Trade Me has launched a new brand campaign called ‘Life Lives Here’ via DDB, opting for a more emotive approach to connect with Kiwis.

This year, The Warehouse has changed things up a little by throwing a bit of a promotional celebration for its 34th anniversary. And the spot is likely to hit a few mums in the feels.

Speight’s and DDB are again taking advantage of Kiwis’ number eight wire mentality and DIY attitude in part two of the ‘We will’ campaign, by suggesting an incentive to wipe the dust off those unfinished projects and get them completed once and for all.

Facial expressions are an effective way of showing others your mood, and some would argue are more powerful than language. We can express a range of emotions with our 43 facial muscles: happiness, sadness, anger, despair and amusement to name a few, and now The Warehouse has shown what face punters make when they ‘Get that bargain feeling’.

Facebook’s new ad-building toy Canvas has been causing a bit of a stir in adland. And following on from our previous story on House of Travel’s experience with the platform, Westpac has quickly followed in tow, launching its first campaign through Canvas on Monday with DDB.

It appears romance is key when it comes to relationships and newspaper advertising, with February’s Ad of the Month taken out by DDB for its Lion Red’s Valentines Day inspired ad.

Mention the NutriBullet, the Transforma ladder or Thin Lizzy in conversation, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a Kiwi who isn’t aware of at least one of these products. Such is the enduring power of the infomercials, which continue to grace our free-to-air screens during off-peak viewing times, that these brands have essentially been embedded into the Kiwi psyche through brute force. At a time when buzzphrases such as ‘transmedia storytelling’, ‘digital disruption’ and ‘omnichannel marketing’ are habitually thrown around conversation, the infomercial is made to seem anachronistic, a living fossil of a bygone era on the verge of extinction. But this isn’t the case at all… Look at Nielsen’s ad spend figures from 2015 and you’ll notice the presence of Brand Developers in sixth position, behind the big-spending retail giants Progressive, The Warehouse, Harvey Norman and Foodstuffs.

Steinlager’s campaign to support the All Blacks during their attempted retention of the Rugby World Cup focused on the similarities between this quest and the 1905 Originals Tour, where the first team to be known as the All Blacks travelled six weeks by boat and won 34 out of 35 games. And ahead of the final on Sunday morning, DDB New Zealand has released some new print ads focusing on three remarkable stories from that journey.

DDB’s Nick Dellabarca and Liz Richards scooped up the supreme award out of 53 teams which entered Pixel 361°, APN Outdoor’s first annual outdoor creative challenge. The win will see them head to SXSW in Austin, Texas in March next year while both the highly commended and people’s choice awards went to Aaron Carbines and Mike Felix of Us&Co.

Icebreaker has released a new ad called ‘Live wild. Be wild’, which is part of a larger campaign to be launched in New Zealand in the next six months. And as usual (and as has worked for it) the brand has again effectively emphasised a connection to nature.

Orcon, Slingshot and Flip will come under the creative direction of a single agency, following confirmation that Rapp will take over all three brands. This move brings an end to Orcon’s partnership with Contagion, Slingshot’s with Mr Smith, and Flip’s with Sugar & Partners, and it will also see the PR responsibilities associated with each of the ISPs also redirected to the DDB offices as Mango takes over.