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Do Marketing People Need To Get Advice From Actual Users Before Making Marketing Videos?


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I've seen some crazy marketing videos for detectors over the years, it seems no brand is immune to it, their marketing people sometimes make videos that perhaps appeal to people new to detecting more than seasoned detector users.  One that took me by surprise today was a new Minelab marketing video for the GPX 6000 that's doing the rounds on Facebook.

In this video a Detect-spurt is using the GPX 6000 saying how great it is, he then finds what he describes as a faint target, a few scrapes of the dusty top soil and he's moved the target so he runs the coil over it, describing it now as a screaming target, his coil at this point is virtually touching the nugget by the looks of it.  He's then down there using his hands to sort out the target from the dirt over the coil, and recovers and shows his piece of gold, then goes onto say that's what it's all about, coming back to ground that's been hammered and finding nuggets like that and holds up his half gram to a gram size nugget that he found virtually on the surface.  With a detector capable of hitting absolutely tiny targets surely he'd be carrying a scoop to make recovery easier, but no, he's not.  I'm not saying it's this guys fault, he's likely doing what the marketing people asked of him.

I doubt there is a gold capable detector on the market that'd miss that nugget so I just don't see how that is hammered ground, most coin detectors would likely hit it.

I'm puzzled to understand who their target market is with videos like this? It's certainly not people who currently detect for nuggets, so are they trying to bring in new customers that know nothing about detecting by selling them an $8000 AUD detector for their first detector?

I don't know much about these new Detexpert's, but I prefer the good old fashioned educational marketing videos like the ones Nenad, JP and others used to do, that are meaningful to people who detect.

Steve recently did Garrett 24k videos for their marketing, these were meaningful useful videos for people considering buying a 24k.

I've never been much of a fan of marketing, but it seems like its on a downhill slope.

The GPX 6000 is an awesome detector, it's a shame the marketing videos aren't showing what it's really capable of.

I wish marketing people were also detector users so they'd be better at knowing how to market detectors to detector users.

And to cleanse yourself from watching that terrible video, he's a better one from Nenad/Phasetech showing the GPX 6000 in a better way.

 

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Yes Simon you have a good point, marketing companies approach manufacturers or vice versa, a lot of them are not qualified to market products properly, but tend to sell themselves like a used car salesman, as long as they get the account is all that matters,

 

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If you've given making vids for Youtube a serious go before, it's easier to understand why they do this. I don't make vids anymore but I did for a decade and the same theories apply there as to marketing when it comes to appealing to people wether it's to watch your video or buy a product. In effect, they are almost the same thing depending how you view it.

Making a video that appeals to the current set of actual experienced prospecting detectorists appeals to maybe 5000-10,000 potential viewers globally. In the gold world - that's just about your max English speaking market, and there is very little growth beyond that. You can't stop there if you want to grow. Also: to do it right and show what detectorists want to see you end up with a visually boring and relatively action-free video that conveys very little about the actual experience or adventure. And in the end half of those 5000 people are going to claim it's BS and a shitty video no matter how much time you waste trying to cater just to them, and nothing was accomplished for either side. Making videos for hardcore prospectors pays very little, and results in a lot of hate. Making commercials for them results in few new sales, and a lot of hate.

On the other hand, you can concentrate on the less technical and less realistic aspects and make something more visually appealing, faster paced, and interesting to watch for a general global audience and you'll appeal to many magnitudes more people, like 1,000,000+. Fewer of them complain about anything too. And these people are far, far more likely to not have heard of the product at all when they see the commercial, and thus likely to be new customers.

Marketing is all about reaching the maximum number of potential customers. Almost every single one of those 5-10,000 hardcore detectorists already seeks out their own info and a commercial makes no difference to their purchasing decision. However, if you can interest just 1% of that 1,000,000 person larger demographic in a product, you now have doubled your entire potential customer base and are showing them something they've never seen before.

They could do it easier, cheaper, and more authentically by simply just airdropping products into some of the larger Youtube channel's hands.

 

 

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I will note however here though on further thought - if it were a new metal detecting company with a new product no one had ever heard of (like X Coils as one familiar example), you can't really do a commercial like you posted above and be taken seriously. In those cases you haven't won over those 5-10,000 people first yet and so you need to get a good group of them using your product first. And the way to do that is with the sorts of videos that hardcore prospectors actually want to see - tests, data, results, and absolute dedication to accuracy and realism. Build that first, then try to appeal to the 1,000,000 later. 

Minelab gets away with it because hardcore prospectors all follow them already, trust them, and generally already know they want the product and have a lofty expectation of performance built in.

So - a word of wisdom to any company who does eventually offer some competition to whatever Minelab's current line of products are: don't make commercials like this one above. Find a team of existing, independent, trustworthy, experienced users to instead develop that trust first. :cool:

To be clear, that machine wouldn't be a 5000 competitor, but a 6000/7000 competitor, at this specific moment in time.

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Thanks Simon, I guess a "marketing" video needs to appeal to a potential new customer, someone who's been thinking about detecting for a while and needs that trigger to decide it's something they want to do now and they go buy a detector. To most experienced guys, there's always an element of cringe with most "marketing" videos, but you me and others who've been around for a while are not really the target of these videos. 

And yes you are right, the guys filming often have their ideas of how a scene should look, so you have to try and compromise and find common ground without totally embarrassing yourself haha. 

