One of the side effects of the rate of change every brand team experiences is that looking back can seem, well, foolish. “Forward” is the brand team mantra, repeated silently, sometimes unconsciously, as time takes on a very contemporary shape – something akin to a New York City tunnel on a Friday at 5pm –, each idea of how to “engage” consumers vying to get through. However, there can be some good to reflecting on life a short ten years ago.
Ten years ago the Winter Olympics was going on in Salt Lake City. United Airlines declared bankruptcy. Bill Blass left us. And something called “infrastructure” was the main topic of one of the biggest advertisers in the world. So, why was IBM conducting a media assault about infrastructure, and winning an Ogilvy Award in the process? Because its customers – Chief information Officers – were coming up against a serious problem as they tried to integrate computing systems that were never built to work together, and make it function in the then new e-business culture.