Why People Hate Sponsored Videos - Tips & Best Practices

0:00 hello everyone and welcome in this video we

0:02 are going to be talking about sponsored videos

0:05 so I guess there's there's kind of two ways to look at this uh as a way

0:09 of you know how do I approach sponsored

0:11 videos and then perhaps if you actually uh create

0:14 you know videos and you're working with sponsors perhaps

0:17 you could look at this as tips for you know that process and some of the best

0:21 practices in doing so now the actual purpose

0:26 of this video is simply a video and audio

0:28 test I've changed my so I used GoPro Hero 3s back in 2014 to start filming car

0:36 reviews going to avoid killing that squirrel right there

0:39 and this is not sponsored by GoPro by the way in fact uh my GoPro Hero 4

0:44 and my sevens have been kind of awful to deal with which is why you know I

0:47 upgraded after a while from my hero 3s

0:50 because I wanted the better resolution and I wanted

0:53 some uh some different microphone capabilities but they

0:57 didn't end up working out and so I switched

1:00 back to my hero 3s and now I'm testing out some hero 99's uh with a lab

1:05 mic and some Wireless stuff uh so we're

1:07 going to see how that goes uh that's that's

1:10 the main purpose of this but you know obviously if this is a video and an audio

1:13 test I need to talk uh about something

1:17 so we're going to talk about sponsored videos CU

1:19 I think it's kind of a Hot Topic

1:20 on YouTube and it's definitely something that has changed

1:25 uh you know a lot it's a lot more common now I mean I've been doing sponsored

1:28 videos I don't know five or six years

1:30 it's it's probably been um but you know it's

1:32 it's certainly more common now and I think

1:34 there's a bit less of a stigma attached

1:35 to them now where people don't quite get quite

1:37 as angry about having them uh but there's also

1:40 some you know some good ways to do a sponsored video and some bad ways to do

1:43 a sponsored video so one of the most important things I think uh we'll just kind

1:48 of break this down into six categories let's say so so number one is going to be

1:53 you know just disclosing it you should always always

1:56 and I always do you know make it painfully

1:58 obvious when a video is spaed because there

2:01 are obviously implications of a sponsored video you're not

2:03 going to trash a company uh that you're

2:06 you know being paid to talk about now they

2:08 don't get to craft what I say like I don't go to a sponsor and say hey

2:12 tell me what to say I craft the message

2:14 I create the message but you know they're

2:15 paying me to talk about a certain subject

2:18 uh so that's kind of their choice in choosing a subject and then I you know talk

2:22 about it so you should always be painfully obvious

2:26 uh that it is sponsored so that people know that and are aware of it can take

2:30 that into consideration when they're listening to the message

2:33 that you're presenting um and there are definitely

2:36 channels that do not do that and it's

2:38 illegal it's illegal to not disclose it but channels

2:40 still do it um and I I know of examples out there and this isn't to like

2:44 call anybody out but it happens or another

2:47 thing channels will commonly do is they'll they'll be

2:49 very sneaky about it and they'll find you

2:51 know like what's the least obvious way that I

2:53 can say legally that this is sponsored but not

2:56 straight up say hey this is a sponsored

2:57 video so some channels will try to do that I do not it'll probably be the first

3:01 sentence that I say hello everyone and welcome

3:03 and this video is sponsored by whoever it is and then I'll get into the video so

3:08 it is very important that you're very clear if

3:11 a video is sponsored uh FTC requirements but also

3:15 just so that your audience knows um I think it is worse to kind of try

3:19 and deceive your audience into thinking that it's not

3:22 sponsored and then you know they find out

3:24 and then they get mad at you because you

3:25 were hiding something from them so don't hide

3:27 anything from your audience just be honest about everything

3:29 thing uh I find it's the best approach now one of the advantages um well I I

3:36 should change topics here a bit and this is

3:39 going to be this kind of unedited one

3:41 take Matt Farah style because ultimately again this is

3:43 an audio and a video test uh so uh the second thing as far as sponsored products

3:49 is you should you should probably have at least

3:52 an understanding of uh you know the product

3:56 or the brand um personally I generally try to only work with brands that I like

