One of the nicest jobs I have is dishing out prizes. This afternoon I sent three emails, and made seven phone calls to people who've won tickets to the Manchester show. It was great to speak to them . . . because, like most of us would be, they were delighted to be winners . . . and giving them the good news really is a lot of fun.
One lady even rung me back after I spoke to her partner, because she thought it might be a practical job or a wind-up. But it wasn't!
Excellent stuff.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Big numbers . . .
Had a hour or two looking at Caravan Channel view numbers - and what a surprise.
The most popular video we've ever put online is our Clarkson's Caravan vid on YouTube - near 40,000 views as I write. It's here, with the rest of our Youtube bits. Mind you, there's only about 40 or 50 clips there, including some more personal bits and bobs. Our main website has around 150 . . .
The clips we did with the excellent Little Guy mini caravan have also been highly popular with around 15,000 views between the Youtube and the Caravan Channel versions, and the Caravan Club instructors, Berni and Tony, have scored 14,000 views across 4 clips on the two sites - hope these have helped some people get to grips with reversing, too!
Although these numbers aren't anywhere near the numbers we get on broadcast TV, estimated at around 100,000 viewers per programme, they're pretty amazing for a tiny little niche programme, catering to a smallish national audience - there's around half-a-million caravans and 150,000 motorhome owners, out of a UK count of 25M households.
The TV numbers are seriously impressive, too, remembering that only around 8.5M of those households have satellite systems - in other words, only one-third of our potential audience could watch the show, if they wanted to . . .
Mind you, as we're giving away a satellite system in the next show (premiere 31/12/08), we'll be helping to up the numbers!
The most popular video we've ever put online is our Clarkson's Caravan vid on YouTube - near 40,000 views as I write. It's here, with the rest of our Youtube bits. Mind you, there's only about 40 or 50 clips there, including some more personal bits and bobs. Our main website has around 150 . . .
The clips we did with the excellent Little Guy mini caravan have also been highly popular with around 15,000 views between the Youtube and the Caravan Channel versions, and the Caravan Club instructors, Berni and Tony, have scored 14,000 views across 4 clips on the two sites - hope these have helped some people get to grips with reversing, too!
Although these numbers aren't anywhere near the numbers we get on broadcast TV, estimated at around 100,000 viewers per programme, they're pretty amazing for a tiny little niche programme, catering to a smallish national audience - there's around half-a-million caravans and 150,000 motorhome owners, out of a UK count of 25M households.
The TV numbers are seriously impressive, too, remembering that only around 8.5M of those households have satellite systems - in other words, only one-third of our potential audience could watch the show, if they wanted to . . .
Mind you, as we're giving away a satellite system in the next show (premiere 31/12/08), we'll be helping to up the numbers!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Forum matters . . .
The Caravan Channel forum has been suffering a bit of late, mainly because it's administrator, the redoubtable Cazanne, has been in hospital. Although she's a tough lady who has battled with ill health for a long time, with a combination of enthusiasm for life and sometimes raucous good humour (laughter heard over two campsites away in Brean last spring), she's really been knocked back by an illness that the medics don't seem to have been able to identify.
However, the good news is that they have now started to make some progress, and the plan is for her to be back home before Christmas, and back in the driving seat of the forum. She's just got some treatment to go through, probably over two or three days, and then she should be out!
It has been interesting and instructive to see how the forum has been while she's been away - it really is rather subdued, although there have been some amusing moments. But Caz's absence really does prove how valuable her work with it has been; what with the pressures and time consumption involved in making the programmes, I don't have time to do more than simply manage it, and Caz's excellent mods, Trooper and Aidan, like to refer to her when they're aren't too sure about what to do.
But all told, I think it will soon come back to a more lively state once herself is back in charge - the people who post without thought will be nursed back, instead of being bludgeoned, and there'll be a constant flow of more entertaining topics!
However, the good news is that they have now started to make some progress, and the plan is for her to be back home before Christmas, and back in the driving seat of the forum. She's just got some treatment to go through, probably over two or three days, and then she should be out!
It has been interesting and instructive to see how the forum has been while she's been away - it really is rather subdued, although there have been some amusing moments. But Caz's absence really does prove how valuable her work with it has been; what with the pressures and time consumption involved in making the programmes, I don't have time to do more than simply manage it, and Caz's excellent mods, Trooper and Aidan, like to refer to her when they're aren't too sure about what to do.
But all told, I think it will soon come back to a more lively state once herself is back in charge - the people who post without thought will be nursed back, instead of being bludgeoned, and there'll be a constant flow of more entertaining topics!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Christmas or what?
I'm not a big fan of Christmas these days.
For some reason, I often seem to get some sort of bug over the holidays, and end-up flat out and feeling awful. I usually have the flu jab offered by the medics, but does it do any good - who knows.
This year has a been a bit painful because of the way programmes run up to the holiday break - we've got one show premiering on the 17th and the next on the 31st - so both have to be completed and with the broadcaster in plenty of time. That's compared to the usual schedule, where I can work right up until the Saturday morning before premiere, which means that we can be pretty well up to date with content.
But it's nearly done. The New Years eve show is nearly sorted, and we'll just be shooting an item about satellite TV early next week to edit in on Tuesday, and that'll be it . . .
As for 2009 - looks pretty damn busy from where I'm sitting!
For some reason, I often seem to get some sort of bug over the holidays, and end-up flat out and feeling awful. I usually have the flu jab offered by the medics, but does it do any good - who knows.
This year has a been a bit painful because of the way programmes run up to the holiday break - we've got one show premiering on the 17th and the next on the 31st - so both have to be completed and with the broadcaster in plenty of time. That's compared to the usual schedule, where I can work right up until the Saturday morning before premiere, which means that we can be pretty well up to date with content.
But it's nearly done. The New Years eve show is nearly sorted, and we'll just be shooting an item about satellite TV early next week to edit in on Tuesday, and that'll be it . . .
As for 2009 - looks pretty damn busy from where I'm sitting!
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