English

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don’t get it. Are these people really so clueless to think they can compete on data with Google or Facebook? Google knows what you search, who you email (thanks to GMail), which sites you browse (thanks to Chrome) and where you are at all times (thanks to Android). On top of this, they own Doubleclick, which serves a significant share of the world’s banner ads. Do Omnicom or Publicis own something similar to Doubleclick? Not that I know. So, can anybody tell me what kind of “Big Data” (first paragraph, page 2) they are talking about? They buy campaigns from Google and then what? And then they think they can “analyse” the data better? Online ads don’t work. That’s why you need all that data and all that number-crunching power. Omnicom and Publicis have neither. Weren’t they supposed to be strong on strategy and ideas and creativity? Have they given up on all that? So now they want to beat Google at its game? Sounds like the perfect suicide to me.

In the summer of Y2K I went to California on vacation. The bubble had already burst, but there were still a few Flooz.com ads to be laughed at. I spent a couple of days around Silicon Valley. The only thing that struck me about this otherwise uninteresting place were the prices in ‘Italian’ restaurants. 16 to 18 bucks for a ‘risotto-ooo’ made me wonder if a dotcom were really the best path to riches.

Fast-forward 10+ years. No dotcoms anymore, and start-ups are all about software. As they should have been in the first place. Software as a service. Today, I paid 4-Euros-50, which is close to 6 bucks, for an ice-cream in Barcelona. Buy ice-cream-making machines (servers), learn how to do 8 great flavors (software), find a suitable location (SEO?) and then it’s all about traffic and scaling.

Having just read this post, Ice Cream as a Service (ICaaS) sounds like a better plan to me.