Cuker attended Gen Art's Fresh Faces in Fashion LA 2009 with premier fashion client Stampd' LA. Stampd' has gained international recognition for the companies innovative and progressive style. Stampd' LA has used it's website as a vehicle to grow their business and promote their products internationally. Checkout more info on Stampd' LA at www.stampdla.com.

Technology has enabled us to verify our assumptions and intuitions, and as the revolution of web analytics has shown us, marketing and advertising is not exempt. Even design is subject to experimental evidence. This is an interesting read on using eye tracking and experiments to determine what impact designing for the "page fold" has: The Myth of the Page Fold: Evidence from User Testing.

In the image below you can see the hotspots where user's eyeballs were tracked as they read the pages and followed the content down. Users are now accustomed to scrolling web pages, and if content is displayed in a way that entices them to read more, experimental evidence shows that in general they are perfectly ready to do so.

Social media is gaining momentum as a leading influencer of consumer behavior - and that trend is extending into the holiday season. If social media isn't part of your overall holiday marketing plan, you may want to rethink your strategy.

As the reach of social networking extends across every demographic of American society, more and more consumers are talking about brands and products with family, friends, and associates online. Facebook users now average around 15 hours on the site per week - and more importantly for e-tailers, now contribute more than 3% of all traffic to the top retail sites online.

Consumers are now delivering real-time messages about brands directly to their networks - almost 25% of social network users post links to other companies, products or services on a regular basis. A study from Penn State found that a specific brand or service is mentioned in nearly one out of every five tweets.

This trend is especially evident in the coveted high-income demographic - a recent study found that nearly one in five wealthy consumers in social networks also belong to a social shopping site like Ideeli and Rue LaLa.

The holiday season is a critical time for making sure that your brand is seen and your message is heard. Don't miss the opportunity to speak directly with consumers during the time they're most likely to spend all year - make sure you leverage the power of social media to generate awareness of your brand and drive sales, both during the holidays and into 2010.

Wonderwall, an interior design firm, recently launched a very playful 3D experience showcasing their work in a unique way. Simply hovering over the work brings it to life. Clicking on a project brings you to a detail view where they maintain the 3D aspect in the transitions. It's amazing how far ActionScript 3D libraries like PaperVision3D have come in recent years and this site is an excellent example of thoughtful interactivity.

The world is getting smaller. US based brands are admired globally and used to be more difficult access. Now with the Internet, large US brands are becoming increasingly more accessible by an international audience.

Over 60% of Facebook and Twitter users are outside of the US. We have launched many social media campaigns with our clients (predominantly US based brands) and we always get feedback from international users asking how they can buy the products.

Currently we are working with Callaway Golf, DC Shoes, Quiksilver, and Vix Swimwear on building international features and infrastructures on their website(s).

US Brands need to have an online strategy for international e-commerce, international currency, website hosting, language translation, and ongoing website management. We have been working with our clients on structuring their international online strategy to build it efficiently and grow sales.

The internet is bringing people together and making it easier to get brands and products that you love, whether you are in Sothern California, New York, Brazil, Australia, Europe, or Russia. In the next 5 years all major brands will be addressing global e-commerce solutions to grow direct sales and market to an international audience.

Videography Magazine recently featured the Quiksilver Spot video in both the print and online editions. Catch the story here and here.

Smashing magazine recently published an article about the benefits of minimizing complexity in user interfaces. This is a principle we strive to live by here at Cuker. You can check out the whole article here.

SEOmoz.org posted a great guide to the most popular and effective Social Media Sites that can be used to market your business. Checkout the full article - Click Here