Drs Foster and Smith and LiveAquaria.com Promoting the Hobby

[Race]

In an effort to create public awareness and interest in the aquarium hobby, Dr. Marty Smith, Kevin Kohen and I have been actively pursuing the television media. You can go to DrsFosterSmith.com to see the fruits of our labor. Click on " Faithful Friends" for a review.

In the last 6 months we have appropriated over 4.2 million dollars to promote responsible pet care including national segments on the aquarium trade. This has been done mostly via the " Drs. Foster and Smith Faithful Friends" television series and NBC's " In the Loop "--- which just yesterday hosted LiveAquaria.com's Kevin Kohen, in an aquaculture and aquarium care segment, Chicago live. Estimated viewership of the segments is up to 70 million households which along with our National Geographic script may be the single biggest promotion ever seen in the aquarium hobby, for certain it is the largest privately funded aquarium industry promotion.

As many of you know I have always been an advocate of getting people educated and into this hobby. Here is my proof. Now I challenge others within the industry to do the same. Do not just sit in your stores or behind your computers, get out on the street and create awareness for the hobby. Help us develop and grow the market as well as improve the hobby's image. With AMDA's mismanagement and subsequent implosion there is no trade association,----- we must do it ourselves.

Time to stop the industry criticisms and put your money where your mouth has been. Time to ask " Who is really responsible for creating hobby awareness", " Who gets people into this hobby", " Who improves the industry's image"? Where and what is the hobby's future ? Time to reach into your own pocketbook and spend promotional money,--- do it for the good of the hobby and your business.

At Drs. Foster and Smith and Liveaquaria.com we are proudly doing our part, please do yours and do it now.

Thanks, Race

 

[dizzy]

In an effort to create public awareness and interest in the aquarium hobby, Dr. Marty Smith, Kevin Kohen and I have been actively pursuing the television media. You can go to DrsFosterSmith.com to see the fruits of our labor. Click on " Faithful Friends" for a review.

In the last 6 months we have appropriated over 4.2 million dollars to promote responsible pet care including national segments on the aquarium trade. This has been done mostly via the " Drs. Foster and Smith Faithful Friends" television series and NBC's " In the Loop "--- which just yesterday hosted LiveAquaria.com's Kevin Kohen, in an aquaculture and aquarium care segment, Chicago live. Estimated viewership of the segments is up to 70 million households which along with our National Geographic script may be the single biggest promotion ever seen in the aquarium hobby, for certain it is the largest privately funded aquarium industry promotion.

As many of you know I have always been an advocate of getting people educated and into this hobby. Here is my proof. Now I challenge others within the industry to do the same. Do not just sit in your stores or behind your computers, get out on the street and create awareness for the hobby. Help us develop and grow the market as well as improve the hobby's image. With AMDA's mismanagement and subsequent implosion there is no trade association,----- we must do it ourselves.

Time to stop the industry criticisms and put your money where your mouth has been. Time to ask " Who is really responsible for creating hobby awareness", " Who gets people into this hobby", " Who improves the industry's image"? Where and what is the hobby's future ? Time to reach into your own pocketbook and spend promotional money,--- do it for the good of the hobby and your business.

At Drs. Foster and Smith and Liveaquaria.com we are proudly doing our part, please do yours and do it now.

Thanks, Race

How is this different from advertising? Isn't this promoting your business as much as anything?
Mitch

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds great except I sure wish you'd just leave the DEAD AMDA outa it. We all know your stance on that and being you out lasted them as predicted, it's a done topic. Besides, AMDA with a meager $2k budget never was going to be able to do much at all, it was just a sticker really.....AMDA has left the building :lol:

I do have to say that your efforts have not gone unnoticed by many in the trade. I spoke with Kevin @ WAS/MO a couple weeks ago and as usual he had some extremelly interesting topics to talk about.

 

[Race]

I am not asking for anyone's business, this is an industry forum. This is a challenge and a quest to get the industry to collectively promote, for a change. A challenge to stop begging others for promotional dollars and to do it ourselves.
Make sure you watch the T.V. clips before you comment , please.

