Promoting the Djuma Safari Cam

[Wildearth]

 

Below is the same Note posted by Graham Wallington on Wildearth's Facebook Page. We invite those not on Facebook to share here as well with your suggestions and feedback.

 

All other Blogs can be found under: (all open in new windows)

Wildearth - http://www.wildearth.tv/wildearth-blog

Safari - http://www.wildearth.tv/safari-blog

Djuma Game Reserve - Saving the Safari Cam - http://www.djuma.com/2011/saving-the-safari-cam

 

Its so exciting and gratifying that the LIVE safari broadcasts are coming back. As you all know Safari Television had to close down due to the fact that they were making sustained losses. Djuma Game Reserve (Jurie and Pippa Moolman) have stepped in to keep the safaris going. Well, they have agreed to fund a 3 month trial to see if WE, and the viewers, can help them make it viable. Djuma are going to reduce the costs, and it's our job to increase the revenue. 

WE are going to ask for your help to save this important broadcast permanently. What do WE need to do to make it work? The answer is that WE need to increase the viewership by a factor of about 3x. Currently a safari peaks at about 800 viewers (on both Ustream and WildEarth.tv). WE need to get this up to around 2,500 or more.

The Safari TV safaris are going to stop on Sunday (the 31st July) and the Djuma Safari broadcast is going to start up in a few weeks and when they do WE all need to have a plan to make sure that the maximum number of viewers are watching.

WE are going to work with Ustream.tv to see how much promotion they can give the safari, but we are also going to need as much help as possible from all of you.

To begin with lets work out a bunch of ideas of how we can do this, and not start until we have a cohesive plan, to make sure that WE are all working together and don't work at cross purposes. Please can you comment below with any, and all, ideas of how WE can promote the Djuma Safari cam. Then lets discuss all the ideas and agree on a plan.

 

Here are some of my ideas so far:

Google Adwords - many of you offered to donate money to try and save the safari cam, but WE could not accept these donations as it would be unsustainable and really not appropriate for a for-profit company to accept donations. However, those viewers that did want to make donations could setup Google Adword accounts and buy advertising (banners) that could help drive traffic to the Djuma Safari. (To make this work, if you think that it is a worthwhile idea, WE should setup a seperate group and work together to maximise the efficacy of this plan.)

Embedding - a great way to increase traffic would be to reach out to as many sites as possible and ask them to embed the Djuma Safari cam in their sites. This would cost the embedding sites nothing, and could massivley increase our traffic. WE would need to provide the 'embedding team' with the embed code, as well as buttons and banners for the embedders to put on their homepages etc.

Press - one of the best ways to increase traffic would be to get newspapers, websites, magazines and TV channels to tell the story of Djuma and the LIVE safari. First we would need to write up some great press releases, and then send them out far and wide. The Djuma team would be available for interviews and even be willing to host TV film crews if necessary. Done right this could make the Djuma Safari a household name. 

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas. Please help Djuma make this a long term success. This needs to be a project by the viewers for the viewers to save the Djuma Safari and make it super popular.

 

With so much thanks for the years of support,

 

Graham

 

[Tom (kb7get)]

Use the Ustream channel more and keep a close eye on the feed to it. Also embed the chat from it in your WE.tv site. If you can get a few hundred+ chatters  online during the drives more will notice it and join in. Look how big some of the eagle and owl cams built up to. If it looks super active on Ustream then more will notice it and join in plus pass the word about it.

[Jody Morrison]

Fantastic ideas so far...  I've heard others, such as ad campaigns to schools, teachers, PTA's and the like.  Flyers all over our towns and local areas, PAC tv ads,  As a person with some marketing experience, my mind is going a million miles an hr.  Might I suggest that a "team" come together to help organize all this so we don't have people working the same projects at cross purposes?  A "lead" peon for each approach could keep track of anyone interested in working on that idea and could provide  direction and even guidelines for how to implement.  Those "lead" people could act as a clearing house, answer questions, and the like as well.  And the lead people could keep you (or whoever) informed as to how things are progressing, relate problems, etc.  The viewers have said they WANT to help and I'll bet many will do so...

[Jody Morrison]

OOOPS!  In my above post, I typed peon instead of person... a very bad typonese error.  LOL!  Sorry!

 

[gloria sapp]

willing and able to participate in things to be done if we get together on one plan an we all follow.Yes I also think Ustream will be very good in this if the riffraff can be weeded out I watch in ustream also and have noticed the chat box and not liking what im seein.But ustream is good as they have done very well with the decorah eagle nest which had over 3thousand and was ablle to handle it without crashing,They also do other sites very well.Whenever a solid plan is put together im in I dont chat much anymore but i do watch both cams.

[Penny Hunter]

Waht about regional tv stations in different countries running an ad to the Blillant new world in how to see wildlife as it actually is and not the controlled programs fed us by well meaning but now I think wrong approaches.

 

OK just checked and Graham has already thought of this.

