GoPro's Success

It’s only September. The temperature still averages in the mid 80’s during the day in SoCal, but winter is already knocking. It’s almost time for snowboarding and skiing! Every week, I get a few emails from resorts like Mammoth, Big Bear, and Mt. High, claiming that this year’s snow will be much better than the last. In addition to the weather forecasts, they also link me to some of their promo vids that they put up on YouTube. After watching one, I’ll click on the next related video, and then the next, until my brain goes numb and I realize that I can’t possibly watch them all. The number of skiing and snowboarding videos out there is surprising.

What is even more surprising is that half of these videos are recorded with a certain type of camera: The GoPro HD Hero. Last season, I noticed a large number of people with those GoPro cameras attached to their helmets. It was actually quite amazing. At the beginning of the season, only a few people had those cameras. By the end, there were too many to count. Whether GoPro planned it out or not, their advertising campaign is extremely successful and I actually think it’s ingenious. Their advertising is so effective that I even bought a GoPro simply due to the hype.

If you watch any of GoPro’s videos or “ads,” you’ll notice that the company targets the outgoing, active, thrill-seeking crowd. Their videos are just a mash-up of people performing stunts from different sports, but it works because they make me want to get off my computer and just go out and play.

And here is what people look like when they go out and play:

You may be wondering: How does me wanting to go out and play help GoPro? In this new era of sharing, not only is it fun to watch the videos made, it’s also really fun to make the videos. After a good day on the hill, my friends and I are usually so excited to make a video that after we get home, we’ll spend around three to four hours watching all our recordings and trying to create a montage. By this time, we are usually exhausted from snowboarding and making a video becomes ridiculously fun. Even better is when we wake up the next morning and find the video is magically completed and uploaded onto Facebook. None of this fun would be possible unless we had a camera to play with during the day.

Looking at the YouTube videos I linked, we can see that GoPro builds its success off the people who use it. The people supply the thrill while GoPro supplies the means of recording and sharing it. As more people want to get out and play, more people will want to share what happened. This is what I find amazing: every video made is like an advertisement for GoPro. People with similar interests will find the videos and as long as GoPro is mentioned, its name becomes more prominent.

I’ll admit that I also fell victim to their campaign. Before I bought my GoPro, I had already owned a Kodak camera, but because of the sheer number of videos made with the GoPro Hero, I figured it must blow everything else out of the water. After buying the GoPro camera and playing with it, I realized that the videos I created didn’t turn out much better than the ones I already had. The GoPro camera was good, but considering that I still had one that worked, it was not worth the $300. Regardless of its functionality, it is amazing how prominent GoPro has become within the past year.