After analysing the visual searches and choices of more than 1.5 million creative professionals around the world and reviewing thousands of tearsheets, commercials and other websites to discover trends, the global creative research team at Getty Images has produced some rather revealing white papers that show how the kinds of imagery used in marketing material in the technology and telecommunications, pharmaceutical and financial sectors has evolved in recent years. 

Wholly Bagels owner and founder Charlie Daily decided on his marketing strategy out of necessity: he had no budget for mainstream advertising, so, instead, he decided to use giving and generosity as his major marketing tool. And so far it’s proven to be a very effective approach.

All the news (about pyar, new baby food, ice cream, banned ads, loin tingling, non-profit organisations and green marketing) that’s fit to print – and now in handy meta format.

Magnation, the purveyor of fine periodicals, has recently embarked on “its most revealing promotion ever” by offering customers that strip down to their unmentionables and head into one of the shops a reward for their brave exhibitionism. And, according to Sahil Merchant, the founder of Magnation and “chief magazineologist”, the promotion has been wildly successful, highly amusing and, given its unexpected popularity, nigh-on financially catastrophic.

Econsultancy and the Online Marketing Summit have produced a US-based report called the Value of Social Media that is based on a survey of more than 400 client-side marketers and agency respondents. And Andy Beal, founder and editor of MarketingPilgrim.com, took a gander, with his major observation being that 61 percent of the companies felt their measurement of the return on investment (ROI) from social media is either poor or very poor.

Absolut vodka today launched its new ‘Drinks’ campaign in New Zealand, with renowned fashion photographer Ellen Von Unwerth and smokin’ screen hotties Kate Beckinsale and Zooey Deschanel combining forces in an effort to show off some of the world’s best known drinks and the stories behind them.

M&C Saatchi has added a prize trophy to the cabinet after being appointed the New Zealand-based marketing team for Jetstar, ousting the incumbent Harvey Cameron and beating out DDB.

This week in the Ads@6, the Suzuki Swift is apparently still the one. And the ad is definitely still the one that will make you scratch your own eyes out. Protex follows suit with an ear/eye-scratchingly bad jingle of its own. Perhaps John Rowles should think about becoming a consultant following his famous victory in the Great New Zealand Twitter jingle survey recently.  

There’s plenty of ambiguity going around when it comes to channel planning. So the time is right to shed some light on what it is – and, equally, what it isn’t.

NZ Lotteries isn’t spilling any beans on how much it paid to get Donald Trump involved with the new Big Wednesday promotion, but David Higgins of Duco, the events company behind the highly successful Tua versus Cameron fight, has intimate knowledge of the magnate in question and believes it probably cost much more than the estimates currently doing the rounds.

Sam Neill is the new face of Kiwibank’s ‘Kiwi Thinking’ campaign. And part of the campaign implores Kiwis to submit their best ideas. Well, at StopPress we like ideas too. So we want you to submit your best ideas to us.

The New Zealand Lotteries commission recently roped in Donald Trump to be the frontman for a Big Wednesday promotion. The winner and a few friends get to live like him for a week (presumably being forced to put squirrels on their heads for veracity’s sake) and, if his busy schedule allows, they’ll even get to meet him (presumably licking the filth from his gold-plated shoes). So, to honour the business magnate, we want you to come up with a catchy new slogan for The Don and his vast portfolio.

The 2010 Seminar Programme at the Cannes Advertising Festival has been announced and more clients than ever are set to take to the stage and dish out their 0.02c, including Yahoo!, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook, MasterCard, Kraft Foods, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hewlett-Packard and Coca-Cola. So, get the company credit card out and pick those brains.

I’m consistently surprised by how often we use language in ways that undermine our efforts as an industry. It surprises me because communication should be the one thing we nail – clear, precise language that explains exactly what we mean – but actually we’re often pretty bad at it.

Independent design and ad agency Strategy has snaffled Ogilvy New Zealand’s recently departed head of planning Michael Prentice. He will take up the role of group strategic director for the Auckland, Christchurch and Sydney offices and will also be general manager of the Christchurch office.

Rhys Darby continues to capitalise on his awksome (so awkward it’s awesome) Murray Hewitt-inspired profile in the US, this time as the front man in a big – like NZ$80 million big – campaign for Hewlett Packard called Let’s Do Amazing.

Monocle magazine, a respected mouthpiece in the fields of design, trends, retail, art, pop-culture and politics, has published a list of the world’s 25 best retailers and Takapuna’s The Department Store has taken the number one spot.