 

[Anonymous]

I see it as a challenge Race .....I've been as active as I can be on the issue since I enterred the trade. Having had some great mentors to work with has really been a boost to both my MO career and how active I have been and still am. I wish I had the budget to do larger stuff myself, but I know of ways to stretch my dollar and help eduacate the masses about the trade It all helps IMO.

 

[Race]

Gresham, there are many in this hobby who have done good things, you included. There also have been many who have falsely accused me and Etailers of just taking and not creating.

My initial statement above is just a slam dunk with proof. I have been waiting for the opportunity to prove LiveAquaria.com's worth, DUNK.

 

[dizzy]

Race,
I think Kevin did a nice job. Are you telling us you paid for that spot on television?
Mitch

 

[Race]

Hi Mitch,
We do not pay for NBC's "in the loop". We paid to produce and market the "Faithful Friends" T.V. series which led to being asked to participate on NBC and National Geographic. There is another large contract in the making with a major network but it is not signed so may or may not happen. I will not mention it unless it materializes. The president of Chicago's NBC will be in one of our ocean series on T.V., he is a diver. That has already been filmed off Catalina Island.
On the "Faithful Friends" show we have Bill Goldberg of NFL and WWF fame along with his wife, Wanda who is our host. Our cohost is Electra Mustaine, daughter of MegaDeth's guitarist, Dave Mustaine. The voice of our animated dog is NASCAR's Jeff Gordon. We have produced 13 series of which 4 have already aired. We have one which is exclusively a 1/2 hour on the aquarium trade. We are in the process of developing next years series, should the show continue to be successful. This year is already filmed and completed. We also just filmed at APPMA in California and picked up several manufacturers within the marine hobby.
The plan is to promote animal awareness and care along with the company name. More on the awareness side so networks will pick us up, many already have. Company marketing comes in the form of commercials within the segments. My competitors can also buy commercial space should the network sell to them, we have no control over that. This is an actual syndicated T.V. series which is airing now.

As some may know, with the HD TV, the technology is there for your phone, computer and T.V. to all be one and connected. From a marketing perspective, that is what we are preparing for, HD films for the networks to pick up, camera ready. Probably 3-5 years from becoming standard but we want to be there. Will be odd to sell livestock directly on the T.V.screen or on a blackberry or phone. The buyer may not see a static picture but rather a swimming fish. That can be done today but the visuals are poor. I am not a tech person so really do not understand all of the processes but we have a producer who does. I am learning.

Thanks Mitch---Race

 

[Anonymous]

Super! Great! Awesome! I am really glad to see a company in our hobby attempting to alleviate the impact our hobby has. Please, as a lifelong, a few decades long, hobbyist, I would love to give you a huge hug and thank you for decreasing the impact our hobby has on our limited oceans!

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!

The top and the lateral aspects of my heart, too....

That being said, a few months ago I started a thread asking you and your company for help with our efforts at captive breeding. The sources for the supplies ( a clean source of specific species of phytoplankton) are very lacking. Can you help us with our efforts to raise and grow, as hobbyists,to raise the offspring of our captive pets?

Can you get clean cultures of Rhodomonas, Tetraselmis and T Isochrysis that won't cost us $200 bucks? How about a small batch Artacia tonsa so I can flood the market with CB seahorses that live and thrive and have outstanding colors? Can I talk you into into checking out the breeding forum and helping those who want to breed and really change the industry?

 

[Race]

Suzy,
Please contact Kevin Kohen directly and discuss this with him. With the release of some of his Clarion Angels, he is probably emailed out this evening, perhaps try him at Liveaquaria.com tomorrow.
Thanks, Race

 

[naesco]

Race I think what you are doing is great.

How do we get industry to change it way of thinking when they have no organization and, a leader has not yet stepped forward?

 

[Anonymous]

Estimated viewership of the segments is up to 70 million households...

Um, isn't that about how many people watched the series finale of Friends? :lol: Where are you getting this estimate from Race? :?

 

[Race]

Matt,
That is a network figure. It may be more or less and is only an estimate based on potential viewership and does not include seven segments on IVillage " In the Loop ", National Geographic or 13 possible episodes on Animal Planet. This is what is "sold" to the commercial buyers.

