Comments wanted

About two and a half years ago I tried to have a Best Buys TV Show in Vegas similar to my Los Angeles TV show which is successful and is a weekly program.

The Vegas project failed miserably and it was the economy, of course. The show catered to small and midsized local businesses and they were closing up more than they were advertising at the time.

I was approached by a group of advertising execs in Vegas about trying the show one more time.

For those of you who live in the Vegas area, please give me your "gut feelings" about local businesses. Do you find business conditions improving or are they still holding on for dear life.

My program targets furniture, appliances, clothing stores primarily.

You can see some of the old videos from the TV show on www.VegasBestBuys.com.

I have a double risk in trying this again: first risk is that the Vegas show will fail a second time. Second risk is that it will spread me thin and take away valuable time from the Los Angeles show.

Many thanks, and please don't hold back on the punches. If you think the idea will flop, please say so because you'll be saving me time and money.

From 1994 to 2007, Vegas had the 18th best economy
in the US. Last year it had the 179th best economy out
of 200 cities rated. Knowing that info, what chance would
you give a show like yours of succeeding. The only glimmer
of hope is that year before last, Vegas was 199 out of 200.
Drive around the city and count the number of empty
strip malls and empty houses. But maybe you're a gambler,
Vegas loves gamblers...

Thank you for the input EvenBob. I gamble... but not with business.

I have a meeting Saturday with the leader of the group. I haven't really "looked" at Vegas in two years, except for my drive up the i-15 direct to the Strip.

Web traffic in that Vegas TV show website dropped to near Zero about a year after we tried the three experimental shows and that's a "tell" right there (to use a gambling term). But I really haven't done much with the site either except to update the stock report.

I'm always looking for growth but I think the Vegas idea might not be where I will find it.

Thank you again, and more input is appreciated.

Quote: EvenBob

Drive around the city and count the number of empty
strip malls and empty houses. But maybe you're a gambler,
Vegas loves gamblers...

Loss if income was from the loss of tourism of all sorts, not just gambling.

Maybe instead of promoting regular businesses, you could promote gambling systems?

Quote: kp

Maybe instead of promoting regular businesses, you could promote gambling systems?

Or promote table games? Raving Consulting is not doing the table game shows now and G2E is way too expensive for independent developers. There is an opportunity.

Alan,

Come to K.C.! Lots of retail and, btw, Penn National is just adding what will be the area's 6th casino to our metro. We have survived the downturn pretty well.

I thought about doing a TV show to advertise the casinos and gambling... for about ten seconds... and then decided to leave that to the Travel Channel.

My niche is to provide small and midsized businesss a way to advertise on TV effectively at low cost. Two years ago we were talking about an advertising program that for a total of $100 would give a business 1 minute of TV airtime on a "shopping show" that we would place on a major broadcast channel (not cable) at 1-AM, three times a week (total of 3 minutes, or $33.33 per one minute TV spot) including production of their "spot" and we couldn't find enough businesses to do it.

Quote: AlanMendelson

About two and a half years ago I tried to have a Best Buys TV Show in Vegas...
The project failed miserably and it was the economy, of course.
I have a double risk in trying this again: first risk is that the Vegas show will fail a second time. Second risk is that it will spread me thin and take away valuable time from the Los Angeles show.

I've just seen this post and have not yet looked at the historic shows to even know what is up, but I would say "pass".
Furniture and appliance stores? Best Buys? EVERYTHING now is price driven. Some shopping centers are closing when they've lost their anchors. You are in a town where even in a good economy its not a good market for that sort of a show.
I'll now look at the link and see if my opinion changes.

On-edit: I'm surprised its even working in Los Angeles.
Small and medium size businesses may not be able to buy TV time but how are you going to get a sufficient audience in the Las Vegas area? Good luck to you if you decide to do it. Vegas is such a 24 hour town that your audience is fragmented, its not a town for long commutes or driving all over just to get a bargain somewhere.
Anyway... all I can say is: its courageous of you even to think of it, but I'd "pass".

Look at it this way, Alan. In 2010, out of the 200 cities
studied, the only city with a worse economy than Vegas
was Detroit. How does this make you feel? Sick to your
stomach, light headed, like you want to run the other
way and keep running? Follow your instincts..

Thanks guys, you're giving me valuable help and I appreciate it.

We do so well in LA that I thought this would be the time to try Vegas again. But like I said, in the last two years the "only Vegas" I saw was the Strip.

It will be an interesting lunch on Saturday, and I'll be sure to order something I enjoy eating, because I'm going to be doing a lot of listening instead of doing the talking.

