Everyone loves outstanding examples of printing. So here’s a rundown of the esteemed and talented winners of the Pride in Print awards. 

As we’ve discussed before on StopPress, town branding, despite the best of civic intentions and dreams of immense cut-through with cheesy, pun-laden slogans, generally has an element of desperation and truth-stretching to it. And the proposed Wellywood sign can most definitely be placed in that category. Of course, there have been numerous alternative suggestions and a few websites (here and here) set up where alternative suggestions can be made (there’s now even a campaign by Moa beer that is, fairly irresponsibly, promoting willful damage when the sign goes up in exchange for a bounty). But everyone knows the hoi polloi simply don’t have the creative cajones required to help Wellington in its time of need. So, post your idea for a more appropriate/inappropriate sign on the hill and the two best efforts will get a 12 pack of the pilsener member of the Mac’s family, Hop Rocker, which is sporting some flash new packaging and has recently graduated to the dozen. 

It’s tough out there in production land at the moment. But there’s a new boy on the block and it’s name is RedYeti.  

Aside from the number of awards its advertising has won, it’s been a fairly sorry tale for Yellow in the past few years. But, last year, in the face of some horrific finances, Yellow stumped up with a $40 million investment in the business, more sales people and a strategy that focused more heavily on digital offerings. Well, it’s just launched a new digital directory called YellowLocal.co.nz. And it’s heading down a similar hyperlocal path to that of its soon-to-launch NZ Post-run competitor Localist. 

Can you make a beer taste better by changing the shape of a bottle? DB Breweries, the makers of Tui Blond Lager think so, announcing a few changes to the brand’s traditional bottle design, including the addition of a “vortex internal neck emboss”. 

Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure campaign has come under renewed fire recently after our Dear Leader’s interview with Hard Talk. But as TNZ’s general manager marketing communications Justin Watson said in a recent interview with NZ Marketing, the campaign was never intended to be an environmental promise. It was about the whole experience. Recently, with the help of its agencies Razorfish and Assignment Group, it launched 100% Pure You to try and attract more ‘active considerers’ to the country and it’s just gone live with some new online trickery that’s being featured on popular German and Australian news and travel websites. See the birds, dolphins and underwater marvels here.

Increasingly, it’s in the interest of businesses to convey a social conscience and Botany Town Centre continues to do its utmost to show the public that it’s playing the role of responsible corporate citizen. In February it conducted a random acts of kindness social experiment where it randomly paid for customers’ purchases. Now for the entire month of May, it’s shuffled the focus to mothers by turning the 31 days in May into a celebration of mothers—a Mother’s Month, if you will.

After a fair bit bureaucratic faffing, the clean zones for the Rugby World Cup 2011 have been announced, so agencies and advertisers now know where they can and can’t put their marketing during the tournament. And in some cases, the restrictions are quite extensive.

From wristbands to t-shirts, concerts to text donations, there’s been a bunch of generous and creative fundraising initiatives in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake. But a project led by Christchurch graphic design company Ratio is only just coming into the light.