Lee Anderton interview

Strat54

LuttiS said:

not_the_dj said:

Having a public face and image like that is a great marketing strategy, the customer gets to feel like they're buying from "him", and that really sets them apart from the relatively faceless GAK, GuitarGuitar etc.

Not just that, but he is "a celebrity" 

You always see in the videos him & Rob at the store, I imagine a big draw of going to the store is a chance of meeting them. 

Seriously? A guitar shop owner is a celebrity? 

Sporky

I think I've mentioned it before, but Lee was very decent the time that Sprocket put a lot of muddy paw prints on him in the woods.

Flink_Poyd

Strat54 said:

LuttiS said:

not_the_dj said:

Having a public face and image like that is a great marketing strategy, the customer gets to feel like they're buying from "him", and that really sets them apart from the relatively faceless GAK, GuitarGuitar etc.

Not just that, but he is "a celebrity" 

You always see in the videos him & Rob at the store, I imagine a big draw of going to the store is a chance of meeting them. 

Seriously? A guitar shop owner is a celebrity? 

Yes, hes a YouTube celebrity with over 1/3 of a million subscribers to his channel. Its a massive shift in what "celebrity" is. Ask any 15 year old and theyll probably be able to tell you whos huge on the internet/YouTUbe then ask them about whos big in TV.
 Content relevance has taken priority over what TV offers and its making huge stars out of people who know how to use it.

mark_random

english_bob said:

not_the_dj said:

the relatively faceless GAK

I wish. As a Guitar Nerds listener I'm more familiar with Joe Branton than I would have been otherwise, but I'm not sure he's considered whether his whole "controversialist vegan twat-'stache wearing hipster drunk whose friends think he's a bellend" persona really works as the face of a brand that needs to sell stuff to more than just vegan hipster drunks to survive.

Seriously, watching him wheel out some even more hipster twelve year old called Hugo or Bryce to actually play the guitar in their videos because he can't do it himself (bassist) makes you beg for Chappers.

That description of Branton is spot on.

RaymondLin

Teetonetal said:

stratman3142 said:

A while back when I visited the store there were a bunch of (what looked like) Japanese tourists outside taking photos 

I once watched a Japanese man take a photo of a bin a Interlaken West train station. 

That's because it is very hard to find a bin in Japan.

(I am semi serious….semi joke)

dindude

EricTheWeary said:

Teetonetal said:

stratman3142 said:

A while back when I visited the store there were a bunch of (what looked like) Japanese tourists outside taking photos 

I once watched a Japanese man take a photo of a bin a Interlaken West train station. 

When we had the riots in Birmingham city centre there was a lot of taking photos of broken windows by tourists the next day. 

What the hell are tourists doing in Birmingham?!

pmg

guitars4you said:

Interesting also how Anderton's have stayed with the one store approach - albeit store + on-line - Whereas the approach of many other retailers in the trade, with a large turnover, have gone down the multiple store route - PMT, GuitarGuitar, Dawson's and in the past Academy of Sound + Sound Control

Obviously Thomann have stayed as one store and let the on-line business become the monstrous turnover that it is today - last I knew they were around 600 million euro's revenue

why not?  It'll keep overheads down

english_bob

mark_random said:

That description of Branton is spot on.

Please tell me he isn't like that when the podcast ends. I imagine him to be the Daniel Day Lewis of music podcasting. 

alanbass1

I’ve been to Anderson’s a fair amount and purchased gear. I have chatted to Lee a couple of times, once for 20 minutes when I was waiting for the amp I bought to be brought up from the warehouse. What struck me was he was genuinely interested in why I chose the Morgan over the others I tried and it was just like chatting to an old friend.

tony99

I wasn't really aware of cappers and the chapstick until someone on here put me onto them

can anyone link his troll rant video pleeeease, love a good meltdown

Brize

tony99 said:

I wasn't really aware of cappers and the chapstick until someone on here put me onto them

can anyone link his troll rant video pleeeease, love a good meltdown

I'm happy to save you the bother of typing 'Lee Anderton trolls' into YouTube, although I wouldn't describe it as a meltdown.
 

tony99

Brize said:

tony99 said:

I wasn't really aware of cappers and the chapstick until someone on here put me onto them

can anyone link his troll rant video pleeeease, love a good meltdown

I'm happy to save you the bother of typing 'Lee Anderton trolls' into YouTube, although I wouldn't describe it as a meltdown.
 

