3 Marketing Trends for 2018 That Will Make Life Very Grim for Marketeers Locked In the Status Quo

Looking back over the past decade, it's fair to say that Jan. 9, 2007, marked the dawn of a new marketing era. It was on that day that a very proud Steve Jobs introduced his paradigm-shifting brainchild, the iPhone, to a world that couldn't possibly have imagined how drastically this handheld computer would alter communication. Today, statistics show that 25 percent of smartphone owners ages 18–44 "can't remember not having their phone with them." These devices are, after all, a primary source of information, providing real-time content that drives decision making. Brands now think in "mobile-first" terms when building websites and related apps. And social media is eclipsing traditional news outlets in the dissemination of current affairs.