[Skipper]

I know that from my experience with the EagleCams that the news media sites will sometimes embed a player if there's been a lot of interest generated as a result of a news story. Two that I can think of right now are CBC and the Sidney EagleCam in British Columbia:

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/eaglecam/

and WVEC the Norfolk Eagles in Norfolk, Virginia:

http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html

You have to generate what I call "create a crowd" and that is generate a "buzz" that people come to believe that they're out of the loop if they're not watching. That's what happened with the Decorah Eagles this year. There were over 100,000 watching at times just as there was the Hornby Eagles in 2006 and then the Sidney Eagles. You need a PR/Media person to advise on how to "create a crowd" :-)

The other sites that will embed players (or at least post links to embedded cams on other sites) are tourism websites. This year's Hornby EagleCam is an example:

http://www.hornbyisland.net/eagles.html

 

There are two things that I think are problematic with embedded players on sites: :-)

1. For the EagleCams, viewers can "tune in" at any time and see something (unless it's at this time of year and the fledglings are flying around and not necessarily on the nest LOL). WildEarth is different. It's "scheduled" -- meaning the LIVE drives are only on a certain times. So, if these players are embedded, to maintain the "viewership", you must make sure that there is something to see when the viewer signs into the embedded player -- either a repeat of a drive or the waterhole or something to look/listen to.

2. The current WildEarth player is the pits!!!! Well at least for those that have small monitor screens. The current WE player is HUGE and I can't work on other stuff when I'm watching the drive. And it's not re-sizable. So the embedded players must be smaller or re-sizable (without losing things on the "edges"). I love the UStream player!! I put the link on my Facebook page and watch it on the player on Facebook. It's the perfect size to fit on my screen and still allows me to work on other things on my computer.

 

I'm not that tech saavy about things these days especially when it comes to stuf like cell phones and tablet computers etc. But I know that there are things called "apps" that are set up by companies that you download and has lots of info and that let you do all sorts of neat things.

Does WE have an app that people can download to watch the drives/chat, etc. on their cellphone, etc.

And I've heard that the Apple tablet doesn't do Flash. Any chance to go back to Windows Media based player??? I would love that!! Just like the iPad, Flash and my computer don't get on either :-)

[Fireflyrocks]

To advertise you need a good advertising video, something like the one WE is using for the intro right now.

I think some sort of a printable flyer is needed that can be dropped off at schools or senior homes.

 

In the past safari TV was poorly advertised.  I didn't find out about it until one month ago and I've been an internet 'hound' since the mid 80ties !!!

The safari broadcast is such a good program that , if people knew about it, would attract thousands of viewers world -wide.

Yes, embedding the addsi n web sites is excellent .

Distributing through facebook or personal e-mails helps but will be slow.

I will start doing this as soon as Safari is up and running again in August. At the moment the tech problems would probably turn people who aren't dedicated as we are, away.

U-stream is good but not fast enough and it takes time. I hasn't worked in the past.

I think ALL channels of advertising should be addressed.

The safari can really take off and fly if word could only get around.

Liv Haasper  Firefly

 

[K.C.]

I am sure most know that when The Today Show aired Lily's bear cam on one of their shows, that cam went viral.  They had so many hits, that their equipment kept crashing.  50,000 viewers watched as Lily gave birth on cam.  I found the video when they aired it.  (Scroll down until you see the link video from the Today Show January 9, 2010.  http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=765

 

I think you should contact NBC and The Today Show, and invite Anne Curry to Djuma to experience a live safari.  (What a blast it would be... Anne Curry riding shotgun with Marc.)  To throw some ideas out there, a video presentation could be put together, showing local culture, conservation, wildlife and technology in the bush.  Videos could include, the water supplied to Dixie, Tara's sports equipment to the school, the Ingwe Leopard Research project, the Gowrie Gang, some of the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to run a live Safari, and the technology and support to broadcast it, and of course, Safari Diaries. 

 

I know this idea has been brought up before, but maybe worth another look.

 

 

[Bobi Baha]

i earlier posted a blog to karen but dont know if it got through.  Since so many folk are working during the drive times could we engage AARP to help sponser or at least embed us in their online site. Im sure that so many retirees would love to enjoy the drives as much as we do and would increase our viewership.

[Ruth Rogge]

How about if everybody would contact their local zoo.  Maybe they could become "sister" zoos like sister cities around the planet.  They could post it and give all the details of the Cams/drives that way.

 

[Ruth Rogge]

Great idea!!

Bobi Baha said:

i earlier posted a blog to karen but dont know if it got through.  Since so many folk are working during the drive times could we engage AARP to help sponser or at least embed us in their online site. Im sure that so many retirees would love to enjoy the drives as much as we do and would increase our viewership.

[Ruth Rogge]

I emailed to Ellen Degenerese since she is such an animal fan and never heard back.  I totally love your idea of somebody going over to take a drive.  Maybe the new guy, don't know his name.  Think Ann Curry is gone.  Could be wrong though.

K.C. said:

I am sure most know that when The Today Show aired Lily's bear cam on one of their shows, that cam went viral.  They had so many hits, that their equipment kept crashing.  50,000 viewers watched as Lily gave birth on cam.  I found the video when they aired it.  (Scroll down until you see the link video from the Today Show January 9, 2010.  http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=765

 

I think you should contact NBC and The Today Show, and invite Anne Curry to Djuma to experience a live safari.  (What a blast it would be... Anne Curry riding shotgun with Marc.)  To throw some ideas out there, a video presentation could be put together, showing local culture, conservation, wildlife and technology in the bush.  Videos could include, the water supplied to Dixie, Tara's sports equipment to the school, the Ingwe Leopard Research project, the Gowrie Gang, some of the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to run a live Safari, and the technology and support to broadcast it, and of course, Safari Diaries. 

 

I know this idea has been brought up before, but maybe worth another look.