Infographic: A Road Trip Mapping the Last 14 Years of Storytelling

Since 2014, Carabiner Communications has chronicled the big B2B marketing trends that started back in 2004, when blogs ruled the web and earned the distinguished recognition of “Word of the Year” by Merriam-Webster. The following year, YouTube launched, and Facebook broke the 1-million-user mark. Over the next decade, the world of storytelling saw significant changes in the way people consumed news, and, therefore, impacted the way marketers were telling their brands’ stories.

The newest installment of our B2B storytelling infographic picks up with the big trend from 2018: podcasts. According to Podcast Insights’ 2018 Podcast Stats and Facts, 48 million people listened to podcasts weekly, giving marketers an enormous channel for reaching target audiences with engaging content.

And our prediction for 2019’s big marketing trend? Influencer Marketing Version 2.0. Influencer Marketing first appeared on our infographic in 2016, but we think it deserves being featured again, given how much marketers claim it has helped them, and the fact that they plan on spending even more on it next year.

We hope you enjoy this nostalgic road trip back in time to look at the top B2B marketing and PR trends that shaped how corporate stories got told during that time span.

What are your thoughts on trends for 2019 and beyond?

Peter Baron

Although Peter began his career with a large PR agency in NYC, he ultimately found his way to the warm and sunny South and made it home. True to our agency name, he is one connected guy—some folks think he knows pretty much everyone in the Atlanta tech community.