You found me (web surfer). Yes, I went to your site, looked around a bit and then left. Now that it’s determined that I have some interest in your brand (by a cookie that was dropped or I visited a certain link on your site), I am now either seeing your banner ads on other sites I visit or receiving emails regarding products. Do I want to see your brand over and over again? Maybe. Do I want to see it immediately after leaving your site? Not necessarily. Maybe I need some time to think. And according to recent statistics, I am not alone. A study conducted by Specific Media (an ad network) with the help of Brand Republic, finds that most consumers are annoyed by retargeting because they have already purchased the product or decided it was out of their price range.

Retargeting is a great way to keep a brand/product top of mind, but it should be done in an effective way. Criteo, a search retargeting firm, sights that retargeted customers are 70% more likely to[...]

We’ve all been hearing it for years. “Mobile is going to explode in 20_ _!” But with the advent of Siri, Apple’s latest addition to its new iPhone 4S, it is worthwhile to stand back for a second and see where mobile is today and whether it has exploded or is on the cusp.

A recent Economist report titled “Beyond the PC” is projecting that sales of smartphones will exceed 400 million units in 2011, and that by 2020 there will be 10 billion mobile devices in service. In addition, 2011 is projected to be the year that smartphones outpace regular “feature” phones in the U.S. market. These are all very impressive figures that all point to the fact that in the U.S. at least, smartphones are indeed the big thing this year. The data also indicates that smartphones (and to a lesser extent tablets) will become to new go-to source for information and media.

According to EMarketer.com, 31.4 million Americans are currently watching video on their phones which is projected to increase to 56.7 million by 2014. Additionally, the average American spends over 4 hours per month watching video on their phone (Nielsen “Cross Platform Report”). Now that’s still small compared to[...]

<img class="size-medium wp-image-4886 alignleft" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kkte_Image-12-300×200.jpg" alt="" width="206" height="137" /> This past summer I had the pleasure of visiting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kykuit" target="_blank">Kykuit</a>, John D. Rockefeller’s “country home." I suppose my interest in exploring the homes of jaw-dropping wealthy individuals reveals my guilty pleasure: I’m a bit of a voyeur at heart. While exploring the grounds, I was struck by the thoughtfulness of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/p_rock_n.html" target="_blank">Nelson Rockefeller</a>—the 3rd link in four generations of Rockefellers—in the way he married modern art and the environment at his home. In particular, I admired the Westward-facing, telescopically-fashioned sculpture "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/30rCOVER.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">Triangular Surface in Space</a>," which affords passersby with an artistic viewfinder through which to gaze upon the picturesque Hudson River. In placing the sculpture precisely overlooking the river, Rockefeller elevated both art and nature; he gave art a purpose and made nature a more intimate facet of the property. I’ll always remember this sight; not because I’m a sculpture junkie, but because two seemingly unrelated constructs fused in an interesting way. <a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=4865">[...]</a>

<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-5905" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/turntable1.jpg" alt="" width="402" height="259" />As <a href="http://turntable.fm/lobby" target="_blank">Turntable.fm</a>, one of this summer's most hyped music sites, gets ready to launch its <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/" target="_blank">iPhone</a> app, there is much <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/07/turntable-fm-iphone-app/" target="_blank">talk</a> about it hitting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle" target="_blank">"trough of disillusionment"</a>. This is the stage in the hype cycle of a new tech trend where the original users of the technology begin to feel that it has been over-hyped and is beginning to lose its original mystique. After all, once DJ GranEthel starts trying to spin 50's doo-wop hits in a hip-hop room you know its time to get out.

This has happened to pretty much every hot technology website that has tipped into the mainstream. It happened with <a href="http://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, with many users either ignoring their accounts, or severely limiting their viewing options once everyone's aunt was able to create a profile. This also happened with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chat_Roulette" target="_blank">Chatroulette</a>, which disappeared into obscurity as quickly as it emerged into popular culture. <a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=5897">[...]</a>

<img class="size-medium wp-image-5029" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/EASPORTS_StoreRender-300×168.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="168" />

During a recent visit to a local <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/" target="_blank">Barnes &amp; Noble bookstore</a>, I was struck by how much the store has changed in the last ten years. It continues to sell books and other media like it always has, yet there are noticeably fewer people in the store. A third of the floor space is now devoted to the <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp" target="_blank">Nook e-reader</a>. While I searched through the aisles, I couldn't shake off the distinct sense of foreboding, that Barnes &amp; Noble will go the way of Borders and start closing down its cherished retail locations.
<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=4858">[...]</a>

The results are in! Researchers have discovered that the brand of clothing you wear matters in society! Alright, so we knew this. But the latest research published in Evolution and Human Behavior shows that brand perceptions have bigger societal implications than we originally assumed. Apparently we are unconsciously very shallow. The study showed that not only do shirts with Lacoste or Hilfiger logos increase perceptions of status and wealth as compared to identical logo-less shirts, but they also help shopping survey interviewers get more responses at the mall. They help candidates in job interviews (branded candidates got 9% higher salary recommendations). And they even help volunteers gain donations at a charity auction. The list goes on. [...]

