I'm about to leave for a ecological tour of the Banana River with Space Coast River Tours (www.spacecoastrivertours.com).

The company was founded by Mark and Michelle Anderson, who remain the boat's captains today.Their daily tours  close encounters with manatees and gators as well as other views of Florida's diverse wildife. If you have any questions you'd like me to ask, leave them in the comment section below. I'll write a follow-up post later. For now, I'm off for the tour!

Your Gmail is about to undergo an extreme makeover- social networking style. Today, we received word that Google will release their closest version of Facebook. An excerpt from Google's blog explains the premise of Google Wave:

You create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content - it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

Google's multi-layered media format in the user interface provides users wit the tools for media collabration  and full editing controls to each participant.

Wave's Primary features include:

• Google Wave Concurrency: Natural language tools extending control technology provides real-time collaboration on a wave edit rich media at the same time.
• Server-based models provide contextual suggestions and spelling correction.
• Google Wave APIs:Embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets.

Fans of Google's other services and tools such as Analytics, Google Earth, Google Reader and Google News should welcome the Wave with open arms.No official launch date has been released, but you can sign up for the wave at wave.google.com.

Consumer demand is vital for any service or product to survive, and as disposable income drops,products that were once considered essentials may be reclassified as a luxuries. (Think Starbucks Coffee)

To maintain or increase the level of demand, marketers are burdened with the task of redefining their product's image to broaden its appeal.

King Gillette, founder of Gillette Safety Razor Company, (now known as Global Gillette) understood the value of freebie marketing. His strategy was simple in practice yet profoundly effective: Giveaway a free Gillette Shaver and sell replacement blades at a premium. Gillette's practice started in the late 1890's and continues to this day. His concept has earned him the recognition as a pioneer of giveaway, AKA "Freebie Marketing." In fact, Wikipedia cites King Gillette as the pioneer of freebie marketing. An excerpt from the freebie marketing section reads:

While working as a traveling salesman in the 1890s for the Crown Cork and Seal Company, Gillette had an idea while attempting to shave one morning. His straight razor was so worn from use that it could no longer be sharpened. His idea was to create thin, cheap, removable blades that could simply be removed from the handle and discarded when no longer usable.As consumers use up the blades they then purchase replacements, potentially going on for years and decades. This ensures a steady flow of consumers.

Gillette's foresight was truly remarkable. I've been inspired to search for a company with a comparable strategy. Which company is ensuring a steady flow of consumers for decades? When I find it, I'll write a follow-up post.

Sports fans are always hungry for a passionate debate, and Vitamin Water feeds that hunger with their promo: Great Debate: Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?

Following the Cavs' game 4 collapse against Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, some fans may say "neither", but Vitamin Water, a division of Energy Brands, owned Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO)placed its two most valuable athletes against each other to attract fans to its site, as well as the Vitamin Water Facebook page.

Once you're on the Great Debate page, you can vote for the better player, purchase a mural of either player via an eBay partnership and take a quiz to see which player you're more similar to. Videos and images are also available for viewing. I voted for Kobe Bryant, who was trailing by a 2% margin at 51-49 after 20,000 votes.

 Kobe Byrant is out of touch with the average NBA fan, and for good reason: If you want to follow the life of Los Angeles Lakers superstar,  it will cost you.

Among most sports fans,  Bryant is widely regarded as one of the most selfish players in the NBA. Kobe's website is a case of perception = reality.
The site touts many interactive features, including a section with videos, audio, photos, blogs, forums and social networks. There's only one catch- to register in his community of forums,blogs and social networking, you must pay a $24.95 fee-Almost $25 just for the privlidige of tracking the daily life of a Los Angeles Lakers' superstar.

I was stunned by this foolish marketing move.Evidently, Kobe's agent, Robert Pelinka of Landmark Sports Agency, wasn't considering the average American fan who's struggling just to make ends meet in this tough economy.

In an era where the average fan already feels insulted by obscene ticket prices, multi-million dollar endorsements from Nike and outrageous salaries for professional athletes, one of the league's highest-paid players is asking fans to contribute $25 for access to his social network, blog and other content that's generally free on most sites.
Kobe could learn a lot from Shaq and Dwight Howard, who frequently communicate with fans via Facebook, Twitter & Youtube channels.

Memorial Day Weekend wasn't a memorable opening for Warner Bros. or the cast of Terminator Salvation. Interest on imdb.com is up 300%,but the Youtube and Twitter sites didn't receive a notable spike in traffic.

Why? Perhaps the best reason is a poor product. Terminator Salvation's mixed reviews  followed a lackluster perfomance on screen by Christian Bale, who played John Connor, and the fourth installment of the series earned an pedestrian $51 million in box office ticket sales.

Obviously, $51 million isn't a bad outing, but it's only 1/3 as much as Christian Bale's 2008 blockbuster, the Dark Knight. 

In an effort to enagage fans of the series and expand the pre-release hype, Warner Bros. launched two viral sites for terminator salvation: resistorbeterminated.com and skynetresearch.com. Other marketing and merchandising strategies included the Terminate me iPhone App and a web series.

Everybody loves a conspiracy theory, including fans of the National Basketball Association. Since the Tim Donaghy refree scandal,commisioner David Stern can't be thrilled with the complaints from former players such as Charles Barkely, accusing  the league of  officiating with a bias toward the Cavs and Lakers for a Kobe Bryant vs. Lebron James matchup in the NBA Finals.