4:02 or products that I like and have tested and feel

4:04 good about um and you know that that's

4:07 going to vary like depending on what the subject

4:10 is if it's just like a quick sponsor

4:12 integration at the end of the video that has

4:13 nothing to do with what the video is about um but I do like to do

4:16 kind of dedicated sponsored videos about a certain

4:19 subject and in that case you want to choose

4:22 things that you actually like and and people

4:25 think no you only like it because you're being

4:28 paid to say that you like it and kind of what's going on behind the scenes is

4:32 that you're only choosing to make sponsored content

4:36 about things that you like uh and so that's

4:39 kind of the reverse end of it like I get probably two to three offers a day

4:44 every single day to make sponsored content um

4:47 so if I wanted to like literally every single

4:50 video could be just stacked with sponsors it would be a big pain to do uh but it

4:55 could be done and typically I do about uh maybe one in four like if you look

4:59 over the entire year about one in four

5:02 videos uh is sponsored I think you know people

5:04 get annoyed by sponsored videos and that's fair

5:07 um and and also there are a lot more

5:08 work to put together so you know I do a bit less of them but the opportunity

5:13 is there to work with endless all kinds

5:15 of different names out there and I'm quite picky

5:17 about it so I'd say at least 90% I just straight up ignore the emails um you

5:23 know another per I might respond and be like hey I just don't think this is

5:26 a great fit um so I I don't do a ton of sponsored content um from a opportunity

5:35 standpoint how many are presented how many do

5:37 I actually do it's a very small number

5:38 and it's because I choose to work with brands

5:40 that I get excited about or that provide really

5:42 good access or can do really cool things

5:44 and so that's kind of tip number three here

5:46 is that one of the exciting things to me

5:51 about doing a sponsored video is that I'll

5:53 often provide access to engineering teams that I

5:56 otherwise wouldn't have access to because the sponsor

5:59 is saying we want to take the time to pay this guy to make a video about

6:03 our product or you know a subject that's

6:06 relevant to our field and you know we're going

6:10 to provide and make sure that he gets

6:11 the best information and so they give you access

6:13 to their engineering teams and you get

6:15 to have these wonderful discussions I mean honestly it's

6:17 probably the best part of my job are

6:18 these behind the scenes engineering conversations that I get

6:21 to have um and they're often tied to sponsored

6:25 videos sorry my nose itches and that's just how this video is going to be so uh

6:32 getting distracted there by that nose itching so now

6:37 can it happen the other way yes like I can approach a company and say hey

6:43 I want to make a video about this topic will you let me and a good example

6:48 of when I've done this is with Hyundai

6:50 and their continuously variable valve duration system I reached

6:54 out to them and said hey this is a really cool technology I want to make a video

6:57 about it can I chat with your engineers

6:59 and they helped me out with their engineering

7:00 team and I got to speak with them about it and they gave me models of it

7:03 uh and it worked out and in that case

7:05 there was no money that exchanged hands right

7:08 the challenge is it's very difficult to make

7:10 that happen and good journalists are capable of making

7:14 that happen and know this is not a I am not a journalist um this is

7:18 not a journalist channel uh don't confuse paid

7:21 YouTubers uh with journalists they are very different things

7:25 but a good journalist is very good at making

7:27 that happen making those conversations happen where they speak

7:30 with experts to talk about a certain subject um

7:33 it's challenging to do because a lot of times

7:35 you get no response Engineers have jobs they

7:37 have things to do and talk with some Rando

7:40 guy on the internet sure there's a large following

7:42 but talk with some Rando guy on the internet

7:44 is not their priority their priority is designing

7:46 and Engineering the product that they are designing

7:48 and Engineering so it's difficult to get their attention

7:51 and if a company is willing to put in marketing budget to you know sponsor

7:55 a video to talk about a certain subject well

7:58 that often means they're willing to take on some

8:00 of that extra time required to get you access

8:02 to their engineering teams and make some cool

8:05 things out of it so that's why I like

8:07 it I like it because sponsored content means

8:09 I get to have conversations with engineers and maybe

8:12 in the video you don't notice um that there are facts that I'm going to be like

8:16 dropping in there that really I'm probably the only

8:19 person that's learned just from having that conversation

8:21 with the engineer about some minute little detail

8:24 on a vehicle and I get very excited about

8:27 those little little minute details and they probably

8:29 go overlooked uh often but that's that's fine like

8:33 it it's exciting to me that I get to learn new stuff and then present that new

8:36 stuff and often a sponsor is the Catalyst

8:40 to make all of that happen so uh that's that's tip three uh moving on to four

8:46 with sponsored content like I do car reviews

8:50 on this channel and I guess I should back up and say that when I do car reviews

8:54 they are not sponsored and if they are

8:55 sponsored you'll hear me say right at the beginning

8:57 hey this is sponsored by now there's two

8:59 car cars that have been uh I've done videos

9:01 on that were paid for by sponsors like

9:04 the Acura SX Hyundai Veloster n but in both

9:07 of those cases I had already reviewed the car

9:09 I already loved the car they reached out

9:11 to me and they're like hey do you want to work on videos on the Acura NSX

9:14 and it's like yes absolutely I think the car

9:15 is phenomenal hey do you want to work on videos on the Hyundai of lost end

9:19 yes absolutely I think the car is phenomenal so

9:22 those are very easy to say yes to if I've already seen the car reviewed the car

9:26 and love it um you know versus there

9:28 are examples out there car companies have approached me

9:30 said hey do you want to do some videos on this car and I'll just say no

9:33 I'm not interested because I have negative feelings

9:35 about those cars and so I'm not going to do a sponsored piece on it so getting

9:40 into tip number four I want to talk about

9:42 kind of fact versus opinion so presenting objective

9:46 material versus presenting subjective material it's okay to present

9:50 subjective material but if you're presenting subjective material

9:54 during a sponsored video it's like what the what's

9:57 the point right because you can only basically

9:59 you're just going to be paid to say you

10:02 have opinions about a product and those opinions

10:05 aren't going to be negative right because it's paid

10:07 for so when I create sponsored content what I try my hardest to do is to just

10:13 keep the entire conversation objective if everything you're

10:15 stating is factual you don't have to worry about

10:17 opinions um you know being persuaded by money

10:20 instead you can just look at the content

10:22 and say okay this is what I learned about

10:24 this subject um these are all just facts presented

10:27 about a product or about a brand or about

10:29 you know a subject that relates to a product

10:31 or a brand that is a much better way of going about it in my opinion

10:36 than simply saying hey I think this thing

10:38 is amazing everyone should go out there

10:39 and buy it like you'll probably almost never

10:42 hear me say you should go out and buy

10:44 this in a sponsored video because I'd rather

10:46 just present information about it and if you listen

10:49 to that information and you think you know what

10:51 this is a good product then that's your decision

10:53 to make you can go out and buy it and if you listen to it and you're

10:55 like I don't know seems a little sketchy plus

10:57 he's being paid to say it I don't really

10:59 agree with all of it then hey it's your choice you don't have to buy it right

11:03 I'm not telling you in the video I try my hardest not to be like hey go

11:06 buy this thing because I don't think that's

11:08 a valuable message to say it's better to just

11:10 present data present facts if people agree or disagree

11:13 then they can make decisions with that information

11:16 great um oh car reviews was actually one of those so I I kind of backtracked uh

11:21 but I was getting ahead of myself

11:22 with the car reviews so the thing with car reviews

11:24 again like on my channel they're not sponsored

11:27 but one of the things I think is becoming

11:31 more people are becoming more aware of this okay

11:35 I've got a biker here and a blind

11:37 corner so I'm going to slow down quite a bit let this biker do his thing while

11:46 we get around this corner and there's no

11:48 traffic so here we go I think it's becoming

11:54 a bit more obvious with car reviews uh

11:57 but these trips and and obviously these trips haven't

12:03 been happening in 2020 because of coron virus

12:05 but these trips that automakers put you on are

12:08 pretty extravagant um you get really good food

12:12 really nice hotels and usually they're awesome cars um

12:17 and and so you know you you're kind of wind and DED on this trip and then

12:22 of course you know does that have any impact on on how you feel about a car

12:26 and I think websites like gelnik are very

12:28 good at discl cling all of like exactly what

12:30 goes into it like hey such such and such

12:32 company wanted me to drive this thing so

12:34 bad that they put me in this fancy hotel fed me gave me the keys to this car

12:38 for X days and I had at it so I think that at that point it

12:43 comes down to like no it's you're not

12:45 being paid to make the video right like you

12:48 could go on that trip do absolutely nothing

12:51 uh and go on about your life and right

12:53 there's no contract there's no exchange being made

12:55 but the assumption is that you're going to make

12:56 some content while you're there I mean that's

12:58 why invited and so you you create a piece on it and you know I think that comes

13:05 down to the individual like some individuals are

13:07 going to be much more willing to say

13:09 something about a car um than other individuals

13:11 whether it's positive or negative and generally I

13:15 have started to avoid a lot of press trips

13:17 mostly like for selfish reasons like if I

13:20 think the car is boring I'm probably just not

13:21 going to go um if I think the car is exciting I probably will go and then

13:25 my review is probably going to be seem

13:27 like I'm being very positive but it's probably because

13:29 in the background I'm like ooh this car is going to be awesome that's why I want

13:32 to try it out then I drive it and oh turns out it's awesome um so I

13:36 think it comes down to the individual on how

13:38 you perceive bias rather than like whether it's sponsored

13:42 or not or um you know the disclosures

13:45 that are made associated with creating that content

13:48 so press trips all I'm saying the main point of this is that press trips they do

13:52 like wine and Dy you and and that can

13:54 certainly have an influence and I think there

13:56 are a lot of creators out there that realize

13:59 this and choose to address it by changing

14:01 their strategy I'm going to turn around here looks good now um so yeah I I think

14:25 just choosing hey is this person biased or not I think it comes down to the end

14:28 of ual more often than the circumstances um

14:32 so yeah just just pick people you like

14:35 and and listen to their opinions on things I

14:37 don't think I mean I know a lot of people

14:39 within this industry and I don't think many

14:41 are genuinely trying to deceive you like they're

14:43 trying to give their honest opinion of when

14:44 they drive a car what does it feel like

14:46 I tend to be a fairly positive person um and I also tend to think

14:51 in a way that I think a lot

14:53 of people don't if they don't have an engineering background

14:56 in that when I drive a car I I start to think about you know the amount

15:01 of work that goes into it and I mean it's like it's a good four to five

15:04 years of work of a team of many many many many Engineers that goes into it right

15:09 and I try to think to myself like do I have the capability to do better than

15:12 this and the answer is pretty much always

15:15 and pretty much always will be no and so as a result I think who am I

15:20 to be extremely critical of engineering that I can't

15:24 do better than um and sometimes I'll see

15:27 things and think you know this is obviously wrong

15:28 and I'll say hey I don't think this about

15:30 this vehicle is good um or they made certain

15:33 compromises certain engineering compromises that I may disagree

15:36 with um and so I'll State those but I

15:38 often have a hard time being super critical

15:40 because I think the people building these cars are

15:43 often much more talented sorry to say this uh than many of us who are just kind

15:49 of crapping on these cars um so I have

15:52 a tremendous amount of respect to those who design

15:54 and build these things I have a tremendous

15:55 amount of respect for the many very great autom

15:59 journalists that are out there um but I

16:01 think it's it's much easier to criticize something than

16:05 it is to actually create a vehicle and so I often have that in the back

16:09 of my head and I kind of hate being

16:10 critical cuz it's like there's an engineer that's watching

16:12 that video that that you know has seen my channel has been working on this car

16:17 and then I'm like telling him it sucks

16:19 and it's like dude you're you're better at engineering than

16:21 I am I guarantee it so Props to you

16:24 uh Automotive Engineers out there uh and then

16:27 finally the six and this is the obvious why

16:30 do you do sponsored videos money and and so

16:33 anyone who's saying you know any other reason

16:35 it's it's silly this is the primary reason

16:38 for doing sponsored content you get paid to do

16:40 it um and it and it pays obviously

16:43 better than like YouTube advertisement pays so it

16:46 it's worthwhile in doing and for example you know

16:48 that doesn't have to be the goal

16:49 of your channel right the goal of your channel doesn't

16:51 have to be to make money um and and mine when I started it in 2011 the goal

16:56 of my channel was I want to create uh something that I can put on a resume

17:01 that will hopefully get me a job so I I wanted to create this passion project

17:04 that would prove that I was interested in engineering

17:06 that would hopefully get me an engineering job

17:08 and it did it landed me a job uh in the forklift industry as an engineer I

17:12 worked as an application engineer and as a test engineer and so I uh am am you

17:18 know quite uh happy with what happened

17:21 with the channel and that it did help me get

17:23 a job but then also after time you know after 3 years I realized like hey you

17:28 know there's kind of something to this I I might be able to actually live off

17:31 of this so I quit my job my engineering

17:34 job in 2014 and I've been doing this full-time

17:37 since and so once something does become a full-time

17:41 job and not a hobby then money is a much more prominent part of your thinking

17:49 process because if if it's only a passion project

17:53 that six people watch and you know that's

17:54 great if if you know everyone finds joy out

17:57 of that scenario fantastic but if it's only

17:59 a passion project that six people watch and it

18:01 doesn't make you any money well then you still have to have a job right and when

18:04 you quit and this becomes your job well you have to make money doing it and so

18:09 sponsored uh content is a good way

18:12 of increasing that income making the channel more profitable

18:17 and so it makes it you know long-term more sustainable to do uh so yeah money is

18:23 a big reason behind sponsored content obviously it's it's

18:26 a big factor why people do it but I think there are good andad bad ways to do

18:29 sponsored content and just taking any old random

18:32 you know buy this video game on your cell phone that charges you a ton of money

18:38 uh it has monthly subscription fees and those fees

18:41 are hidden and they don't let you

18:43 unsubscribe and it's this random video game that you're

18:45 charging your parents credit card like there's there's

18:48 good ones and bad ones in my opinion

18:50 things you know products that are unproven technology that's

18:54 unproven like that kind of thing I just try to avoid because it's like I I I

19:00 don't trust this and I don't want to push

19:02 this on someone it's like would I recommend

19:04 any of my sponsor content if it's on YouTube and I'm saying like hey uh this is

19:10 a this is a neat thing it's something

19:12 I would recommend to a friend it's not something

19:14 that I'm just going to lie about uh for the sake of making money and and I'm

19:18 probably fortunate in that I have enough opportunities

19:21 that I can be that picky um I can be extremely picky with what sponsors I choose

19:26 to work with because there's a lot of them

19:28 reaching out so that's a a huge benefit

19:31 of having a larger Channel as being like hey

19:33 I don't want to work with you I'm sorry um hey I do want to work with you

19:37 uh and and you can be a bit more picky with the sponsors and the the upside

19:41 of that is you know if you're not

19:43 trying to grow just exponentially and just endlessly make

19:46 money from it and just trying to you

19:47 know kind of sustain the channel from it then

19:51 being picky allows you to not only be

19:52 honest about like who you are and your channel

19:54 and everything um but like be honest about

19:56 the products that you're talking about because you genuinely

19:58 already like them before you you know agreed

20:00 to to do it to to create that content so this has mostly been a ramble um

20:06 just kind of like a personal random Matt feris

20:09 style one te ramble uh but the goal again is just testing out the audio

20:14 of these cameras one of them which I have

20:16 noticed is that the uh roof mounted uh GoPro

20:20 that I have has created some significant whistling

20:23 um so maybe I just need to figure out

20:24 a different mounting position for that um I'm really

20:27 hoping that the audio for this is good because

20:30 I've been using cabled audio and so I have run a wire from the GoPro down back

20:34 behind the seat up from down the seat

20:36 up my sweatshirt and then up to the microphone

20:38 whereas now this is just a wireless lab mic um and I've got a wireless receiver

20:41 on my GoPro so I'm really hoping that this is

20:44 kind of simplified it for me and I'm

20:45 able to you know make better quality and uh have a bit easier time making it uh

20:52 in car videos so that was the the ultimate goal of this but hey we'll talk about

20:56 sponsored stuff while I'm at it so thank you all so much for for watching and if

20:59 you have any questions or comments of course

21:01 feel free to leave them below how about it