This week I am in NZ, or as we simply call it, the HomeZone©.

My journey to the HomeZone© began with a couple of meetings in New York. Tatts and I met with the “Italians� over a morning coffee. We left this meeting quite confused; maybe we are a little too simplistic to grasp the complex nuances of their discussion points.

Then we met Nick Brien and had a very expensive lunch for three (USD$526.00). It’s too complicated to explain in detail, but it was money well spent. Nick is the King-Kong of the advertising world and has just been promoted to the biggest job in the ad world. He has the complicated task of turning around ‘McCann World Group’, which contributes 40% of the revenue of Inter-Public-Group. Nick has a simple approach to the challenge ahead…�Act like a Pirate, not like the Navy�.

24hrs later I landed in Dunedin. I was there to visit my Granddad, pretty simple really. My Granddad is from Czechoslovakia, and it’s a tradition that when family visits you do one simple thing – shots of slivovitz or as he simply calls it “plum juice�.

On my drive from Dunedin to Queenstown, a client from LA called me with a simple request…to hook him up with two tickets to the Super Bowl in 7 days time. This isn’t that simple, but rather quite complex. So far, I’ve managed to get End-Zone seats for $2500/person, the bummer is it’s become a little more complicated – the client wants better seats than the End-Zone.

While I’m in NZ, myself and a client from the USA (Bill Anderson) are meeting with the owners of some NZ Craft Beers. We are meeting with Richard from Emerson’s, Brian from Renaissance, Luke from Epic and Dean from McCashin’s. I don’t know any of these guys, but it was pretty simple to arrange the meetings. I called them on their cell phones which were listed on their websites…there wasn’t any secretary or assistant to complicate the matter. We have one simple goal from these meetings, to partner with a NZ Craft Brewery and import the beer to the USA. Apparently, simple little NZ makes some of the worlds best and most complex craft beers. All this is good timing, as coincidently, the USA beer drinkers taste profile has become more sophisticated and consumers are fed-up with the simple liquid inside a bottle of Bud Light.

I always look forward to the same simple things in the HomeZone©, Gourmet Burgers with the ironic ingredients of beetroot, egg and pineapple. A simple latte, it comes in one size only, and you can’t complicate it by adding vanilla, making it extra hot or doubling the amount of foam.  And of course the good old simple meat pie…meat and gravy wrapped up in pastry smothered with tomato sauce.

This morning I went for a run. How simple is that!

Calling back to the USA can be a little complicated, but I’d rather enter 15 extra digits and use the phone card versus paying T-mobile or Vodafone $3/min. The best way to call home is via a Skype video chat. Its amazing how much a simple smile from Stella can melt my heart on the other side of the world.

Anyway, time to wrap this up. I have a date with my Kindle to read the British Sunday Times; I find the NZ Sunday Herald a tad too simple…

RMCD.