• by John Gaffney , June 9, 2002

Post Dot-Com Blues Riffs: Maybe I’m too sensitive. Maybe. But I’m starting to bristle at the never-ending conversation and stream of press pieces about all the lessons we’re all supposed to have learned from the “post boom” era (such as the one that appeared in Sunday’s NYT Magazine) Like a lot of people, I poured a fair amount of heart and soul into the new media revolution. Yes, it was ridiculous to think “scalable growth” would replace “percentage growth.” And yes, stock prices inflated like helium balloons. But there’s something else that no one talks about anymore: spirit. If you’re a planner or buyer in today’s media market, you have the internet boom and bust to thank for the strident amount of creativity and the emphasis on innovation that you see in today’s market. When I see a print campaign like Mini’s rewrite the rules on planning and buying space in magazines, I go back to the spirit of 1999. When I see creative sponsorships, like the ones Microsoft’s Xbox has formed this summer, I go back to 99. The internet revolution and devolution – in my view – we’re all about considering and creating possibilities. It was about creating new rules. It was about creating new solutions instead of settling for old ones, all in the interest of creating a better business. Once internet companies lost that spirit, they might as well have saved the bankruptcy courts a lot of trouble. Ten years from now, we’re going to look at the Internet boom years as the punk rock of business. When everything was settled and boring, a bunch of counter-culture geeks took an idea and a culture and proceeded to rock the joint. That’s all I needed to learn from the internet boom years. So next time you get the same old budget and same old direction from a client, consider that. There just might be a better way.......

Heads Will Roll Riffs: When you’re considering adding ABC-TV, ESPN or ESPN2 to your media plan, do you really care if Michael Eisner is running the company? I say you shouldn’t. There’s a lot of speculation on whether Executive X will continue to run Media Company X, and by and large it is a waste of time. Show me the numbers – not your number one guy........

BMW Riffs: BMW has announced they will reprise three more features for its BMW Films series. I predict you will see a lot more supporting media this time to get people to view the films online. Last year’s version was awesome, but I’m not sure BMW got the data capture it could have (read: registered names.)