If you felt like brands were getting to know you better in 2017, imagine living in a world where being understood was the most valued expectation from a brand. In other words, creating the ultimate customer experience, one that understands you, the consumer. In 2018, empathy will be at the core of an ecosystem that supports the customer experience.

Marketers get caught up in the promise of personalization, but is it beneficial for all brands, particularly data-constrained CPG brands? Before investing in personalization, brands need to answer the following questions.

In today's consumer marketing landscape, strategies and tactics are changing. To make an impression on consumers-including the coveted millennial demographic-marketers are steadily embracing immersive experience-based marketing. There's good reason for this accelerating trend away from product-based initiatives. Marketers who monitor social media understand the tremendous value of experiential marketing.

As part of the grand opening of its Americas headquarters in Nashville earlier this month, Bridgestone signed a five-year extension for naming rights to the Bridgestone Arena, home for the NHL's Nashville Predators.

Just as brands have gained a foothold in understanding the minds of Millennials, Gen Z has replaced them as the new power players in consumer spending. As digital- and social-first consumers, the endless stream of things vying for Gen Z's attention is unprecedented. Brands face unique challenges in trying to attract and retain their loyalty, but it is possible with the right mix of authentic culture, quality and always-on engagement.

Travel marketers have mastered the art of filling airplanes and hotel rooms, but they have neglected the art of memory. Delays, cancellations, and mishaps dominate the remembered "customer experience." Telling travel horror stories is practically a competitive sport. One person boasts that she spent three hours waiting on the runway; the next person one-ups her with the night he slept on an airport bench. No one brags about how pleasant the trip was. It's as if vendors can only do wrong.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is probably the laziest week of the year. Even if you don't celebrate either, the rest of America probably does, so for marketers, it's also a good week to go heavy on advertising. While the rest of the marketing world has been focused on the run-up to the holidays, the week after is a golden opportunity to get in front of a captive audience. Here's why.

Internet of Things (IoT) has been a buzzword for some time, but with the rise of Amazon Echo and the arrival of Google, Apple and others in the smart home marketplace, perhaps it's time to start evaluating this hype from a third-party marketing perspective?

The idea of "pivot to video" has become incredibly important in the digital world, with many online news outlets putting more budget into their video production and output. Nonprofits should be no exception! According to a report from Cisco, by 2019, video will represent over 80% of all Internet traffic. That's why it's important to get ahead of the trend now and establish a strong video strategy for your nonprofit's marketing.

We marketers too often find ourselves trapped on the execution treadmill, with hardly any time at all to stop and assess our impact on the bottom line. But as the year winds down, it's imperative we take stock of what's worked and what hasn't, so we can chart a better course for ourselves and our businesses in 2018.