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

Marmite has been a huge topic of interest in New Zealand over the past few years, with the closure of Sanitarium’s Christchurch factory after the earthquake leading to ‘Marmageddon’. But the Marmite brand has a different problem in the UK: people keep forgetting to use it. So it’s spoofed the current crop of animal welfare reality shows with an ad showing some horrible cases of yeast-based neglect.

There’s been plenty happening in the digital signage space recently. Prices for screens are coming down, big global players are making big orders and digital-out-of-home is responsible for a lot of the growth in outdoor sector around the world. APN Outdoor just launched the country’s first digital billboards in Auckland. And Ngage is also riding that wave, with a recent roll-out of digital signage across the BP network and some big projects on the go.

Kiwi internet entrepreneur Richard MacManus has always had the dream of writing a book. Ever since selling his technology blog ReadWriteWeb (RWW), which he started back in 2003, to US-based media company Say Media in 2011, that is exactly what he has been working on.

Richard Branson wasn’t always the suave, successful mogul he is today. In its latest ad, Virgin Mobile shows Branson’s life story in exactly one minute and three seconds. And yes, he always sported that beard, even at two years old.

Is it just us, or is $379 not that much money to spend for an action figure that looks just like you?

Jaguar drivers seem like they’d probably be more familiar with ‘tally ho old chap’ than ‘OMG! LOL!’. But that hasn’t stopped the premium car brand and its agency Big from using the line ‘WTXF?’ in a new campaign for its XF model that’s appearing on super-sized billboards in the main centres and on extra large online banners.

If you’re an Android user, you may already be familiar with an app that comes integrated into some devices, called Swype. SwiftKey for Android works almost exactly the same way.

There’s been a lot of talk about football rights in New Zealand recently, with online offering Coliseum unexpectedly snatching that trophy off Sky and Sky then raining on its parade slightly by signing deals directly with four English major clubs to show delayed coverage of their games. But as newspapers embrace video, and as humans embrace mobile, it’s not just broadcasters looking for content anymore, as evidenced by this great ad for Sun+ Goals that features football fans watching when they shouldn’t be.

The stock market is not a lumbering beast. It’s fast-moving and things can change very quickly, and many people may not want to wait for the morning paper to come out to see how their investments are faring.

Creative types can be a bit precious about their image. But not Mumford & Sons. The beardy folk rockers aren’t above taking the piss out of themselves and, with the help of four funny men—Ed Helms, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, and Will Forte—the band has created what Buzzfeed calls the best music video of the year.

Dr Who nerds have been all aflutter this week after Peter Capaldi was named as the new 1000-year-old time-traveller. He’s renowned for his role as the potty-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the brilliant show The Thick of It. And this guy has decided to combine the two roles and create a trailer that gives fans a glimpse at what the upcoming series might be like (block your ears children, salty language ahoy).

EY, which until recently was Ernst & Young, has announced the finalists of this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Paper has had a pretty rough time of it recently, with big printing company closures, publishers haemorrhaging cash and direct mail struggling to get the same amount of attention that other ‘sexier’ channels like online or TV get, despite NZ Post’s recent study into its effectiveness. But advances in printing technology mean there are a number of creative possibilities now available, and a few recent Kiwi examples have caught our eye.

Brands tend to inflate their importance in people’s lives. And The Onion has showed this phenomenon in its inimitable fashion with a clip featuring “fans from all over the country flocking to see all of their favourite brands” at the Lollapalooza music festival.

Brian Sweeney is a man on a mission to rebrand New Zealand as something other than the land of hobbits and sheep.

After a brief but rewarding fling with StopPress and Idealog, tech reporter/photographer/regional man of mystery Sim Ahmed finished up yesterday and is off to work for POS start-up Vend HQ. But we’re not letting him get away without mentioning a bit of copyright hilarity he was involved in on Twitter last week.