To promote its social network Google+, the Internet giant Google is launching a new competition for up and coming photographers, inviting them to upload their visual works to the new platform. For the contest entitled Google Photography Prize the company has teamed up with Saatchi Gallery, London, which will provide the finalists and the winner with hilarious prizes, which are sure to help them boost their photography career.

Brands, which represent after-hours life, often provide its fans with a detailed partying and dating guide (usually, alcohol brands embark on this mission as the example of Carlsberg proves), but technological giants also have something to tell the world when it comes to interpersonal relationship.  Sony Europe has teamed up with French agencies Reflex Virtual and Point-Barre to release a hilarious webseries entitled ‘A Geeks Guide to Get Girls’ starring Bruno Sanches, Loïc Bartolini and Loïc Fieffé as nerds who are trying to turn into machos in the eyes of the girls who live next door. The time has come when technology helps improve personal life.

Unilever is making significant investment in its brands in Russia, with a major revamp of its Baltimor ketchup range. Russia is the second biggest ketchup market in the world—consumption per head is six times bigger than the world average and double the consumption of the USA—and Unilever leads the market with its two ketchup brands, Baltimor and Calvé.  The brand overhaul has been carried out by the Dutch (Hilversum, NL) and UK offices of brand development agency Anthem Worldwide, part of Schawk, Inc.

Personality tests aimed at figuring out one’s way of thinking will never be out of fashion. Building on the success of such questionnaires, Hyundai has launched a new global campaign New Thinkers Index on online platform to provide visitors with a chance to explore the notable thinkers’ outlooks (ones of actors, musicians, outstanding athletes and other notable people), read articles and watch a series of short 4-minute videos revolving around the think theme and take a test online to figure out how well they do in eight major areas of thinking ranging from natural and interpersonal to music and visual.

Some automobile brands work hard developing new groundbreaking concepts and presenting innovative models, and some brands look back into the past and source inspiration from its rich heritage to appeal to more consumers. Volkswagen has launched a new campaign entitled VW Fanwagen in the Netherlands, blending a modern social media twist with a retro vibe. The new promotion, developed by Dutch agency Achtung, has been launched on Facebook—the brand is offering its fans an opportunity to built ‘the most social car ever’ and promises to give it to one lucky participant.