General Industry gathering

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US Dive Shows

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Notes from the Colorado Dive Show General Industry gathering on Ideas for Helping the Industry Grow.
Below are ideas that arose from the meeting. This meeting included Dive Store Owners, Manufacturers, Training agency and Professional Divers.


Here is a summary of some of the ideas that were presented:

1.) Yes I Dive” …. Using the Yes I Dive logo on all emails etc , sparks conversations even outside the dive industry and can promote diving. How about using celebrities of all sorts (movie industry, sports figures, music industry, etc) to help promote diving by participating in a “Yes We Dive” campaign? …. “Yes I Dive and my favorite dive spot is…… “

2.) One idea mentioned was viral marketing in advertising. In major metropolitan cities, having someone dressed in scuba gear handing out flyers etc…(As in Roving Beauties) with videos of that as well as photos and news casts winding up in the media (evening news, YouTube, Facebook, other internet venues) thus attracting interest in the dive industry. Just another form of exposure.

3.) Another idea was to leave dive magazines in places that non-divers will be such as doctors’ offices, on airplanes, at hair salons etc. We all have tons of magazines we have read so why not recycle those to places that people have to “wait” to help promote diving?

4.) We need to look at our generational markers and figure out who we are attracting to the industry. We need to get more of the X generation involved in diving. The younger generation is involved in snowboarding… biking… skiing…etc…. how do we get them involved in the dive industry? Maybe the manufacturers should “pump up” the gear a bit to help attract that demographic by having bolder and flashier colors and fun graphics etc. Also, social media is attracting a younger market... maybe campus reps would be a good idea to help promote local dive stores and local dive clubs at universities. Marketing profiling has shown, for an example, that someone getting involved in skiing before the age of 16 will spend approx 30K in the sport in a lifetime as opposed to only 4 to 5K if they started after the age of 16.

5.) Another example of how to get people involved on an ongoing basis was a Dive Around Texas Challenge event that was done complete with $10,000 in prizes being awarded to about 150 divers out of the 800 divers that started the event. The divers had to do a certain number of dives within a set period of time..preregister at the local dive store and go back to the local dive shop to get the official stamp in their log book showing the dive was done. This produced over 5000 dives being made. If we promote more localized diving…people diving in their own backyard… we will get more people that stay in the sport. This could be expanded all over the US … just look at how diving would increase locally which would certainly promote the diving industry both here and at other dive destinations. Someone else suggested that you could do a stamp if you go diving anywhere so that those people that live in places like Montana that don’t have the same diving opportunities available as someone in Texas could still participate and benefit.

6.) Another Ideal was to use more of the Living Social and Groupon for promoting dive classes and intro to scuba. Several Dive Stores have been using this with great success. Living Social is the cheaper of the two.... Groupon charges 50% where Living Social is between 30 to 40%, a better value.

We will be holding another meeting like this at the Baltimore/DC Dive Show January 28 & 29, 201. Located at the Baltimore Convention Center, all are welcome to attend. Over 25 industry professionals gather to help share ideas and help the industry as a whole. We want to thank all of those that attended.

If you have ideals you would like to share send them to brad@usdiveshow.com

Once again thank you for sharing these ideals to the Industry.

Sincerely,

Brad Nolan
 
Brad,

Thank you for initiating this discussion at the Show. It is great to see you are so committed to improving the business.

We also attended the meeting and while I believe that there are some real great ideas here. We do have to accept that we live in a nation of ADD citizens. Folks like to do something new every 10 years or so.

In my previous occupation as a Realtor I had the opportunity to visit a lot of homes and got to see what folks like to do based on the gear they had collecting dust. Here in Montana, it was normal to see snow skis, Cross country skis, snow boards, fly fishing gear, mountain bikes, saddles and horse tack, hunting gear, golf clubs, bowling balls, etc. In other parts of the country I am sure there are surf boards, fishing gear, etc.

People move on. They like to do something different. The key is for the indusrty to have a steady stream of new blood coming into the pool. (My apologies for the Vampire like analogy)


Here is the info we prepared for this meeting at the Denver show.

I have been told by many of today's divers that they were inspired by TV shows like the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. This show was the catalyst that got them into scuba diving. The Undersea Worlds last broadcast was in 1976. 34 years ago. My wife Penny was 2 years old. Our industry has not had a regularly scheduled nationwide TV show featuring Scuba Diving in over 34 years.


There has been plenty of mass media about scuba diving. However it's all bad, The only thing you see is deaths reported almost daily in the news, Then there's Shark Week, Piranha, the whale that ate Jaws, Open Water, followed by the ever popular Open Water 2. The <40 age group is bombarded with media – negative media about scuba diving. The underlying belief is that scuba divers drown all the time or they get eaten by sharks. That's the stereotype that we all must fight.


The industry needs to get positive press out. We need to have mainstream mass market media that is positive about Scuba. And that job is yours. Don't think someone is going to do it for you. It is your responsibility to put your business and this sport in the media in a positive lite.


In TV land, GOLF has their own channel. As does, Tennis, soccer, hockey, football, horse racing, basketball. Fishing and hunting have three. Currently there are about 75 fishing shows in America. The scuba industry MUST learn from these other outdoor activity driven industries.


We can say with confidence that most in the industry do not have any experience with Television Marketing. TV is a big and scary ocean. We are in an industry where it is perfectly logical to step off into the deep end.

OK! So here is our shameless promotion.

TV is NOT expensive. We are a $.01 per HOUSEHOLD
This is industry standard. This is what big companies like Ford and Cabela's are paying.


You do not stop advertising when economic times are bad. That is when you need to step up your advertising to become the leader in your field/specialty.

You need to make things happen. If you do not participate then you will not grow and build. If the scuba diving industry is to grow and build then you are the folks who have to make that happen. The first step is to support positive mass media programs like ours that supports your goals and needs.

Our show is not perfect. But it is the best TV show about scuba diving that there is right now.
Our network is the single best choice for a scuba diving TV show. Versus has a broad line up of sport and outdoor programming. It is the perfect mix of competition, adventure and outdoor programming,

Versus is the single largest network that has outdoor programming. Bigger then the Sportsman,s channel at 25 mill. WFN at 15 mil. And the Outdoor network at 36 mil. It is bigger then HDNet who cant even tell us how big their audience is. Versus is at 78 million US households.

We are offering the single best TV show currently available about scuba diving. On the single best choice of networks that offer supportive programming that would attract divers. And we are offering it at rates that are substantially affordable. Less then 1 penny per household.

Why hasn't there been a successful Scuba diving TV show? Why aren't you advertising your diving business on our show? Answer that question and you have your answer as to why the industry has not grown at the same pace as other sports.

Our show premiered Yesterday and we are already receiving fan mail and letters telling us how much they enjoyed the show.

I look forward to seeing where this industry forum takes this topic. As I stated there are some great ideas here. I for one am adding the "Yes I dive" concept into our branding.
 
TV is NOT expensive. We are a $.01 per HOUSEHOLD
This is industry standard. This is what big companies like Ford and Cabela's are paying.

When you say "a $.01 household", what exactly does that mean?

Minneapolis/St Paul market is 155,000 households. 155000X.01=$1550
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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