Weyburn 鈥� When it comes to finding a new marketing strategy, you鈥檇 have to try really hard to top what OSY Rentals Ltd. of Major, Sask., has launched 鈥� their own reality TV show on YouTube.
In case you鈥檙e wondering, OSY stands for Oh Sh!t Yeah, and that phrase sees some usage during the four episodes in season one. There鈥檚 also the occasional bleep thrown in for good measure because, let鈥檚 face it, this is the oilpatch. Actually, there鈥檚 a fair bit of language that gets bleeped in the seven to 12 minute episodes.
It features Dallas Cairns, general manager, his brother Greg Cairns, who handles logistics; Tim Dell, sales; Ken Kleinsasser, purchaser; Joanne Cairns, administrator; and Tyler Decker, yard foreman. Dallas and Tim founded OSY back in 2011, not long after Dallas was featured in a story in Pipeline News, when he worked with Clean Harbors in Arcola. There are four partners in OSY Rentals.
The show is shot in a very familiar format if you鈥檝e ever seen Ice Road Truckers, Highway Through Hell, Gold Rushor any other similar reality show in recent years. The camera angles, the editing, the content 鈥� it鈥檚 all along the same lines. Like its Discovery Channel and History Channel brethren, the storytelling draws you into to watching normal guys doing what they do at work, every day. There鈥檚 even the deep-voiced narrator, providing a play-by-play.
It wouldn鈥檛 be a reality show without some quirkiness. In Episode 2, for instance, Dallas shows off their hockey draft and the odd prizes they give away. That footage is interspersed with their delivery of a vapour tight tank on a barren prairie site in winter.
Sister company Rival Hydrovac, which was also featured at the oil show, gets attention in Episode 3. They鈥檙e smaller hydrovacs that can actually run loaded, and be legal under the weight specs allowed by transportation authorities. The trucks are built by Foremost in Stettler, Alta. Tim Dell is the focus of this episode.
It wouldn鈥檛 be a reality show without a visit to Las Vegas, in this case, to ConExpo 2017. It鈥檚 the biggest heavy equipment show in North America, held every three years. Rival had a unit in the show. That was the focus of Episode 4. Sarcasm and smart alec remarks are the order of the day. Tim鈥檚 daughter, Karlee Dell, makes an appearance, selling service trucks. Alcohol is most definitely consumed. The episode ends with the narrator saying, 鈥淲e鈥檒l be back for Season 2 in the fall of 2017, if we鈥檙e not out of business by then.鈥�
All of this is really meant to draw attention to their product lines, such as the vapor tight tank packages and hydrovacs seen throughout the series. You鈥檒l see other tanks being moved around the yard, people working on flare hardware, and the like.
In addition to their YouTube Channel, OSY Rentals has some conventional marketing efforts too, such as a booth, for the first time, at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn June 7-8. There they handed out some of the usual swag, but the key items were their line of spices 鈥� Chicken Sh!t, Special Sh!t, Bull Sh!t, Good Sh!t and Aw Sh!t. They also have a sauce called Hot Sh!t. All these got heavy play during the YouTube show.
At the oil show in Weyburn, Greg could be seen with a cameraman in tow. That cameraman is long-time friend Adrian Halter, of Regina-based HalterMedia. Dallas credits him with the production. They were filming for Season 2.
The concept started with Adrian doing an oilfield reality show TV pilot for a TV channel that was called This Fracking Town, even though it didn鈥檛 have anything to do with fracking. It was just a catchy name.
He made a short video, but in the end, they didn鈥檛 take any of it.
鈥淪o I said, why don鈥檛 we just do it then?鈥� Dallas said. 鈥淟et鈥檚 just call it Oh Sh!t Yeah, and let鈥檚 go. We didn鈥檛 even know what we were doing. He just started filming in the shop. So he does it all by himself. One guy. He does the camera stuff. He puts a mic on us. He edits it. He puts music to it. He even writes what they鈥檙e going to say, and he get鈥檚 a guy from the U.S. to do a voiceover.鈥�
鈥淗e asks the questions, like give me a description of this truck.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a little more Duck Dynasty聽than Ice Road Truckers,鈥� Dallas added. 鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be a bit of a plot to it.鈥�
He said, 鈥淥ur main product is the vapour tight tank package. It鈥檚 a portable, single well battery. Everything comes on one package, one load. We can set it up in two-and-a-half to four hours, from the time we go on site.
鈥淣ine times out of ten, we鈥檒l come on right after the testers.鈥�
It鈥檚 primarily used for light oil and sour initial production While it may look like a pressure vessel, it is an atmospheric tank.
鈥淭hat was the original intention, was sour,鈥� said Greg.
The tank holds a little bit of pressure, so that you can push vapours to a flare stack or incinerator.
They have 52 units in the fleet. 鈥淭he southeast has been very good to us. We鈥檝e been here since 2014,鈥� Dallas said.
It鈥檚 considered a process unit, so it has a high-level, high pressure shutdown, Dallas noted.
If having one of your big customers come to your booth and tell you they鈥檙e really happy with your product, then OSY had a good oil show.
The online series can be found by searching YouTube for OSY Rentals.
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
Episode 3:
Episode 4:聽
