In the tech world we see no shortage of ‘hype’ these days. The internet/digital spaces are sizzling with M&A activity and innovation is at an all-time high. However, lurking on the fringes of all of this hype are people who have lived through the dot-bomb era and are consistently warning everyone that a ‘correction’ or a full blown ‘bubble burst’ may be on the way. I’m a big believer in paying attention to ‘breadcrumbs’. Breadcrumbs are little morsels of information that act as signals or indicators in support of (or not) for a larger trend.
If we are indeed in a ‘bubble’, I have to say that I am not seeing many breadcrumbs to support that notion. In fact, we are consistently seeing signals in the marketplace that support the continued rise, growth and valuation of digital media.
One such breadcrumb that I stumbled across today was news that one of my favourite ‘Canadian-founded’ digital marketing agencies Blast Radius was acquired by a worldwide traditional (direct) marketing company. Blast Radius was founded in Vancouver in 1997 just as I was in the middle of my New Media diploma course at the Vancouver Film School. If memory serves me correctly, a VFS alumni was one of the founders of the agency. The CEO of the acquiring company had some brief but revealing comments regarding the logic behind the acquisition that in my opinion, just continues to support the notion that we are not in a bubble, but simply experiencing the rise of all things digital and web.
“I’m surprised at the speed at which clients are moving real communication dollars into the [digital] channel,” said Wunderman Chairman and CEO Daniel Morel, adding he expects the history of advertising will one day be divided into “before search” and “after search.”