadistic team at Hell Pizza has now decided to turn its sadistic streak toward consumers by creating what it is being dubbed as the “hottest pizza in Australasia”. Topped with a generous helping of ghost peppers (which measure one million Scoville heat units), the Angry Dragon Pizza is largely a follow-on from the 2012 ‘Pizza Roulette’ campaign that had various unfortunate Kiwis reaching for the milk.

The marcomms industry continues to develop new ways of getting consumers’ attention—and, some would argue, new ways of getting awards judges’ attention. And with the current cacophony of commercial messages, it takes a lot to stand out. But Aussie agency Cummins & Partners has found a way to draw attention to the Creative Fuel conference—and poke fun at the persuasive arts in the process: combine everything the industry salivates over into one ridiculous idea.

Jason Delamore took over as general manager, marketing and communications at Auckland International Airport around four months ago and his appointment marked the first time that marketing earned a place at the executive table. Here’s how he sees it playing a big role in achieving some of the airport’s bold 30-year goals.

To those of inferior palate, the world of taste-testing seems wildly pretentious and filled with descriptors that have little to do with food or drink. So, in an effort to expose how laughable this tends to be, Scotch whisky company Laphroaig recently launched a campaign, via UK agency White Label, that invites common folk to share their opinions—however scathing—on its spirit.

Newcastle Brown Ale’s ‘No Bollocks’ campaign is a true gem and shows that there is some truth left in advertising (“now we handcraft the same delicious beer using huge, giant machines”). And it’s continued to give traditional marketing practices a ribbing (and stock footage companies a boost) with its latest promotion, which offers punters a cheque for $1 when they sign up to its Twitter account.

The New Zealand Institute of Management has bought New Zealand Management magazine from McDonald Vague, the receiver appointed to the magazine’s previous publisher, MediaWeb. Following this acquisition, the new owner struck up a publishing partnership with Auckland-based Adrenalin Publishing to resume publishing of the magazine, which is in its 60th year of circulation. PLUS: While McDonald Vague receiver Tony Maginness wouldn’t comment on how much the magazine had been sold for, he did admit that it was less than initially hoped for.

If Sharp Suits was the visual representation of the difficulties faced by those in agency land, this piece by Mike Larcher that’s based around giving God client feedback on the creation of the Earth, is the textual.