How often do we say "we need a celebrity" to promote scuba?

[RJP]

I believe it has all the elements to make a great show.

Media Planning Rule #!: Always keep in mind that you are not the audience.

Who is the audience for your proposed show?
What are THEIR interests?
What will be the premise of the show that will make it interesting to them... for more than one episode?
What is the size of this audience?
Who will advertise on this show, and why? (Key point.)
How will that reflect well on diving?

---------- Post added April 4th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ----------

Let me be the first to ask if the are any dive boat operators who might consider the possibility of doing a reality show. Would you think you have what it takes to make a good show and why? Be confident and remember you are not alone, producers and all the TV professionals involved are who help to create the show a success. You provide the substance and guts of the show they will know best on how to best pres plenty of shows to date that prove other wise.

A.) You aren't the first to ask that.

I've crewed on a dive charter boat for six years. If there is anything that is more "same s**t, different day" than running a dive charter operation I can't imagine what it would be.

 

[Z Gear]

Media Planning Rule #!: Always keep in mind that you are not the audience.

Who is the audience for your proposed show?
What are THEIR interests?
What will be the premise of the show that will make it interesting to them... for more than one episode?
What is the size of this audience?
Who will advertise on this show, and why? (Key point.)
How will that reflect well on diving?

---------- Post added April 4th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ----------



A.) You aren't the first to ask that.

I've crewed on a dive charter boat for six years. If there is anything that is more "same s**t, different day" than running a dive charter operation I can't imagine what it would be.

The target audience is going to be wide range. 25 to 70 or even larger. I would assume it would be appealing to also a wide range of different types of people. Some are going top be men and women who are adventurous. Others might be reality show lovers who just like to check out new shows because they have seemed to like them regardless of what it is. Crab fishing, tuna fishing, gold mining, etc.. I don't believe it is going to require a specific audience to capture. These type of shows seem to be free from such prerequisite because through time they have proven to create their own type of audience. I hope this covers the audience topic.

As far as advertisers, that'should be self explanatory. All gear or products used on show gives the opportunity for advertisement.

As far as how it will reflect on diving. I believe that having it in a type of show (reality)that many are interested in checking out. Can give the industry a boost and be a very effective way of exposing scuba diving to the masses.
You say you have crewed on a charter for six years, it doesn't sound like you enjoyed it to much from your comment. If so its not surprising, even the coolest jobs can lose their luster after a little while.
I believe every type of job can become redundant or routine if you perceive it as such. It is all in ones attitude and how you can appreciate what you are doing, IMO.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I don't know, the more I think about it the less a reality show appeals to me. A show about a dive charter boat? How long would it take to run out of material, one season or less?
Even with what actually goes on, how interesting is it?
If it was staged and spiced up: A couple doing it all night in their bunk keeping everybody awake, somebody pukes all over the walls in the head, someone needs to be rescued (every week), a bunch of OOA scenes, and perhaps all the other stuff to make it exciting for non divers watching. Real divers would just roll their eyes. The thing is it wouldn't be "reality" because most or all of the underwater stuff would have to
be done by stunt divers/actors working as doubles. I just think the show would be incredibly stupid and would do nothing to get people into diving. If you wanted to get the same people who watch Honey Boo Boo to watch it fine, but they're not the ones likely to go get certified either.

Now on the other hand, if someone had the money and backing to put together a really well crafted show similar to the old Sea Hunt, but completely updated with better acting, better gear, better cinematography, better scenarios, great story lines, great action scenes, I could actually see some potential in that. The show could be based on a team of very specialized divers working as subcontractors to the government (or a new *fictitious* branch of the government) that get called in to take care of problems, terrorist threats, poaching rings, drug smuggling, things like that. It would need to have a story line, a plot, action, violence, death, suspense, and all the rest of the stuff that make up a decent TV show these days.
And yes, it would be prohibitively expensive. Those union stunt divers don't come cheap plus all the support staff that have to work underwater and that's in addition to the actual stars of the show. And the insurance plus permits would be through the roof. Maybe that's why it hasn't been done.
I remember hearing that back in the good old days when everything was supposedly dirt cheap and you could do anything, Sea Hunt was one of the most expensive shows at the time to produce and it was borderline worth it.

 

[RJP]

The target audience is going to be wide range. 25 to 70 or even larger. I would assume it would be appealing to also a wide range of different types of people. Some are going top be men and women who are adventurous. Others might be reality show lovers who just like to check out new shows because they have seemed to like them regardless of what it is. Crab fishing, tuna fishing, gold mining, etc.. I don't believe it is going to require a specific audience to capture. These type of shows seem to be free from such prerequisite because through time they have proven to create their own type of audience. I hope this covers the audience topic.