Gracias chumigo, I was being facecous...fasecios...I was being a dick

Bucket

Strat54 said:

Seriously? A guitar shop owner is a celebrity? 

To the guitar-playing community who ever, EVER go on the internet, then I suppose you'd say he is, yes. Chappers too - Rabea, Danish Pete and so on to a lesser extent, but they're certainly well known and recognisable people.

I did a session for Andertons' YouTube channel with an artist I play for, and spent a lot of time that day with Danish Pete and also Joss, a younger shred-specialist kind of guy whom you may have seen on a fair few of their videos. Both were utterly charming and could have chatted about gear all day - Pete spent quite a while playing my Strat and having an absolute riot playing with the mad fuzz pedal on my board. But I also got a glimpse of how much work goes into the YouTube side of it - Pete is the main guy running the channel, as far as I remember, and he works unbelievably long hours to make it as polished as it is. I don't know how there are enough hours in the day for him. It was humbling actually - these guys have worked impossibly hard to get to where they are, and continue to do so just to keep it on the level.

Brize

Bucket said:

These guys have worked impossibly hard to get to where they are, and continue to do so just to keep it on the level.

Wis'd.

NelsonP

Flink_Poyd said:

Strat54 said:

LuttiS said:

not_the_dj said:

Having a public face and image like that is a great marketing strategy, the customer gets to feel like they're buying from "him", and that really sets them apart from the relatively faceless GAK, GuitarGuitar etc.

Not just that, but he is "a celebrity" 

You always see in the videos him & Rob at the store, I imagine a big draw of going to the store is a chance of meeting them. 

Seriously? A guitar shop owner is a celebrity? 

Yes, hes a YouTube celebrity with over 1/3 of a million subscribers to his channel. Its a massive shift in what "celebrity" is. Ask any 15 year old and theyll probably be able to tell you whos huge on the internet/YouTUbe then ask them about whos big in TV.
 Content relevance has taken priority over what TV offers and its making huge stars out of people who know how to use it.

I saw a survey, conducted amongst kids, which basically said they prefer YouTube over TV. 

So I would agree that the definition of celebrity has changed. Lee anderton fits this new definition, at least in the guitar world.

EricTheWeary

Quite interesting video. 

My seventeen year old son knows who the Andertons people are and watches the odd thing, our points of cultural cross over are fairly limited so I guess it’s a kind of fame. 

You can can see how Lee has developed as a presenter as well, he can muster a decent interview these days which wasn’t the case at all. As he’s become Mr Anti-Sexist I wouldn’t mind a bit of acknowledgment that he got that wrong earlier on. But, he’s  running what seems to be a very successful business and doing it in a fairly creative and fun way so I guess well done. 

mburekenge

Have to say I think he's an incredibly canny businessman and he's improved dramatically as an interviewer.

I struggle with the 'Top Gear' style stuff with Chappers,  but I admire the way that he's broadened the range of material available. 

Strat54

NelsonP said

I saw a survey, conducted amongst kids, which basically said they prefer YouTube over TV. 

So I would agree that the definition of celebrity has changed. Lee anderton fits this new definition, at least in the guitar world.

I don't watch TV either, stopped years ago. Have a monitor and a HDD.....and just download progs....and I'm no kid lol. Not sure that the kids watch Andertons because the top viewed videos are those featuring dad bands. 

mark_random

english_bob said:

mark_random said:

That description of Branton is spot on.

Please tell me he isn't like that when the podcast ends. I imagine him to be the Daniel Day Lewis of music podcasting. 

It is absolutely not a character.

matt.drink73

Strat54 said:

NelsonP said

I saw a survey, conducted amongst kids, which basically said they prefer YouTube over TV. 

So I would agree that the definition of celebrity has changed. Lee anderton fits this new definition, at least in the guitar world.

I don't watch TV either, stopped years ago. Have a monitor and a HDD.....and just download progs....and I'm no kid lol. Not sure that the kids watch Andertons because the top viewed videos are those featuring dad bands. 

As a kind of kid I can confirm that we all watch Andertons and drool over all of the guitars you old farts have under your beds

The Andertons channel has getting on for 100 million total video views, I wouldn’t call Lee a celebrity in the traditional sense but he’s certainly a very recogisable face among musicians of all ages