Phrases like click-through rate can seem like another case of “black box syndrome-” the feeling that internet marketing is an incomprehensible mystery to businesses who don’t have an entire IT department.

The black box on an aircraft is actually bright orange, so why the misnomer? There's no ironic or clever

story to it, simply that in the early 1950's, rudimentary flight data recorders were actually housed in a metal box onboard the airplane that was painted… black. Aircrews, whose job it was to keep the machine flying, referred to it as "the black box" as a way of indicating that it did something electronic and mysterious.

Back in December of 2014, we made a few predictions about the future of internet marketing. Any prophet worth his or her salt should get one or two prognostications correct... Turns out we did OK!  

Here's what we predicted and what actually happened.

Savannah advertising is a many-splendored thing.

When you rotate a map of England to the right ninety degrees, it looks vaguely like a ragged old shoe. Could this be a clue to the political meaning behind the nursery rhyme “The Little Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe?”

Some historians believe the “Old Woman” is Great Britain’s King George II. He’s the fellow who started the 18th century craze for men wearing white powdered wigs, possibly giving rise to the Old Woman moniker. Apparently he was met with a good deal of insubordination while serving as sovereign and, like the elderly mother in the rhyme, had a crisis of planning when it came to his “children.”

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;

She gave them some broth without any bread;

Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

Some think “children” refers to parliament. We prefer the interpretation that points to the global empire of colonies under British rule. Could George II’s haughty mistreatment of his colonial possessions have been one of the root causes of the rebellion that occurred at the end of the century under his grandson, George III?

No one knows for sure who’s who in the nursery rhyme, but what is certain is this: Whether you’re ruling an empire or running a business, you need to plan carefully with the best information available.