"Surprise and delight" is the darling of the marketing industry. Brands go to great lengths to create special moments for customers, as when Ritz-Carlton treated a stuffed giraffe named Joshie (left behind at one of its hotels) to an all-expenses-paid adventure.

No, consumers don't want the cybersphere to know all about their hot flashes, E.D., or chronic dermatitis. And if you have Crohn's Disease, you may not want that information to follow you wherever you go online.

When a brand tries to play in the political space, it needs to follow the rules of the game. When done right, the messaging can be powerful and make consumers feel better about the brand. However, when done wrong, it can become controversial and devastating for the brand. What are some of these rules and how fine is the line between winning and losing?

Review any new internet trend report, and one of the major findings will be how Boomers and seniors are increasing their use of the internet, specifically on mobile devices and tablets. Older demographics are becoming more comfortable with making online purchases from platforms other than a laptop or desktop.

As we ring in 2018, one thing is clear: Media quality remains a top challenge for digital marketers. With mobile ad spending accounting for 70.3% of total U.S. digital advertising spending, many of the techniques used to perpetuate fraud as well as detect it have migrated from desktop to mobile. Mobile ad fraud comes in several varieties; let's take a look at several of the most prominent.

From hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria to the California wildfires to a major earthquake in Mexico, 2017 saw Mother Nature wreak havoc on a number of tourism destinations popular with American travelers. As the year drew to a close, we surveyed 754 U.S. adults to determine if recent disasters had affected their winter vacation plans. The results revealed some bright spots in the forecast: Not only do many plan to return to impacted destinations this winter, but the majority of those say they'll help with recovery efforts while there.

Whether it's as simple as tracking RFM (Recency of visitation, Frequency of visitation, Monetary spend/lifetime customer value) or more granular behavioral tracking through loyalty program smart cards or mobile apps, the leisure space has never before been as flush with behavioral data. With all of this information, these properties are able to understand how, when and where guests are spending their time while on property or at an event.

It takes trials and errors to get to that one idea that works the best and gives positive results. AI can create varieties but filtering is still up to human marketers.

Hispanics have been a demographic of interest to marketers for years now, but that hasn't always meant a shift in where budgets were allocated. This will all change in 2018, as new tools make it easier to vet publishers and Hispanic culture begins to exercise larger influence on the culture of the U.S. as a whole.

How video keeps different generations on the edge of their seats.