[meteorite-list] Meteorite Men Promotion

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

Hello List,

I am sending this out without  Geoff's review, without his editing and 
without his approval.  The opinions  shared below belong solely to me, and do 
not necessarily reflect on the opinions  of this meteorite list, our TV 
network or our sponsors.  :-)

Due to  much of the feedback I have received, there is a lot of support for 
what we  doing with the TV show and our promotions.  There is no shortage 
of good  vibes coming our way.  For that I am grateful. Thanks. 

Of course,  most of the people who are close friends of ours are more in on 
the details of  what is happening with us, while others that are more 
removed might be seeing  things from a skewed perspective.

Let me take a little time to explain  the journey I have been on, much of 
which includes Geoff as well.

Back  when Phil and I found the Brenham Main Mass in 2005, we hired Geoff 
Notkin to  help us with a press release and with fielding media inquiries 
that the buzz was  creating.  I have not had much experience with professional 
full time  public relations experts, so I don't know what they are all 
capable of, but in  my opinion, what Geoff did was outstanding.  

With a carefully  crafted press release, and with him manning the phones 
and the emails, we got  some very good coverage of that find.  In Public 
Relations, it is my  opinion that it is not an exact science.  While some things 
lead to  another, often it is a combination of things that lead to other  
breakthroughs.  

I think it is more a strategy of "throwing as much  mud up as possible on 
the barn wall and see what sticks."  One can send out  100 press releases, 
but it might just be one place that runs with it, then like  a wild fire it 
can take off...or it can still fizzle out.

Here is how our  story went.  With the Brenham Main Mass find, we sent out 
a press release,  that led to the ABC affiliate in Wichita wanting to air it 
as their the story of  the night live.  Since they used a satellite uplink 
to broadcast it live  from near the find location, it was open for all the 
other networks to  rebroadcast it.  The Weather Channel ran a blurb on it 
about 3 am the next  morning.  Then the NBC Today show did a live broadcast 
with me that  weekend.  

The newspaper story in the Wichita Eagle paper might have  had a 
contribution to the Today Show being interested because as that took off  on the AP 
and via the Drudge Report (and it's 10,000,000 viewers a day) so that  first 
print story end up running in over 300 papers world wide.  The Today  Show 
led to a couple other things.  And we continued to pursue the idea of  the 
story of the find to be featured in a TV show.  We contacted Discovery,  
History Channel, Nat Geo, Science Channel and some other obscure networks, all  
with no avail.  

Then seemingly "out of the blue" Travel Channel  called us.  Travel 
Channel?  What in the world would the Travel  Channel want to do with a meteorite 
story?  Sure, the meteorite traveled a  long way to get here, but still?  

Well, the producer told us they  were making a show that was about treasure 
hunting where families could do what  the host does and have a real shot of 
finding something worth money, and they  loved the Brenham story.  I 
cautioned them that what we were doing at  Brenham really isn't what the average 
family could do on the weekend to make  money, and the producer quickly shot 
back "Oh, we know that, but this story is  so cool we want to do it anyway."

The way the production company found  out about us, wasn't initially from 
the other media, but from someone in the  meteorite world that tipped them 
off. But I am sure that the previous media  reports helped establish our 
legitimacy as a good story.

In the mean time  WIRED Magazine ran a feature story on me that lead to a 
segment with Geoff and  myself on the pilot TV show of WIRED Science on PBS.  
That led to the L.A.  Times doing a front page story about me.  Then the 
morning the L.A. Times  story ran, Ruth Riven, an executive producer at LMNO 
Productions in L.A., sat  down to breakfast and opened her newspaper.

Ruth read the story and  thought "Hey, maybe a TV series about meteorite 
hunting could work?"  And  she contacted me. 

Now, leading up to that, Geoff and I were pumping  different angles for TV 
promotion.  After doing the Cash and Treasures  program, we thought we could 
do a TV series, at least we wanted to give it a  shot.  We talked with the 
field producer of the Cash and Treasures program,  and he liked the idea.  
Well, he at least said he liked the idea, and the  idea was put on the back 
burner until our episode actually aired 8 months  later.  

After our episode ran (and re-ran) with the 15 other first  season shows, 
we were told the Meteorite Hunting episode consistently did double  the 
ratings of what all the other shows did, and that the whole series itself  was a 
hit.  For some time there, Cash and Treasures was one of Travel  Channel's 
anchor shows. 

