With the creative love-in that is Cannes now underway, here’s some quality advice from Wieden +Kennedy’s head of planning, Martin Wiegel, about “the single most important assumption for all creators”.

While we at StopPress feel the understated approach to destination marketing, as seen in Flight of the Conchords, is the best fit for New Zealand, connecting the country with a fantastical epic and getting the actors involved to swoon over it also works pretty well, as this behind-the-scenes clip from The Hobbit films shows.

Google’s Project Loon combines ballooning with telecommunications, with the hope of one day inexpensively connecting billions of people around the world to the internet with a global network of balloons. It’s a science experiment so crazy, it might just work.

It’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Day tomorrow. And, to get more people thinking about the issue and donating to the cause, Age Concern New Zealand is taking to TV for the first time with a campaign by First Star called ‘Always Respected, Never Abused’.

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

The Waterfront Theatre Project, which is a partnership between the university and the Auckland Theatre Company (ATC), will see the construction of the new performance centre in the trendy Wynyard Quarter area – specifically amongst the Innovation Precinct to be built in the area.

The White Pages in Auckland now has less than five percent of the circulation it had a year ago, thanks to the introduction of a trial opt in system in March. This year instead of sending every Auckland household a copy of the giant white tome by default, the public had to specifically request a copy.

The gaming community was breathing into a paper bag after Sony launched its next generation PlayStation 4 console a few days ago. And Sony and its new agency BBH New York are embracing the fantasy with an epic ad entitled ‘Greatness Awaits’, which features a range of character cameos, exploding sets and, of course, OTT violence.

Airlines and tourism marketing entities go together like raspberry and Coke, and following some successful recent partnerships, Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand have upped the stakes, agreeing to a one-year, more than $20 million deal to promote travel to New Zealand, an increase of around 80 percent on the previous year. PLUS: Air New Zealand drops the blue in new livery.

I launched my first app on the Apple App Store towards the beginning of May. It’s a Newsstand magazine app called Aucklandia, which shows some of my street photography work and little stories about each photo. I’m taking the opportunity to share with you what I’ve learned in my first month as a bona fide app developer.

I was unimpressed by Microsoft’s Surface RT, which was released in New Zealand earlier this year. I saw the potential in the device, but it was hamstrung by its poor performance and the lack of apps. The Microsoft Surface Pro is that potential finally realised.

Come next week, throngs of industry folk will touch down in Cannes to pat backs, sip rosé and try to be inspired. Agencies and their holding companies invest huge sums to take part. But duo Michael Middelkoop and Sharif Elmawla, who are currently working at Saatchi & Saatchi Amsterdam, decided to find out what else the entry money would be able to buy with their website www.insteadofalion.com.

Watties’ ‘Food in a Minute’ has been running for 16 years, and it hasn’t changed much in that time. But it’s just launched a national, multi-channel campaign to celebrate its new look and modified focus.

In the war for talent, the marcomms sector is on the frontlines, with regular poaching of staff and a strong desire for those attracted to the industry to take on ‘new challenges’. So how do you attract and retain staff in this digital age? While employees are motivated by perks and pay, new research from Deloitte and Google has found that workplace IT is becoming an increasingly important factor.

You may have noticed an inordinate amount of frothing at the mouth from Apple acolytes yesterday as the company announced some significant changes, including a newly redesigned iOS and Mac Pro, as well as iTunes Radio and multi-tasking. And it’s promoting its changes, the importance of design and the human experience its products offer with a new and intimate campaign via TBWA\ in the US.

One of the handy things about having an app in the Apple App Store is the iOS developer centre , which comes with early access to new builds of the operating system. After downloading and playing with the beta version of iOS 7 for iPhone I’ve come to the conclusion that Apple’s made real strides to compete with Android, but has managed to get hit by the ugly stick on the way.

Charlotte Squire is the irrepressible optimist who has been living and breathing online magazine Happyzine for the past five years and trying to succeed with what she calls “solutions focused journalism”.