According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia, New Zealand has the 45th highest rate of per capita tea consumption, with an average of 0.65 kg downed by each person every year (well behind the English on what is almost certainly a made up number of 68.69 kg per year, although the UK Tea Council gives the top spot to the Irish). Bell Tea is hoping more of that will come from its two factories and to help do that it’s launched a new 60 second TVC via Whybin\TBWA that celebrates the long history of the brand and the performance-enhancing properties of tea.

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

Standard inflight safety videos are in danger of extinction, with Delta and Virgin America the latest airlines to follow in Air New Zealand’s quirky footsteps.

Taste magazine is following in the footsteps of its Bauer stablemates Cleo and Metro with a new web presence. The new site is set to tap into the growing global hunger for information about food and cooking.

Moving away from their standard, clean-shaven pastry visages, Pie Face has added a cartoonish moustache to their pies in an effort to help raise funds for men with health issues.

Our American counterparts have turned Halloween into a huge commercial resource that can be tapped into annually. This year, the ad agencies across the Pacific have once again illustrated how far the simple premises of horror, costumes and bucket loads of treats can be stretched.

Radio streaming service Pandora has brought the functionality it introduced in its 5.0 app for iOS devices earlier this year to a new version for Android tablets. The interface of Pandora 5.0 for Android tablets has also been optimised for the larger screen size of these devices.

Recruitment company Hourigan International wants to get creativity a seat at Kiwi boardroom tables and embed it into senior leadership roles. It’s targeting the ‘creative leadership tribe’ of agile, commercially-literate people who can help firms become more consumer-centric.

Kiwis are can’t switch off when they’re away getting R&R, with a TripAdvisor survey showing we use our mobiles to shamelessly brag about our holidays on social media, look for places to stay and things to do. But a significant number of our hospitality companies aren’t meeting traveller demand.

The burgeoning games industry is making money for Kiwi exporters – and an increasingly diverse gamer audience with more devices than ever is force to be reckoned with. Two pieces of new research highlight strong growth in gaming, with a local survey showing mobile games made in New Zealand have been downloaded more than 130 million times in the last year.

Kiwi ads have used many visual metaphors to illustrate the power of fast telco networks. Telecom had coloured flares and exploding balloons in their 4G ad, Vodafone took us back to the future in a speedy Delorean. US provider AT&T’s new spot sympathises with parents everywhere whose kids have been on a candy-induced sugar high.

Chameleon Partners has released the first of several new TVCs, along with a new website, spreading the word about Chorus’ Gigatown contest that gives a Kiwi town the chance to win speedy internet.

Pinterest is a winning channel for brands to show off their products in splendid technicolour. Now a Kiwi shopping mall is marketing itself with has a very analogue take on the social media channel.

Ever been stuck in a boring board meeting? We can’t help imagining that’s where someone was when they dreamed up XBox’s new Invitation campaign.

DDB Sydney’s ‘Welcome to the family’ campaign to celebrate VW’s 60th year in Australia kicked off this weekend with a TVC that showcases the full range of models on offer—and, with an ad hoc cricket match, a helium-breathing grandfather, a nana meeting Bradley’s ‘special friend’, tree peeing and copious tea drinking, it also showcases the diversity of modern Australian family life.