After the ratings came back, Indigo, the  production company who made Cash 
and Treasures, all of a sudden really DID like  the idea of a pitching 
Meteorite Hunter's series to different networks.  So  off they went to pitch it.  
I am convinced they did their best, but for  whatever reason, their best 
wasn't good enough.  Maybe it was just timing.  Who knows?

So, after being disappointed with a dead end once again, the  call from the 
LMNO producer in L.A. seemed to come "out of the blue," and she  asked me 
if I had ever thought about doing a TV series?  I asked her if she  saw Geoff 
and I as guests on the Travel Channel, and she had not.  We told  her about 
it, and that in fact, Geoff and I had given it a LOT of thought about  
doing a TV series.  We told her that the other production company had  pitched 
it, with no success, but she and her boss still though it was a good  idea, 
and they had a lot of conviction that they could make a pitch that might  be 
bought. 

Meanwhile, Geoff had kept plugging away "throwing mud up on  the wall" 
every chance we could get.  We were also trying to promote the  sale of the 
Brenham Main Mass directly and eventually at auction during all this  time.  

So Geoff and I gathered all our ideas together and sent them  over to Ruth. 
 They sent a producer to the 2008 Tucson Gem show to get some  tape of us.  
They used that to throw together a 5 minute "pitch DVD" to  send to the 
different networks.  Three networks were interested enough to  meet with us in 
person.  So, about this time last year, Geoff and I flew to  Washington D.C. 
to meet with executives of the 3 different networks.  We  came home to hear 
two were interested and one very interested.  The Science  Channel made the 
production company the best offer, so our production company  made the deal 
for the pilot.

A deal was struck to shoot a pilot with it  being open that we might do a 
series if the pilot went well.  Last October  we shot "Meteorite Men" in the 
field.  Then on May 10, the show aired for  the first time.

While Geoff and I love the Science Channel, we started to  get a little 
frustrated.  They asked for extra footage so a promo  commercial could be made. 
Our production company understood the network was all  excited about the 
show and even decided to run it during sweeps.  This was  a double edged sword 
as ALL the other networks were pulling out the stops to run  their best 
shows at the same time and all the others were busy promoting them  
extensively.  We could easily do bad against all that competition, but if  we did good, 
it would look real good.

About a week out from the May 10  airing, not a single promo commercial had 
run on the network.  No press  release by Science Channel.  I don't know, 
maybe that was their strategy,  to toss the "child" in the lake and it would 
either sink or learn how to swim  without any help?

In any case, Geoff and I finally realized that if there  was going to be 
any promotion, it would be up to us.  Fortunately, G.I.A.  did a press 
release, that probably helped a little that last week before the  airing, but it 
was basically all on us.  So we launched an all out  attack.  We started 
networking, with friends, family members, our  customers, anyone we could. 

Of course, those of  you on the  Meteorite List got a front row seat to all 
of this.  In fact, many of you  chipped in and helped.  You linked our 
newly launched   MeteoriteMen.com site to your sites to help with our Google 
rankings, and some  of you sent out notices to people you know.  Geoff had been 
writing for  some time with massively popular Geology.com and they eagerly 
agreed to assist  us in several ways.

Some may criticize us over our promotional efforts,  but we saw this as our 
one chance at a series.  Pass or Fail. No in  between.  Actually, there is 
a bit of an in between.  With Science  Channel being on cable, they will 
rerun the pilot show many times whether the  series would get picked up or not. 
 But while the one show was nice, we  wanted more. We wanted a series.

Now we find ourselves 62 days out from  the first airing and a few weeks 
ago we got word that the network was interested  in a first season of 30 
minute shows.  Then they came back and said they  wanted 60 minute episodes 
instead.  For those of you who don't know, things  in show business travel real 
slow, with lots of red tape, then all of a sudden  they want all their 
episodes delivered in an almost impossibly short period of  time so they can get 
them up and running generating ad revenue.

Well, we  are now very close to a signed deal. Everything is agreed upon, 
and we are  waiting for signatures on the paperwork for our first season.  
Part  superstition, and part reason, says announcements shouldn't be made 
until AFTER  the ink dries on the paperwork.  But we have known for a little 
while now  that we are heading for a series.

