Digital engagement specialist Affinity ID set up its Auckland office just two years ago. And, after spying a gap in the Australian market, there will also be an office in Sydney in the New Year.

…Media Design School students win thing; a magical mystery store opens its doors in Auckland’s High St; The Documentary Channel is no more; social buying site GrabOne celebrates a milestone; the hunt is on for New Zealand’s Next Top Bookshelf; African adventurers and other charities look for assistance; Air New Zealand’s Christmas auction kicks off; ex-Fonterra boss Roger Boyd launches the ‘beverage of the well-travelled’; InComm arrives in Australasia; 2Degrees, now in 3Dimensions; NZ Post gives everyone a hurry up; and marvel at the glamour of the IAB/Facebook Xmas party.

There’s almost nothing better than sipping on a cool, refreshing Heineken in the Auckland sun as you marvel at the athletic prowess of finely tuned athletes smacking balls at each other. And, thanks to the generous folk at Panasonic, your dreams could become a reality. We’ve got five …

This week on the box, the massive Mitre 10 Mega man violates some Christmas puppets; NZ Post reminds everyone to send letters; Burger King fails to make wobbling, slow motion chicken look appetising; and Giorgio Armani squeezes as many fragrance ad cliches into 30 seconds as humanly possible.

Having recently given away a host of free beverages to celebrate its launch in Australia, Charlie’s will be following suit in the homeland and giving away bottles of its old-fashioned Honest Quenchers to overworked corporate slaves in Auckland next week. The crux, however, is that the request for freebies has to be made via its Facebook page.

The General Strike, The Springbok Tour, Bastion Point, the Aotea Square riots … There have been many famous New Zealand revolutions; many examples of the masses banding together and showing their dissatisfaction. But none of them really compare to the recent consumer uprising to get Tip Top to bring back the Mint Trumpet and the Grapefruit and Lemon Fruju.

After skipping last week’s #markchat due to the Pike River memorial, the Twitter stream will once again be flowing freely at 12:30pm today, with the topic being ‘personal authenticity vs professional brand – where do they meet and diverge?’ Also, for all those unable to ‘attend’ the chat, we’ll choose the five most salient/interesting comments made during #markchat and a link to the summary blog post.

A highly successful PR campaign for the New Zealand Rugby Foundation (NZRF) has won a group of AUT Communications students the annual Network PR Practice Award, which recognises excellence in the planning and executing of real life campaigns for not-for-profit organisations. 

Dow Design has given those purveyors of meaty Kiwi goodness, Hellers, a bit of a makeover, rolling out a new logo, new packaging and a positioning statement of ‘NZ’s butcher’.

The DB Export brand team, Honor Dillon and Dave Shoemack

The rather interesting story of Morton Coutts, the serial inventor, crafty bugger, co-founder of DB breweries and brewer of DB Export, has been spread fairly widely across the ad landscape over the last few months after Colenso BBDO’s rather large relaunch of the brand. The father of the Export family, DB Export, is currently back on shelves for a limited period as part of a 50th anniversary celebration. And ‘Morton’ and a few of his friends are once again dishing out some liquid Christmas cheer as part of its ‘Workplace Shout’ promotion.

Following on from news about a billboard constructed from broken plates and glasses, DraftFCB has also launched a rather novel billboard for UNICEF. And, in a very impressive display of very time-consuming needlework, it’s made entirely of wool.

Christchurch certainly hasn’t had an easy time of it over the last few months. But one positive aspect of the earthquake has been the banding together of those affected and the lengths many New Zealanders have gone to to offer their support. The Restaurant Association of New Zealand has already raised money for its southern counterparts with events in Queenstown and at the Grove Restaurant in Auckland. And now a billboard constructed from broken plates and glass from some of the hardest hit restaurants in Christchurch has been employed to try and get the punters to book their Christmas parties and support the city’s local restaurateurs.

NZ Post announced its intention to snatch some of the Auckland directories market off Yellow and TradeMe in late October with a new start-up called Localist. And its first outdoor offensive has begun, with billboards going up around Auckland in the last few days. And, as well as talking up its own new offering, which is set to launch next year, they certainly don’t shy away from sticking the boot into the quality of the opposition’s services, something Yellow has acknowledged recently and is hoping to rectify with a big cash injection.

After delving into the murky waters of PR measurement earlier this year, the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group, along with the Marketing Association and New Zealand online research company Buzz Channel, is now aiming to find out how much of the marketing pie the PR and Experiential realm has by conducting a nationwide survey.

It’s that time of year again, when journalists and editors who can see the Christmas lights at the end of the tunnel start compiling end of year lists on a vast array of topics. StopPress is even lazier than that, however, because we haven’t created our own (yet) and instead we’ve just decided to point out lists that have already been created. Still, research suggests there’s nothing better than a good list, and these two compilations are most definitely in that category.

World-first alert! The next piece in the rather large ASB puzzle was released on Sunday, with 50 New Zealand consumers playing their part in what the campaign creators believe to be the world’s first-ever ‘mobile ad-venture’, an “immersive film” called Lost that was created to promote its new mobile banking services.

Not surprisingly, ’tis very retail heavy on the ad front this week and there’s not too much that’s rising above the rabble in the lead-up to the festive season. In fact, the most notable feature of the week was the decision by ONE news not to run any ads during its coverage of the Pike River Mine disaster.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of per capita magazine consumption in the world. And, despite plenty of crowing from the online sector about increasing revenue—and more than a few digi-evangelists still predicting the demise of paper—the domestic magazine market continues to grow.

As we all know, it’s the thought that counts. But that really doesn’t matter at all if it’s a crap thought. As such, the amount of cash you splash is what counts in these consumerist days. And Kiwis’ Christmas shopping habits have been unwrapped (geddit?) in a new survey that has discovered stuff you probably already knew.

The 2011 Axis Call for Entries has gone out. And, in keeping with the event’s unashamed focus on creativity, new convenor of judges Tony Bradbourne says there are a few exciting innovations, like the move from a Word file to a PDF, the change from Times to the more modern typeface Gotham and a couple of subtle changes to some of the categories.