The ingredients for a conspiracy are all there. Just compare a Denver vs. Orlando Finals scenario to Cleveland vs LA. Orlando is a small-market, one-town team and the superstar battle would pit Carmelo Anthony against Dwight Howard. Conversely,a  Lakers vs. Cavaliers series delivers more than just a major market team featured in the primetime slot, it offers viewers the chance to see a showdown between the league's two most popular players on one court.
Dwight Howard believes the new Nike MVPs series: featuring talking puppets of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant, are an indication that the shoe giant has counted its egges before they've hatched.

For Orlando and Denver, the "no respect" treatment from sports media could provide just enough extra incentive to boost them to the finals. Nike and David Stern are just keeping their fingers crossed that's not the case.

For those of you who've paid for a charter fishing guide, you already know they tend to focus on the size or quantity of fish per trip and neglect to put their customer's comfort and enjoyment first. Native Sons Fishing Guides takes a different approach and focuses on the overall experience and happiness of every single customer that steps foot on their boat. Known to us on the Space Coast as some of the best Orlando fishing guides (only 45 minutes east of Orlando) around. 

These guys combine their professional fishing backgrounds and add a huge dose of hospitality and describe Florida's natural habitats while you're boating through them. Each guide's credentials include certification from State of Florida and US Coast Guard, memberships in five different professional organizations and seven professional fishing circuits.

Captain Rocky Van Hoose is one of three guides at Native Sons. Van Hoose spent his youth around Sarasota and the Sunshine State's West Coast and the past 15 years on the Space Coast. Captain Roland (Brad) Jones has fished both coasts for over 40 years, while Peter Deeks, the youngest of the crew at 23, was born and raised on Merritt Island, right on the Indian River. Deeks is also a graduate of the prestigious Rollins College in Winter Park and is a living example of doing what you love no matter what kind of degree you have.


I listened to Rocky tell the story of a childhood passion that became his career, rather than his retreat. My first question,

• Where did he vision for Native Sons start?

Captain Rocky: This has been a life-long passion and a dream. 50 years later, here I am, being a kids again and doing something I've long dreamed of doing. I've been a commercial guide for six years, Native Sons is five years old.

• When did you launch your site, and what role does the website serve in your marketing plan?

Captain Rocky: We launched the site five years ago, and it's already had two major revisions.  It's like fishing and everything else we do, we're constantly striving for excellence. I think we have one of the best guide sites anywhere. It's  full of information, including videos, reports, bios of guides, ,a what's new section, booking,rating section.FAQ,contact info. We're constantly adding content.

The website is crucial to communicating who we are and what we do. Rankings are important for clients and probably 50% of our business is repeat.

Not only is the ranking of the website important as a first contact point, but every other contact point is accentuated by the website, whether it's on the TV or word of mouth. The website is crucial to who we are and what we do. Ranking is crucial for our first-time clients, and 50% of our clients become repeat clients.

• You recently launched a TV ad campaign blitz on Sun Sports TV. What's your target market and how did you pitch Native Sons?

Captain Rocky: We love families.

We love husband and wife teams, fathers and sons or mothers and daughter combinations, because they're natural born teachers and we want to pass along this passion to the next generation. May has been a family emphasis month on the TV ads, and we had a lot of families this month. In June we may switch off to Fathers. Dads need to be heroes to their kids and we'd like to help them achieve that, not only through a guide trip, but every other trip out on the river, so they can have the overall experience.

•   What are some of distinguishing aspects that set Native Sons your apart from the other fishing guides in Florida?

Captain Rocky: We understand that it's all about giving the clients great memory-making experiences, and that includes a lot more than quantities of big fish. It includes the peripheral things, the manatees the dolphins, the alligators, the rosette spoonbills, the pristine water, the horseshoe crabs and sea horses.

There are some guides who don't understand that aren't in this business a long time. It's not that they're not good fisherman, it's they're not good with people.

There's a lot that goes into a day's experience, so when that client comes off the water, this is the memory we want them to take back with them to Michigan or New Jersey. They've seen Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World, but this is the one we want to rise to the top, because this is one that's experienced not in concrete or human imagination, as great as it is at those theme parks, it's experienced in God's creation and the magnificence of experiencing that is something that we're anxious to transfer to the people who are in our boat.

• What are some the advantages of fishing with an accredited guide as opposed to a rental boat with the family?
  

Captain Rocky: By the time you pay for the boat rental, the out of state fishing permits, and the rods and reels, that can get really expensive for someone who's only going to fish for one day then has no use for any of that equipment once he goes home. How's he going to gain any knowledge of the local waters? These are shallow waters out here and if you don't know where the sandbars or oyster beds are,you could get yourself into some serious trouble.

• Many intermediate fisherman, myself included, are locals who live right next to the water but never had the time or resources to learn the valuable points of the sport. Do you encounter a decent amount of local clients who are trying to advance their skill level?

Captain Rocky: I wish we got more local clients because we can make them more successful for future trips. You want those to be quality weekends for them. Guides are knowledgeable not only in fishing but also boating and other aspects of marine biology.

The in-town guy will go buy a boat and park it behind their house and it becomes an expensive lawn ornament and they never learn the river system and how to fish. If they would take a day  and say, "OK, I'm going to go out with a guide today." In one day, they would learn 10 years of information and now, for the next 10 years, every trip they go out, they'll be more successful catching fish by having  taking that one day with a knowledgeable,local guide and picking his brain

• What are some of your goals for building the Native Sons 'brand?

Captain Rocky:  We're in the process of opening a new division- Native Sons Hunting and Outfitters, which offers Hog hunting year-round, Gator-hunting in the fall. For the future, Native Sons would like to continue adding guides along the east coast, up to Jacksonville, as well as the St. John's River.