If you haven’t noticed, PromoCorner turned 25 this year (2024) and we’ve been celebrating like it’s 1999! Enjoy a little trip down memory lane, or if you were too young to remember or not born yet, this is what technology looked like at the turn of the century vs today.
THE INTERNET
1999 The internet was still in its early stages of being widely adopted and we needed to plug our computers into a telephone line to connect (dial-up) - I can still hear the noise.
2024 The internet is everywhere, wireless, and fast.
SOCIAL MEDIA
1999 Social Media was almost nonexistent, we had AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and chat rooms, but nothing like we have today. It would still be a few years until social media, as we know it, was launched - Friendster 2002, MySpace and LinkedIn 2003, Facebook 2004.
2024 Social Media is king and one of the top forms of marketing/advertising.
MARKETING
1999 With the accessibility of the internet, many companies created websites, blogs, and emails that heavily relied on keywords. Traditional marketing was still going strong with TV commercials, print ads, flyers, phone book placements, billboards, and telemarketing.
2024 Now we primarily use digital marketing; content marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, UGI (user-generated content), and the ever evolving AI.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
1999 Adobe Photoshop was on version 5 and Illustrator version 8.
2024 Adobe is on Creative Cloud (instead of on CDs) with Photoshop version 25.11 and Illustrator version 28.6 (at time of writing) and has introduced Generative AI into their programs.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
1999 Even though AI was coined in the 1950s it was still a concept with limited practical applications for marketing.
2024 AI has exploded and become a topic of controversy for artists of all kinds. Top companies, like Adobe, have included elements of AI in their software that help make some tasks easier.
What do you think the next 25 years will bring for the world of technology?
Jessica is the Art Director at PromoCorner and has been in the promotional products industry since 2010. With a degree in Graphic Design, she has been working in Marketing since 2006 creating advertising of all sizes; from social posts to billboards. Jessica shares her passion for design in her monthly blog, Designer Patch. She can be reached at
jessica@promocorner.com.