Should you know more than me about T. V. syndication and networking for 4.2 million dollars, please enlighten all of us. Your experience may be greater than mine.

 

[Race]

Just an add on. We were at 27 million confirmed households on Feb 5, 2008 with ten "Faithful Friends" episodes, National Geographic, 13 potential Animal Planet episodes and all but one IVillage to be aired yet. This also does not include any other T.V. media advertising. Where will it end up? Not sure, but most likely many more than 70 million households. These are network estimates but ones which we spend our marketing dollars based upon. This is not 70 million viewers at one time, on one episode, but rather 70 million in total over a 13 episode period.

Dunk, Race

 

[Anonymous]

This is not 70 million viewers at one time, on one episode, but rather 70 million in total over a 13 episode period.

Dunk, Race

Gotcha. Never heard it counted that way before. Any idea how many of these are unique viewers?

Home Run,
Matt

 

[Race]

No Matt, there is no way for me to determine that, just as we do not know how many viewers there are in each household. The more networks that pick you up, the more unique things become. All we know from NBC and others is that they have X number of viewers in each region and their stats will prove how many actually have the T. V. on when a show is aired.

All of the info that I quoted is directly from the media statistics that networks use to sell our show commercials to those paying for it. This is also true when we buy media space. When you pay for it you want to know the potential reach or impact to calculate your expected lift or impact for the dollars spent. All figures are speculative based on media history but we have found them to be quite accurate during our 5 years of small media experience. We buy several million dollars worth of T.V. media annually, which is really quite small but not bad for a privately held company.
We know that our show has had a good success to date which is why we have several more large contracts pending and we were invited to do the "In the Loop Series ". Remember, success to us is to make it one T. V. season and if we are lucky we may be asked back for a second. From there it is back to the drawing board for the future.

Right now we are airing our 5th series of our 13 series contract, only when all is said and done can we speculate the impact. The beauty of this is, it is all being done with our own private money. We have not begged a dime from any nonprofit organizations to help fund our cause and island vacations. That has traditionally been the industry way,---- take somebody elses money and squander it for personal gain. We have to justify to no one. We will rise and fall on our own dime, just as the industry should.

Thanks, Race

 

[Race]

Wayne,
I do not know how to organize the industry. What will probably happen is that every facility including mine in the U.S. which houses fish and coral will be required to have a license and be subject to routine inspection by the USDA or another governmental agency. This should include, Wholesale facilities, my facilities, all retail outlets, aquaculture, and any other commercial entity which houses fish and or coral. This is where we are going. Perhaps the new HSUSVMA will address this.

I would most likely support this type of legislation and perhaps could even help write the standards. I think the USDA should mandate us to clean our act up and comply with animal health standards at EVERY step in the commercial U.S. distribution. These are animals, not a disposable commodity.

I think this is the direction that the U.S. industry is heading and like I said, I would most likely welcome it. We can do better and we need an improved image. Kevin Kohen is doing his part but right now he is the Lone Ranger in national media.

I follow and agree with many of your ideas Wayne. We shall see where the future takes us, perhaps the industry can even help guide it. If you view our T.V. series you will see a whole lot on image improvement, it is now or never.

Thanks, Race

 

[Anonymous]

The sources for the supplies ( a clean source of specific species of phytoplankton) are very lacking. Can you help us with our efforts to raise and grow, as hobbyists,to raise the offspring of our captive pets?

Can you get clean cultures of Rhodomonas, Tetraselmis and T Isochrysis that won't cost us $200 bucks? How about a small batch Artacia tonsa so I can flood the market with CB seahorses that live and thrive and have outstanding colors? Can I talk you into into checking out the breeding forum and helping those who want to breed and really change the industry?

Do you understand what it takes to produce, keep and maintain such clean phyto cultures/plates? It's not cheap. There's a BIG reason why not many people do.

 

[Anonymous]

A source for more affordable saltwater feeder organisms would make a big difference regarding captive breeding.

 

[Anonymous]

I love this hobby and knew nothing about this.......

What where when?