New Zealand was a business it would be "pathetically" under-spending on marketing, says New-York based co-founder of communications firm SweenyVesty, Brian Sweeney. He says this is the time for action because the South Pacific nation has never had as much visibility as it has now. "Just recently there was the appointment to the UN Security Council, the All Blacks game in Chicago, the Hobbit, and Lorde doing phenomenally well. Everybody wants to come to New Zealand and they know a lot more about New Zealand than they did 20 years ago."

Combined new and used auto sales are likely to reach a record $1.1 trillion in the U.S. this year, and that figure could double by decade's end, according to various industry studies. In all, Americans will have purchased 54 million new and "previously owned" cars, trucks and crossovers, reports data service TrueCar. Automakers have been able to boost prices because of demand driven by sustained economic expansion and falling gas prices.

BlackBerry has gone back to what has worked before for the company, and what now makes it retro-unique in the smartphone world: a phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. It's the new BlackBerry Classic. The phone, which has been available on pre-order for a month, combines the old and new, pairing the keyboard with a touch display that's actually larger than the one featured in the Bold 9900.

Starbucks said it expects to set a record for Starbucks Card purchases on Dec. 24, simply because people are going to do at the last minute what they could do today. The chain expects it will easily top the more than 1,500 gift cards per minute that were purchased at its stores in the U.S. and Canada last Christmas Eve. The Starbucks Cards, launched 13 years ago, are a big revenue generator: more than $20 billion has been loaded onto them in just the U.S. and Canada. In the past year, alone, $4 billion has been loaded onto the cards.

The U.S. Commerce Department says that for huge swaths of the country the broadband service business is monopolistic, and the choices are nearly nil. Most people don't have fiber, and for DSL-level speeds of 10 Mbps, 70% of Americans have about two choices. But only 28% of Americans have a choice of three or more providers. At 25 Mbps - which Wheeler has argued is likely the "table stakes" for broadband service going forward - it's worse. For most, it's one provider.

Sports car maker Spyker, which acquired the drowning Saab from GM, has itself been drowned by the acquisition. The Dutch company declared bankruptcy on Thursday even as founder and CEO Victor Muller vowed to revive the company. A Dutch district court ended a temporary moratorium of payments granted Dec. 2. The court placed Spyker and its wholly owned subsidiaries Spyker Automobielen and Spyker Events & Branding into receivership.

With Super Bowl XLIX about six weeks off, marketers who have paid upward of $4.5 million to air spots on NBC on Feb. 1 have questions regarding the habits of viewers. For instance, how many will be watching and remembering the commercials, how many are willing to turn viewing into spending and what devices in addition to TV will they be using. YuMe found that while TV is still the No. 1 option for the Big Game, more people than ever will be using multiple devices. A strong number not only watch but recall ads and that interacting with friends …

Auto Trader, the marketplace for new and used cars, is launching a GBP6.5 million U.K. TV campaign on Boxing Day, drawing on the different ways people look for their perfect car. The integrated campaign highlights the new features on the Auto Trader website, which are designed to make it easier for consumers to find the right car. The spot, called "searchers," shows people looking for different things throughout various points in their life.

Only 5% of residents of Cuba have internet access, and cellphone access is expensive. But Cuba's rapprochement with the U.S. may change that fast. As part of the agreement, American internet and phone carriers are allowed to set up shop in the Caribbean nation. Companies will also have permission to export devices and apps that help Cubans get in touch with the rest of the world.

It's time for Burger Business's best and worst in burgers for 2014. And there are some doozies as always. Jack in the Box is BB's burger chain of the year on the strength of its Bacon Insider burger, and because it formally marketed its late-night menu separately from day part. It includes the Chick-n-Tater Melt. And the chain kept coming out with new limited time offers, while others backed off. The top indie chain: Burger Revolution in Belleville, Ont. More best-ofs at the jump.