So, if anyone out there thinks we are  going to let up now on our 
promotion, you are freaking crazy.  If a few  competitors get upset with us, well 
tough.  

I found myself in  Baltimore all of a sudden, chasing this new fireball.  
Baltimore is just  down the street from the international home office for 
both Science Channel and  their parent company Discovery Networks.  Are we 
going to mention the show  when reporters talk to us?  On a front page story?  
Hell yes we  are!

Is that the "only reason" I headed to the northeast?  No.   I really want 
to find this rock, if possible. But I also want to get exposure  while it is 
being offered to us on a silver platter.

"A rising tide lifts  all ships" as the saying goes.  Some dealers that 
like to squeal because  they are so "sick of Meteorite Men hype" should realize 
that their bank accounts  are fattened by any good exposure we get. 

Now some people might argue  that the "Meteorite Men" show was a bad show.  
Or some might feel that it  was bad exposure for the industry as a whole.  
OK.  If that is your  stance, make your case if you will.   But trust me, 
Geoff and I are  not able to capture all of the sales that will come from all 
the new meteorite  collectors that will come in from us being on a series.  

A series  is such a huge step up from a "one off" show.  

It is my opinion  that a TV series could easily bring in 1,000 to 10,000 
and maybe even more new  collectors over the next several years. If just a 
tiny fraction of 1% of viewers  decide to start collecting meteorites, being a 
dealer is going to be fun.  

Yes, there will be more hunters generated at the same time.  And  there 
will be more dealers generated as well.  

But in the past it  has seemed like all the dealers were fighting to get a 
bigger piece of the  limited pie.  

May I suggest that all the dealers stop thinking of  getting a bigger piece 
of the small pie.  Let's start thinking about making  the pie bigger!  How 
about let's start a bakery and start making  pies!

Will Geoff and I give it our best shot to capture as many of those  new 
collectors as possible?  Of course!  In our pilot, I mentioned  something about 
Ebay.  I didn't do that by accident.  Does it then  make sense that I would 
continue to promote on my Ebay lots as well?

But  we are under no delusions that we can supply every one of the new 
collectors  with every specimen they will ever want.  There will be plenty of 
business  for everyone.

The way I see it, this is Geoff and my best, and really our  only shot at 
taking this to a new level.  If it doesn't happen now, the  odds of us or 
anyone else getting their own series is really low.  It isn't  because we are 
so great, or that anyone else couldn't do it better than  us.  It is just 
that it took SO much to build up to this point.  For  someone else to do what 
we have done to get to this point, almost 4 years after  the Brenham find, is 
hard to imagine.

One reason it has been so hard is  because we are breaking new ground.

No one has done this  before.

In fact, the Main Mass find story in the Wichita Eagle got more  website 
hits than any other story in the history of the newspaper!    Who would have 
thought it?

The Wichita paper did 4 or 5 follow up  meteorite stories, and each one of 
them got the top hits for the paper for that  week, and sometimes for that 
month.  They were all scratching their  heads.

The Cash and Treasures show, same thing.  Wow?  Go  figure? 

Then the pilot, against all odds, hit the ball out of the  park.  

If we fail now to get a series, or we get it, and it doesn't  continue to 
do well, it sets a precedent that this new type of show just can't  make it.

Now, do Geoff and I get all of the credit?  Hell  no!

If it wasn't for hundreds of other people, there is no way this would  have 
happened.  In fact, maybe some of you that sent out Facebook and  Myspace 
notices to your friends because we asked you to, might have talked a  friend 
with a Neilson Box on their TV set to watch the show.  One Neilson  person 
represents, I don't know maybe 50,000 or 100,000 viewers or something  
obscene like that in the ratings.   

I strongly contest any  suggestion by anyone that word of mouth "hype" 
didn't help us.  In fact,  with a poorly promoted first airing, it is hard to 
say that anything else did  work.

So when a certain meteorite dealer comes on this list whining like  a 
little spoiled brat, it almost makes me want to turn it all up a notch just  for 
the fun of it.  It is kind of like teasing the monkey at the zoo who  throws 
crap at people.  

But in the event there really are some of  you that are concerned, I have 
taken the time to write this.

Let me  address a few other things while we are at it.

The "Meteorite  Man."