<img class="size-medium wp-image-3541 alignleft" style="margin: 3px 10px;border: black 1px solid" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Arcadefire-Graph1-300×240.jpg" alt="arcadefire.com web traffic" width="314" height="251" />Without question the music industry has undergone enormous change with the evolution of digital technology. Before the mp3, if you had the talent and the potential to appeal to a mass market, you got signed to a record label and your success was measured by how many copyrighted albums you could sell. Often, the decision to keep an artist on board was made within the first few months of cutting the album. Underground success was much more difficult to achieve, given the resources and connections needed to influence radio stations and record execs, which in many cases meant using "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola" target="_blank">payola</a>." Given the vast influence of these gatekeepers and their propensity to sign artists with a high potential to sell, they were rarely willing to take risks, as was the case with Elvis and the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,661084,00.html" target="_blank">evolution of rock &amp; roll </a>as a popular genre of music.

Last night the indie-rock sensation, <a href="http://www.arcadefire.com/">Arcade Fire</a>, won the Grammy for “Album of the Year” with “The Suburbs.” Not only did they win, but they were honored with the opportunity to perform two songs in front of the star studded audience. The live show plays out like the name sounds, with an arsenal of noise stemming from the likes of 7 members that play guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, glockenspiel, keyboard, French horn, accordion, harp, mandolin and everyone’s favorite Louis the XIV-era wooden string-instrument, the hurdy-gurdy<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=3537">[...]</a>

<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2660" title="Harry Potter" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Harry-Potter.jpg" alt="" width="143" height="213" />For many, literally hundreds of millions of people, just glancing a <a href="http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthedeathlyhallows/mainsite/index.html">Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1</a> movie poster is enough to make your heart beat faster, your blood grow warmer, and your belly fill with that warm, tingling sensation that is excitement and anticipation. And after a full two weeks of play, the movie is still top at the box office beating out rivals like <a href="http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/#/home/">Tangled</a>, the new Disney animated feature. As the seventh and most successful midnight opening in the franchise, what is the magic (so to speak) behind the Wizarding success? And can other fantasy flicks like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1324999/">Twilight: Breaking Dawn</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0980970/">The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader</a> compete?

My answer? No, they cannot compete with the success of the Harry Potter movies for 3 reasons<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=2658">[...]</a>

I admit, I am an unabashed casual gamer. My love affair, which started with competing win/loss stats on the family computer on Spider Solitaire within the accessories->games from Windows OS quickly expanded out to Popcap games, Big Fish Games online (I think I’ve played every single free demo offered ranging from strategy, puzzles and yes, even hidden objects-guilty pleasure) to Droid game apps. Angry Birds Beta = Awesome.

You also can’t forget about social gaming .

Today’s Geek Out is a series of data points I’ve pulled together concerning casual gaming, social gaming and beyond[...]

It has happened again. Somehow, magically, the trailer for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800369/">Thor</a> was leaked at <a href="http://www.comic-con.org/cci/">Comic Con</a> 2010 in San Diego. Before that in 2009 it was <a href="http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com/">Iron Man 2</a>. In 2008, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458525/">X-Men Origins: Wolverine</a>. See the pattern? Doesn't it seem strange that each year at Comic Con – the biggest gathering of freaks, geeks, and comic book junkies – a trailer for a Comic Book movie is leaked?
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1561 aligncenter" title="leaked-trailer" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/leaked-trailer.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="150" /></p>
I don't think it is so much coincidental as it is smart. So smart. It is all about buzz. The people that attend any given Comic Con are going to be the target audience for comic book movies. It certainly doesn't take a genius to figure that out. So, it makes sense that a special viewing of these trailers would take place in such a forum.Then, inevitably each year, a star trailer is leaked. Why? Is it because the attendees are members of some elite hacker organization, hell bent on providing this content to others who weren't lucky enough to be at the convention? My guess is no. Allowing limited and perceptually illegitimate access to these trailers provides the perfect buzz that these movies want to create[...]