This weeks Campaign piece featuring stories and reminiscences of the Dotcom bubble (which, scarily, began almost a decade ago) from the likes of Mark Cridge, Helen Calcraft, and Jerry Fielder got me all nostalgic about my own experience riding the first wave all those years ago. At the time I was working across a whole range of websites, some of which are still around (and doing very nicely), and others which were thought better of.
Across the industry I remember there being a lot of rubbish talked, not least about the illusion of “first mover advantage”, and a lot of people who had forgotten about the end user and what they might actually want or need.
But I also remember there being a fantastically entrepreneurial feel to it all, an unprecedented speed of decision, a willingness to challenge convention, and a feeling that anything was possible. That feeling has stayed with me ever since and, I think, profoundly influenced the way I work. So I have a lot to be grateful for.
Spookily, I also recently happened across a Campaign piece of the time (sorry for the appalling scan – must have had appalling scanners back in those days) in which I was asked about my opinion on the future of the banner ad. Thankfully I think I said that it was not quite dead (just yet).
P.S. Yes, I even had the dodgy goatee way back then
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