If its small businessmen you're having lunch with,
ask yourself why they so desperately want your
small business to come in and save their small
businesses. Because they're hurting and they
need to be rescued, thats why. In a good ecomomy,
you'd be seeking them out, not the other way
around.

Evenbob you are very perceptive. Yes, their own advertising business is in the dumps, so it is not surprising to me that they are looking for something new (or recycling something that's old) to try.

But one minor correction: in a good economy I wouldn't be seeking anyone out... I'd do it myself just as I did it in LA when I left the TV news business five years ago.

Thank you again. These comments are keeping my head on straight.

I've had two brick and mortar businesses and
my wife had one. Most people don't realize that
you're usually 3 bad months in a row from the
point of no return. So you have to watch out for
your bottom line all the time, protect what you
have because nobody will do it for you.

I had my meeting and the ball is in their court. If they can sell it, I can produce it. Their feeling is that the market is much different now than two years ago. I told them that I was willing to help them but I am not going to put any money into this because there is no need for it-- I already have the camera and editing equpment and staff from my LA show and all that is needed now is sweat equity of calling and lining up potential advertisers.

In the next couple of days I'm going to make some changes to the Vegas website to promote the "possible return" of the TV show to help them with marketing. I'll put one of the original "test shows" on the home page along with the new contact info.

We'll see what happens. I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, which is afterall, how I got started after leaving the news business.

Quote: AlanMendelson

I had my meeting and the ball is in their court. If they can sell it, I can produce it. Their feeling is that the market is much different now than two years ago. I told them that I was willing to help them but I am not going to put any money into this because there is no need for it-- I already have the camera and editing equpment and staff from my LA show and all that is needed now is sweat equity of calling and lining up potential advertisers.

In the next couple of days I'm going to make some changes to the Vegas website to promote the "possible return" of the TV show to help them with marketing. I'll put one of the original "test shows" on the home page along with the new contact info.

We'll see what happens. I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, which is afterall, how I got started after leaving the news business.

Have you done any research in L.A. into why your show is successful? My suspicion is that your name and reputation still carry some weight from you TV news days. Do you have / have you had the same exposure in Las Vegas?

Everyone loves a bargain. The fact that there are more Wal-Marts in the Las Vegas metro area than any other major city in the country speaks to that. However, the preponderance of big box, and "outlet" stores has really put a stranglehold on mom and pop businesses.

You are wise to put all the initial financial risk on the locals.

Thank you Aye. Im sorry its taken so long to reply. Yes, i am sure that after being on the news in LA for about 20 years that helped to launch my new show here as well as my Infomercial business. But the problem was not that there wasn't an audience in Vegas -- we had an audience. The advertisers on our first three shows got good response. The problem was that we couldnt find enough advertisers for future shows.

The first three shows we did were "test shows" but to keep the show going, we needed to have commitments from advertisers -- and we couldnt get it back then.

Now an update: it's still going slow. I really have my doubts that there is enough "activity" in the Vegas market to bring the show back. So far my total "re investment" has just been the quickie trip into town to meet with the "new guys" and buying them lunch. And lunch was good.

We'll see. "The ball is in their court."

Alan, you should move your infomercial business to Texas.

Lots of opportunities here.

I made it here. You'll do well.

Come!

Quote: AlanMendelson

We'll see. "The ball is in their court."

You told them they're putting up all the money, couldn't
you see the wind go out their sails right in front
of you? They have no money.

Quote: EvenBob

You told them they're putting up all the money, couldn't
you see the wind go out their sails right in front
of you? They have no money.

Actually, they are doing the work, there isn't much up front money needed.

The paid programming business (Infomercial business) has a unique model. Once your basic video and editing equipment is paid for (and in my case it is because we've been in business for years) it's just a matter of signing up clients who then pay you for the production (always paid for in advance) and pay for their media (air time).

It's not like you have to go out and finance a big investment in anything.

So the question for these guys is whether or not they can line up advertisers who are willing to make a committment.

Once they have a committment then it's "pay as you go." With most networks and TV stations you pay for your air time either two weeks in advance or one month in advance. You might have a company wanting to run an infomercial twice a month for the next year, and all they'd have to pay for is the production of the program (up front) plus the airtime one month at a time.

So the bottom line for the guys in Vegas is this: either they can line up advertisers or they can't. Production costs are in fact low for this kind of program. But I'm afraid that even a low cost project still might not fly in Vegas given the current economy.

Quote: AlanMendelson

But I'm afraid that even a low cost project still might not fly in Vegas given the current economy.

I'm sure you're right. Out of the 100 worst city
economies in the nation, Vegas has dropped from
number 99 to number 98. Detroit is still the worst.

For 15 years Vegas was always around number 18.
To go from 18 to 98 is a blow, to put it mildly.

How did this end up going Alan?