I have always believed that a good product sells itself, just as a bad/dud product will dig it's own grave. Too much hype just feeds the sceptics. 

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As a bit of a sidelight, I find it interesting when watching TV treasure shows to figure out what detector(s) is being used.  Often it's not the accepted (among us afficionados) best unit.  For example, on Expedition Unknown, leader Josh Gates for a long time used a Garrett GTX2500 quite often.  Besides Garrett I've also seen Whites, Fisher, Teknetics, Nokta/Makro, Minelab (of course), and a few I didn't recognize.

On Curse of Oak Island they had one detectorist in the first season or two who didn't have much knowledge of what he was doing, falling for false signals right and left.  I think Gary Drayton has been on there the last six years or so (they are just finishing season 9).  >95% of the time since being on the show he's used the ML CTX3030.  He originally used a Garrett Carrot handheld pinpointer.  Then he waffled between that and on of the Minelab handhelds for a couple years.  Other people on the show used the Carrot for a long time.  In the last year or two both Drayton and the rest have used Minelab handhelds exclusively.  And the narrator has started mentioning (in passing 😏) the Minelab model numbers (e.g. GPX5000).  Wonder why the change in procedure... (facetiously stated).  I think this ties in with Jason's views, BTW, of marketing to the (currently) non-detectorists which obviously is the majority of the audience.

The History Channel Producers of this show have tried in the past and again this year telecasting spinoffs.  This past season it was Beyond Oak Island.  Interestingly on that show they don't cater to Minelab but rather let the treasure hunters they join up with use their own.  Gypsy Jewell (well known to YouTubers) had her trusty Garretts.  There was one episode where someone used a White's TM808 two box.

Starting next week History Channel premiers another new series -- something about Montezuma's treasure -- and no, I'm not talking about Blind Frog Ranch.  (Probably the word 'curse' in the title somewhere -- that draws in the supernatural element of viewers.)  Interestingly enough (well, to me), the previews show a guy that looks suspicously like Kevin Hoagland.  Then again, a friendly, slightly stocky bald 60-something with well-trimmed gray beard and an infectious smile -- that describes a lot of people, probably more than half the readers here if you think about it.

 

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Thanks for the insight Nenad, it's good to hear from someone that was involved in doing these things.

Yes, these TV shows are the best marketing detecting companies can get to the newer to detecting people, they sell the dream to them and make detecting seem so fun and exciting.  I've been watching a UK one lately, River Hunters, not because I really like the show but it runs through the history of the finds and even the history of the things they don't find that they want to find 🙂  I find the history of the objects interesting as I think it'd be great to hunt with a detector on Europe, a place with so much history.  They use Garrett's in that show and every time they use their pinpointer the shiny new black GARRETT words are in your face, somehow the angle they hold it is always just right for the words to show.   Anyone who's owned a Garrett AT knows those black words only last a few weeks before they rub off so they're obviously using new pinpointers all the time though out the seasons.  They also only use Garrett AT Pro or AT Max detectors as they need waterproof being river hunters.  Garrett makes its way into most of the metal detecting TV Shows, I watched Rebel Gold before this, and they used Fisher F75's with obviously plugs throughout the episodes of the detectors, it wasn't a very good show 😜

The Garrett ATX even made it into a season of Aussie Gold Hunters where the Gold Gypsies stopped using their GPX 4500 and GPZ 7000 completely and both started using an ATX, seemed an odd move but by next season they were back on the GPX/GPZ combo so Garrett must have sponsored them or something for that season and it didn't work out.

I guess to keep all of these shows entertaining they have to have an element of fake in them, people would tune out quickly following me around detecting, they'd be bored to death.   Pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, small nugget, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, pellet, etc etc.

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3 hours ago, phrunt said:

I watched Rebel Gold before this, and they used Fisher F75's with obviously plugs throughout the episodes of the detectors,...

If it's the show I'm thinking of (from around 2016?), one of the searchers is Mike Scott who was Director of Sales for First Texas at the time.  (I recall he's since been let go -- think that was posted here a couple years ago.)  So no surprise they were using F75's.  😁  I assume Scott put together a deal to be taken along if he provided the detectors.  (Just my WAG.)

3 hours ago, phrunt said:

...It wasn't a very good show 😜

At the risk of awakening the "every show is a complete fake" proponents here, yes, that one was kind of disappointing, but fairly typical (and in fact better than some).  I recall considerable animosity between the group with one guy (who wasn't a team leader) going into mutiny mode.  I hate it when shows divert from treasure hunting to hissy-fitting, but unfortunately that's sometimes what the audience wants to see, or at least it seems the producers think so.  Searching for the supposed Treasury of the Confederacy's $15,000,000 (1865 dollar units, or whatever it was) being snuck out of the country (to Mexico) at the end of the Civil War by none other than Confederacy President Jefferson Davis is a common treasure expedition that obviously due to its historic connection is ripe for TV.  There was another Curse of Oak Island spinoff show claiming a Michigan Regiment buried and a few years later retrieved the gold, eventually sinking at least some of it on a railroad car into Lake Michigan.  That show had two seasons and then quietly disappeared....

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Minelab’s ads are just ok. The worst ads have been Nokta Makros. Not only bad, but cringeworthy. Simplex and Legend take the cake for worst ads for a metal detector I’ve ever seen. Of course, when they are especially bad and corny they stick in your head nonetheless. 

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