[meteorite-list] Meteorite Men Promotion

[bill kies]

Spam
 

> From: MeteorHntr at aol.com
> Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:04:54 -0400
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Men Promotion
> 
> 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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