Lion’s entry-level craft beer brand, Crafty Beggars, has launched a new ‘billboard takeover’ ad campaign.

The residents of StopPress towers are huge fans of both dad dancing and awkward high fives. And NZ Lotteries and DDB have made all our dreams come true by combining these two wonderful things into one ad in an effort to drive sales of Lotto tickets for Fathers Day.

After almost 1,000 votes, the entertaining fish out of water tale that aims to show that Westpac has ways of helping customers into their own house has taken out the StopPress/MediaWorks People’s Choice Award. Micheal Healy, Westpac’s portfolio director — brand and marketing, takes us through the thinking behind it.

Volkswagen hit a speed bump this year when it voluntarily (with the help of a bit of media pressure) recalled more than 2,500 cars due to reliability issues. However, it’s another type of recall which has got the German car manufacturer’s motor running.

Rialto is a slightly under the radar New Zealand media success story. And it’s coming up 13 years old. So to celebrate its transition into the teens, it’s been given a thorough going over, with a new look and feel created by Intebrand and a new self-aware print, radio and digital campaign via DDB that aims to attract a broader demographic and position Rialto as ‘The Storyteller’.

Judging from the (unusually) complimentary comments on StopPress, the pundits seem to like the new—and quite bizarre—Instant Kiwi campaign. And, to launch NZ Lotteries’ new overarching tagline of ‘Winning Happens’, DDB has also released a series of entertaining radio ads featuring monkeys, kung fu masters and tense reality show music that aim to drum home the fact that there’s a winner every second-and-a-half across the whole portfolio.

Instant Kiwi is all about giving low-level gamblers a short, sharp thrill. And DDB has brought that idea to life in its latest campaign, one of the first executions to feature New Zealand Lotteries’ new over-arching tagline ‘Winning Happens’.

We Kiwis like to think we’ve got it sorted, living as we do in our little slice of ‘100% Pure’ paradise. But we have plenty of demons and the truth is that New Zealand is “one of the worst-ranking OECD nations in terms of the percentage of the population that works ‘very long hours'”. So Westpac and DDB have dramatised that fact with another entertaining ad as part of its ‘Start Asking’ campaign that shows the pitfalls of owning your own business.

All Blacks sponsors have a long history of piecing together some game-day footage, showing a few big hits, adding a bit of emotive language to illustrate the mana of the black jersey and trying to give Kiwis a few goosebumps. Adidas did it to pretty good effect during the Rugby World Cup. And, with the game against the French kicking off on Saturday, Steinlager, which has sponsored the All Blacks for 27 years, has done it as well with a dubstep-backed ode to one of the most successful teams in world sport.

As the smartphone revolution continues, the demand for mobile applications has burgeoned. A bombardment of apps, big and small, jostle for precious screen space, but it is only those that amplify a brand through personal engagement and valuable experiences that will find App Store success.

Human Chickens, cerebral insulators and a well-travelled boy hit the charts this week.

Beer is fragile and precious cargo for many Kiwi blokes and blokesses, so Lion’s beer insurance campaign for its Crafty Beggars range isn’t nearly as absurd as it might sound.