Auckland City-based Animation College has turned its brand into an action hero with its first agency partnership. The 25 year-old organisation worked with Origami to overhaul its logo and introduce a new tagline, ‘the art of emotion’.

Red Bull knows how to milk a stunt. And the Stratos project was one of its biggest. So now it’s released some amazing multi point-of-view footage of the jump that shows Felix Baumgartner spinning like a top as he plummets to Earth at about 800 miles an hour.

Kiwibank has added business functionality to its consumer mobile banking app in an offering that lets users switch between accounts when they’re using mobile banking.

Canterbury development shop Mogeo – run by a trio that came together shortly after the February 2011 quake – has followed in Ikea’s footsteps with an app similar to one recently released by the European giant to help furniture buyers.

Made Movement is a new US agency that claims to have redefined the ad agency model, is run by ex-Crispin Porter + Bogusky brains Dave Schiff, John Kieselhorst, Scott Prindle and, more recently, Alex Bogusky and focuses solely on promoting American-made products. So can such a model exist in New Zealand? Are we seeing a similar consumer shift to locally made, craft focused and sustainably driven products? And how is this affecting where global brands are going? AUT is giving Kiwi marcomms folk a chance to hear Made’s creative chief Dave Schiff answer those questions with a free live-streamed event on Friday 18 October.

In the hyperbolic arms race that is advertising and marketing, this ad for Palmolive Ayurituel—and the ‘innovation’ itself—is right up there as one of the worst we’ve seen. As if the petro-chemicals used in such products weren’t bad enough, we also have to listen to lines like “this isn’t your shower, this is your sanctuary”, see corporates co-opting spiritualism and put up with the yet another example of the nude-but-sneakily-not-showing-any-naughty-bits shower scenes featuring a woman who’s enjoying her shower way too much. Excuse us as we scrub ourselves down—with lemon juice and white vinegar.

Yellow has launched a new mass advertising campaign – the first in four years – to help Kiwis find what they’re looking for, no matter what platform they use.

Kathmandu is responding to growing use of its site on mobile devices with its first website optimised for those devices. Online sales make up four percent of sales across the retail group and in its 2013 financial year presentation it said online sales had grown 55 percent year on year.

The US government shutdown is finally over, but while the chaos was continuing angry drunk diallers in the US got a legitimate outlet for their frustrations with a website that let them call to vent their frustrations. The site was for furloughed workers, those being forced to work for free or just “fed up at Capitol Hill”.

Call of Duty fans gear up for a new version of the game franchise every November and this time the campaign is giving unsuspecting victims a fright in the most unlikely places. That’s because fanatics in the Faboom spot show their colours on the job.

Nine Entertainment Co recently announced it would take full control of Mi9 (ninemsn Pty Ltd), acquiring Microsoft’s 50 percent share in the joint venture. However, Mi9 will keep representing Microsoft’s suite of ad products under a long term strategic partnership.

Kiwis are using internet plans with bigger data caps and better connection quality, with a high fibre diet and the mobile web driving growth in online. That’s according to Statistics New Zealand, which says more than three quarters of broadband connections now have data caps of 20GB or more.

Kiwi businesswomen are outpacing other business owners in their use of tech marketing tools like social media, cloud computing, online payments and SEO, says MYOB – and it’s these tools that are enabling women to start up small and medium enterprises and balance work and life as they grow.

After announcing a pretty bold move away from paid banner ads towards content marketing, nzgirl.co.nz is now about to unveil a new brand that aims to help turning your “blogging for a living” dream into reality. If making money out of writing about things you love is what you’re into.

Energy drinks—and other terrible sugary, sciencey concoctions hoping to attract young customers—have long focused on extreme sports and mad stunts. Red Bull kicked it all off and has gradually morphed into a media company; V has created a few new crazy pastimes; and Monster has a penchant for boganic pursuits like drifting. But the Coca-Cola-owned energy brand Nos has decided that’s all a bit hackneyed, so it’s mocked its competition in the form of four fake interviews with a hyped-up ‘marketing expert’ who recommends ‘blasting the logo all over everyone’s faces’.

We’re big fans of doppelgangers here at StopPress. And while there’s been a lot of talk about Lorde’s Royals featuring in Samsung’s new ad, ‘The Developer’, no-one’s mentioned the important fact that Lionel Messi is a dead (but beardless) ringer for Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman.

Dedicated followers of advertising will get to peak through a keyhole into the headspace of one of the world’s leading small agencies, Mistress Creative, at the Semi-Permanent stage-show in Wellington this week.

A family member affected by illness or injury, or dying, are among the worst scenarios imaginable. That makes insurance for families a hard sell, but AMP, partnering with DNA, Running with Scissors and Bloodhound Media, want to remind Kiwis to protect what matters most.