As far as advertisers, that'should be self explanatory. All gear or products used on show gives the opportunity for advertisement.

As far as how it will reflect on diving. I believe that having it in a type of show (reality)that many are interested in checking out. Can give the industry a boost and be a very effective way of exposing scuba diving to the masses.
You say you have crewed on a charter for six years, it doesn't sound like you enjoyed it to much from your comment. If so its not surprising, even the coolest jobs can lose their luster after a little while.
I believe every type of job can become redundant or routine if you perceive it as such. It is all in ones attitude and how you can appreciate what you are doing, IMO.

Not that you should understand this sort of stuff... but that just ain't how it works.

Too much detail that you'll simply dispute based on naivete.

Your excitement is admirable, but that just ain't how TV works.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Not that you should understand this sort of stuff... but that just ain't how it works.

Too much detail that you'll simply dispute based on naivete.

Your excitement is admirable, but that just ain't how TV works.

So far you've pretty much shot down any ideas anybody's had.
Tell us, what's your idea?

 

[RJP]

So far you've pretty much shot down any ideas anybody's had.
Tell us, what's your idea?

I'm only specifically shooting down the reality show idea because there are multiple "that just ain't how it works" reasons that genuinely preclude the idea from ever getting (or staying) on the air from a TV standpoint... much less successfully promoting diving. (PS - do you think that Dancing With The Stars has caused people to take up dancing in droves, or that America's Got Talent has caused people to flood into juggling schools, etc? The short answer is... of course not. Neither are those shows supported by dance shoe companies as advertisers.)

You can't simply say "This thing works over there... so let's do the same thing over here."

As I've always said, my expertise is not in KNOWING answers. It's in knowing how to FIND answers. That takes research. Research takes money.

Happy to lead the charge on the former... for anyone willing to come up with the latter. I've outlined the detailed process that'd I use somewhere here on SB previously. It works.

 

[Z Gear]

I guess I didn't do a good job of being convincing. Articulating ones thought or ideas can be harder than it seems. Nevertheless I want to try and take another stab at this reality idea for scuba diving.

I wanted to point out a very important factor in reality shows that should be stressed and recognized as the main reason for its current success.
These shows all revolve around some type of social play. In other words the human experience is the REAL reason it is interesting to the viewer.
The setting or story line can differ (wicked Tuna or the biggest loser etc..) But they all have some level of social play. Some have more action and less human vs human challenges, others revolve mainly on the social experiment. I wanted to make this point and hope the importance is understood.

This is what really sets these shows apart from traditional TV shows, documentaries or series. The amount of success these shows are demonstrating are hard to dispute, what ever your personal feeling are about reality shows. This is why I am focusing on the power these shows that have on a large audience and if they are relatively cheap to produce, than I would say that is a good thing.

Getting viewers to tune in on a scuba reality show I think should be the easy part. Do to the fact that people are familiar with the way reality shows are like and are likely to tune in just to see what this one is about.
The real hurdle will be to have a well balanced and thought out show. It will definitely be very important to have the right crew or cast. That can have plenty of drama and some of the challenges that a dive crew can face. I'm sure that there is plenty of material there as well as awe inspiring footage of the dives. The thing is that if a dive operator is interested in doing a reality show of his operation, he or she needs to demonstrate why there operation can make an interesting show. The producers and writers of a show are going to consolidate different types of story lines and ideas with that of the boat crew, this process is what makes the reality seem real but it is actually more scripted than real. But it does not matter because the public does not really mind they are happily watching and being entertained.

 

[hellhole]

I would watch a realitu TV on scuba.. if they

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I find SCUBA like Golf - I loved to play golf with my dad - I have gone to the Senior Tours once walking from hole to hole (I have a few autographs) - but I can not stand to watch Golf on TV or sit there and watch it from the field. It is boring and has no appeal for me.

Similarly - I have watched Catching Hell and Bering Sea Gold and it is the same experience (I admit they are not true recreational SCUBA shows). But - I can be sitting in 20 feet of cold, poor visibility salt water looking at a crab feasting on a dead carcass or watch a sea horse hold onto some seaweed and be fascinated. Put that on TV and I have no interest - it does not hold my attention. I want to be there participating or find something else to do.

Pony up the money and make a reality show - I may watch one or two shows - then I am done if I hang in that long...

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The original reality show was "Cops", and that came about because of a writers strike, they literally had no other options but to try it. Then the so called "reality" shows became a trend and like any other industry where money is to be made they of course over produced and staged them up to anything but reality.
I'm thinking of Gordon Ramsey and the show Kitchen Nightmares. The only thing that show has done for me is to keep me OUT of restaurants.