BDC Lands the Big One!!!
I’ve been chasing this one for over twenty years. Had my first encounter back in college while trolling the local area for whatever would bite. Back in the days, my buddies and I would see him frequently… more times than we’d like to admit. But we just never seemed to be able to get our hands on him. He always seems to taunt us and stay just out of range.
Last week we got our first real opportunity and went after him. Hooking him was fairly easy…I cast out a small plastic lure and he went for it with vengeance.
Once we were certain he was hooked up, the fight began. We had to break out the heavy gear for this one… bolt cutters, a 24ft aluminum ladder and several hundred feet of rope.
There was no way I could handle this guy all by myself. It took five of my closest friends over two hours to finally get him up to the boat.
Getting over the rail was the toughest part. He put up one heck of fight. Darn near broke the windows out and tore up the sides pretty good.
Thankfully, everyone understood what was at stake and never gave him an inch of slack to play with. With three lines firmly attached we finally got him into the boat and lashed down.
That’s when the fun started. Nothing like driving through downtown Lake Oswego at 10 AM on a Saturday morning with a 17’6” Great White shark in tow. The reactions we got were priceless. Actually had one woman convinced we caught it in the lake and recovered several small children and a Chris Craft from its belly.
This shark is destined to become the centerpiece of the offices of BDC Advertising, the company that manages many of the fishing and marine brands you all use on the water. Although, we have not yet confirmed whether Mr. Jaws will even fit in the lobby. It’s possible he could find a new home at Fisherman’s Marine.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a big fish.
Top Ten Apps for Android – Updated!
Ringdroid
Rings Extended
- HandscentSMS
- SuperDial
- RingDroid
- Dolphin Browser
- RingsExtended
- RemoteDroid
- ASTRO File Browser
ES File Manager - SwiFTP Server
- wpToGo
Locale ¹ has been removed.
¹ – Locale is no longer free… plus I’ve had some major issues with it since their last update(s). I was happy with it before, but they’ve lost my vote for top 10 after I saw it listed at $9.99 on the market…
We're a Favorite Place on Google!
I received this (awesome) letter from Google today and thought it was cool enough to share:
your PDX Freelancers – Website Designers in Portland business listing ****** times, and requested driving
directions or other information about your business **** times.
Because you’re so popular, we’re enclosing a window decal that shows customers you’re a “Favorite Place
on Google.” The sticker includes a special bar code that potential customers may scan with cameras on their
phones. Then they can see your business listing on Google, read and write reviews, and add you as a favorite
right there. We encourage you to put up this decal so potential customers know that you’re a Favorite Place
on Google.
With the holiday shopping season here, we encourage you to update your free Google listing right away. It’s
easy to check if your hours, address, and business description are correct. We also recommend you add
photos, videos, and even coupons to help your business stand out. All of this is free. You’ll notice the results
every time someone says, “We found you on Google.”
Congratulations on your popularity on Google. We look forward to providing you with more and better ways
to grow your business.
Sincerely,
Michaela Prescott
The Google Local Business Team
Top 50 finalists of the Android Developer Challenge
$275,000 Award Recipients
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cab4me Konrad Huebner, Henning Boeger Ever been looking for a cab? cab4me is the answer. Anywhere. Anytime. |
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CompareEverywhere Jeffrey Sharkey Shop smarter using your phone. Compare prices, read reviews, and connect with local stores. |
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Ecorio Jeff Kao, Gary Pong, Robert Lam, Taneem Talukdar Ecorio |
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GoCart Rylan Barnes Scan a product’s barcode with your phone’s camera and view all the best prices online and at nearby, local stores. |
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Life360 Chris Hulls, Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen, Steve Potell From |
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Locale Carter Jernigan, Clare Bayley, Jasper Lin, Christina Wright Locale is an advanced settings manager that automatically changes your phone’s settings based on conditions, such as location. |
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PicSay Eric Wijngaard Easy to use image editor that enables you to quickly personalize your pictures and share them with friends or photo sites. |
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Softrace Staffan Kjellberg, Thomas Kjellberg Turn your workout into a thrilling race and challenge the world in real time. |
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TuneWiki TuneWiki Inc. TuneWiki |
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Wertago Kelvin Cheung,Teresa Ko, Peter Ree, Robert Sarvis, Douglas Yeung The |
$100,000 Award Recipients
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BreadCrumbz Amos Yoffe BreadCrumbz |
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Cooking Capsules Mary Ann Cotter, Muthu Ramadoss Inspiration |
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Maverick Virgil Dobjanschi Maverick |
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PebbleBox Yin Wang, Tao Jin A |
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PhoneBook 2.0 Voxmobili PhoneBook |
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Piggyback Christophe Petit, Sébastien Petit Piggyback is a revolutionary real-time carpooling |
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Pocket Journey Anthony Stevens, Rosie Pongracz Pocket |
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Rayfarla Stephen Oldmeadow Have fun with music. Play music based games and make music with your phone using a range of virtual musical instruments. |
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ShareYourBoard Mikhail Ksenzov ShareYourBoard is an Android application for capturing, processing and sharing whiteboard data. |
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Teradesk e-Storage José Augusto Ferrarini Teradesk is an application for Virtual Storage and Remote |
Finalists
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B4E Mr. Che, Mr. Happy C. B4E |
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Beetaun Sergey Gritsyuk, Dmitri Shipilov Beetaun |
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BioWallet José Luis Huertas Fernández Biometric |
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City Slikkers PoroCity Media and Virtual Logic Systems City |
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Commandro Alex Pisarev, Andrey Tapekha Commandro |
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Diggin Daniel Johansson, Aramis Waernbaum, Andreas Hedin Play |
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Dyno Virachat Boondharigaputra Dyno is an application used to evaluate vehicle performance on the road. |
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e-ventr Michael Zitzelsberger e‐ventr is your personal event organizer and friendship scout for your mobile. |
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Em-Radar Jack Kwok Em-Radar keeps you informed of severe weather and emergencies near |
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Fingerpaint Rob Mickle Fingerpaint is a collaborative drawing application. Draw by yourself, or together with friends – anywhere in the world. |
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FreeFamilyWatch.com Navee Technologies LLC Free location-based services helping family to navigate |
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GolfPlay Inizziativa Networks Provides support to all real time necessities of a golf player during a game. |
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gwalk Klaus ten Hagen, Marko Modsching, Christian Klinger, Rene Scholze Discover |
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iMap Mobile™ Weathertop Consulting, LLC iMap |
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IMEasy Yan Shi IMEasy is an IM based application designed particularly for touch screen mobile users. |
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JOYity Zelfi AG JOYity is a platform for next generation mobile |
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LifeAware Gregory Moore, Aaron O’Brien, Jawad Akhtar Be aware of your surroundings and the location of your |
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Marvin Laurent Pontier Publish in private, to your peer network or to the world, |
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mobeedo Sengaro GmbH mobeedo |
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MyCloset Mamoru Tokashiki Manages photographs and information about the fashion items you own, and coordinates and records your daily outfits. |
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PedNav RouteMe2 Technologies Inc. PedNav is a location-aware day planner that allows you to |
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SafetyNet Michael DeJadon SafetyNet |
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ShapeWriter ShapeWriter Inc ShapeWriter |
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SocialMonster Tommy Ng, Ben Hui Stay on top of your social life with SocialMonster and |
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SplashPlay Andreas Ipp, Keith Sturch, Friedger Müffke and Ronan Schwarz SplashPlay |
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Sustain Niraj Swami Sustain is a utility that helps its users naturally and fluidly communicate with their contacts. |
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SynchroSpot Shaun Terry Service |
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The Weather Channel for Android The Weather Channel Interactive Inc. The |
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TokPlay Sung-Suh Park TokPlay |
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Wikitude Philipp Breuss Wikitude |
BDC Readies Boating Clients For 2010
With boat shows just around the corner, BDC Advertising has completed a long list of “to-do’s” for its boat business clients. Manufacturers, dealers, accessory manufacturers and trade associations have all turned to BDC for advice, websites, brochures, catalogs and social media. The result is the new American Angler website for Smokercraft Boats (www.americananglerboats.com); Stevens Marine’s new Boats Motors and More catalog and website (www.stevensmarine.com); Weldcraft Boats new brochure and website updates (www.weldcraftmarine.com); Duckworth Boats 2010 brochure and website (www.duckworthboats.com); Barewest Wakeboard Towers redesigned brochure and updated website and a number other dealer websites and trade association projects that will be completed early in 2010.
BDC Advertising Vice President Trey Carskadon commented, “2009 was, by any standard, an exceedingly difficult time in the marine industry. Thankfully, all of our accounts survived, and in some cases, posted numbers that were well-beyond the average. We’re certainly not pleased by the results of 2009 but under the circumstances we’re bucking the trend. Looking ahead, there’s considerably less supply; fewer market choices; there’s some demand and encouraging late-season upticks in sales; financing should be more accessible; and in several markets there’s encouraging fishing and water forecasts that should help boating in a number of national markets.”
“We’re encouraging our clients to become resources for their area, create anticipation of upcoming fisheries and boating opportunities, be more visible and present in the markets they serve but to spend judiciously and leverage every bit of value-added performance in their marketing efforts. We’ll all have to continue to work harder and smarter but the rewards are there especially for those that can generate some growth and create some momentum going into 2011.”
Look for social networking platforms to blossom as dealers and manufacturers create broader and more productive online communities. Internet advertising will not replace print and other conventional advertising opportunities but will continue to expand and provide greater returns as the boating community improves its messaging, understands the opportunities and expends more energy in optimizing their presence in online forums and communities.
As dealers and manufacturers recover from 2009 they need to be mindful of differentiating them from their competition while working cooperatively and individually to elevate boating as a top-of-mind recreational pursuit. This can be achieved through cross-promotions, co-promotions, targeted PR and community involvement in customer-based fishing and water-sport organizations.
A number of marine-based businesses are shell-shocked and fail to recognize that this is an opportune time to capture market share. Boat customers want reliability, certainty, affordability and resources to guide them in their boat ownership experience. Those messages will resonate going into the show season. Promote affordability (for example) through cost-of-ownership analysis that ably demonstrates fuel savings, ease-of-maintenance and the benefits associated with dependable performance. As one manufacturer put it, “it only has value if you tell the market what you’re doing.” Don’t assume the market knows what you’re doing or trying to do. Tell them. Again, the biggest opportunity for growth in 2010 exists in taking market share. There are a number of marine-businesses that failed and those customers are looking for a home…give them a great reason to business with you.
BDC Advertising’s analysis of 2009 was spot-on as we worked with our client’s to reduce marketing expenditures by as much as 80% and initiate a number of in-season sales events and promotions that were creatively promoted through online programs and a variety of partner businesses and organizations. As indicated, the results were comparatively good as boating and retail customers moved to adjust inventories, balance their workforce with the workload and cut other expenses.
Our look to 2010 is brighter and demands some ratcheting up of marketing efforts and marketing mix. Still, staying conservative through 2010 and laying important groundwork for 2011 will be our push with our customers. 2009 is a stark reminder to always take full advantage of every dollar spent through proper planning, value-added opportunities, fluid and effective communication and purposeful/thoughtful approaches.