In my book, there has only been, and there will only be one  "Meteorite 
Man" and that is the great Bob Haag.  One day, when I grow up, I  hope to be 
half the Meteorite Man that Bob is.  In fact, if everyone in our  business 
would stop and say "What would Bob do? in whatever situation we are in,  we 
would all be better off.

Bob has done more for our industry than  anyone else alive.  Next to Harvey 
Nininger, we all owe the most gratitude  to Bob for all he has done.

It was not Geoff's idea, and it was not my  idea to use the name "Meteorite 
Men" for the show.  Understand this, we  signed a contract to do the shows 
before there was any name and before there was  any deal with the network.  
The suits at the Science Network chose this  name, not us, and not our 
production company.  In the industry, we are  called "talent."  (Please no jokes, 
it is just the term they use.)   Geoff and I are not writers, producers, 
editors or executives, we are the  talent.  We do not own the show. While we 
have some input on ideas, and  where we want to go to hunt, that is about 
all. 

Now, the smart people at  the network could have chosen "The Meteorite Peo
ple" or "The Meteorite Hunters"  (but I think the copyright wasn't available 
on that one) or "The Meteorite Guys"  or "The Meteorite Boys" or the "The 
Meteorite Boyzzz" or any other name, but  they chose "Meteorite Men."

Now, when we knew the name was narrowed down  to a few options, we ran out 
and bought all the appropriate URLs just to be  safe.  When we got word that 
it was "Meteorite Men" we were ready to build  our meteoritemen.com site.

And to be honest, Geoff and I are indeed:  men.  And we are into 
meteorites.  As awkward as "Steve Arnold of  Meteorite Men" or "Geoff Notkin co-star 
of Meteorite Men" may sound, it is who  we are and it is the show we are the 
co-stars of. 

Speaking of the terms  "star" and "co-star" if anyone has a problem with 
those terms, we don't really  have alternatives when it comes to our role in 
the show.   Sorry.

That is what we are.  We are not "hosts" like Becky Worley  was with Cash 
and Treasures was. We are not "expert guests" like Mini and  Laurence were on 
our pilot.  We are not "bit actors" or ones with  "supporting roles" as a 
drama might have.  And since we are not acting, we  are not "Leading actors" 
either.

It isn't an ego thing.  We could be  the "stars" of a lousy show. Being a 
star doesn't mean we are good at it even,  just that we are in that role.

Now, if we start using the title "super  star" you all might want to get 
concerned for us. 

I would hope no one  gets their panties all in a bunch over something as 
trivial as that, but just in  case I thought I would clear that up.  If anyone 
has a better term to use,  please offer it.  Unless we get one, "co-star" 
is probably going to be what  stays on our business cards.  

And as for marketing and using the  publicity for profit, all I can say is 
"God Bless America!"

Of course we  are going to do that.  In fact, I think we haven't done 
enough of that  yet.  At least my bank account isn't reflecting that I am doing a 
good  enough of a job of it...yet. 

Geoff and I made up and sold out of our  Brenham part slices in Lucite.  We 
plan on selling other meteorites and  things in the near future.  In fact, 
I am about to put some "Meteorite Men"  Collectible Limited Edition 
meteorites up on Ebay very shortly.  I was  going to hold off on them for a while, 
but now that I know one brat is "sickened  by all the hype" I am almost 
obligated to do it now. 

I understand that  some of you are so close to the forest that you can't 
see the trees.  Or is  it that you are so close to the trees that you can't 
see the forest?   Anyway, you know what I mean.  The Meteorite World has heard 
a lot about  "Meteorite Men" the show the last 3 months or so, but 99.9% of 
the rest of the  world hasn't heard anything about it yet. 

In fact, there were probably  more people reading the meteorite story with 
the mention of the TV show on the  front page of the Baltimore Sun on Friday 
than all the people who have tuned  into see the actual show on the 8 times 
it has run already.   

Hopefully Science Channel will start promoting the show when the first  
season starts to air.  Hopefully the popularity will take on a life of it's  
own, and we can sit back and just ride the wave.  But we have come too far  to 
quit promoting now.  

I know this has been a long post, and  thanks for bearing with me through 
it.  

If any of you have any  other concerns, feel free to write me off list and 
I will be happy to address  them. 

Thanks,

Steve Arnold
of Meteorite Men



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