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

 

[Arlene Levin]

I know many people said they would pay a subscription fee to view the Safari's. I was thinking to still offer it free to get the viewers in; but also have a member or subcription fee where there would be a few levels.  Each level the member would receive a safari related item, depending on the amount of member free.  I was thinking photos of the local animals (maybe signed by the photographer), mugs, tote bags, or items that a made by the local people would be great. I also like the idea of a Djuma Safari store where we can also buy items, but the Djuma Safari member items would be exclusive.

 

I am totally hooked watching drives, and like many others I found out recently (about 5 weeks ago). I wish i knew about them years ago.  I saw a post on Lily's the Bear FB page that talked about the cam - i visited the cam and people were talking about going on the safari...i read these posts for days till I realized that they were live twice a day.

 

Thank you so much for giving the Safari drives another chance.

Arlene

[Lori Schwartz]

I think these are all great ideas.  Marketing the concept to the educational communities would boost the numbers up very quickly.  Plus, teachers are using the TV and computers as tools to teach children now anyway.  This is a big thing in the US and I think it would really be a huge success if it was promoted and marketed properly.

The advertisements on TV and possiblly in some of the more popular well known magazines and newspapers like USA Today would also be a terrific and quick way to market a product that will be of interest to many of their readers. and a paper like USA TODAY is in every major hotel chain in the United States.  Once again it is going to take a very short but eye catching advertisement to get the attention of these busy readers, but I believe it definitely can be done.

There is no doubt in my mind that together all of us that believe in the concept and have been with you for a period of time can get this done.  And I don't know about you all but I don't think I could take another closure again.  So, I would do just about anything to keep that from happening!! I am on board with all of my teammates... count me in!  Lori 

[Tom (kb7get)]

1. Keep watch on the ustream feeds. No excuse to have the WE.tv feeds working and not the ustream ones.

2. Embed the ustream chat in WE instead of the flash chat one they have. If they get hundreds in there at one time it will build. Stupid having 2 different chats to push for the drive where there are thousands of people on ustream at any one time to stumble across WE when they see a busy chat room they will join in. That way they can have the Djuma dam and drive all in one chat and the same chat at either WE.tv or ustream.

3. Go back to having the drive in the Djuma waterhole/dam cam. They can switch back and forth again when the drive has trouble and keep the viewers entertained then. Need to have an active 24/7 feed to build viewers. Too hard on new viewers to find out about the drives when the feed is only active 6hrs a day. If it is all done on one cam/one chat then people will be online to explain it to them.

[Fireflyrocks]

On the Ustream waterhole  cam or the Pete's Pond cam there is no obvious link or advertising to the safari broadcast. Many new people who watch these cams over ustream do not know about safari and don't have anything to guide them to it.

There are hundreds of people watching these cams every day.  I started out watching them and just by coincidence came across safari

.

I go through great motions of explaining to new people who use social chat on both pond and djuma water hole about safari. Some don't know what I'm talking about.Some would like to watch and still can't find safari. I give them links which people are afraid to click on.

There seems to be a great need for an embedded, easy to find link for safari on ustream page one .

Liv..H. Firefly.

[Anthony Corvelli]

Hi all. Just an FYI, the 1st online shop is OPEN at Cafe Press to supprt the drives!

www.cafepress.com/wildglobe

 

I'll be adding more items to it over the week. Need to come up with a better image to fit their hats/caps properly.

Thanks!

Anthony C. 

[Diane Phillips]

Thanks, Anthony.  This was just what I was hoping for.  A good way to promote Djuma by just being seen and starting dialogs.

[Anthony Corvelli]

Hi Diane. Thanks for the response. 

Yes, that is basically the plan. :) WE need to get the word out & advertising via merchandise is one of the best channels. 

 

Anthony

[ellen_gabbert]

Great idea Ruth

 

Ruth Rogge said:

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.

 

[Bobi Baha]

ellen_gabbert said:

Great idea Ruth

 

Ruth Rogge said:

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.

great idea ruth: