This week, I said “no” to a big brand.
They were enquiring about a multi-video sponsor package that included several dedicated videos for YouTube and a bunch of short-form pieces for platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
This is a brand you’d probably know. They’re a pretty big deal. Their products are a good fit for my audience and they are brilliant products.
So, why on earth would I say “no”?
When you first start out as a tech content creator you say “yes” to lots of stuff. As a result, you’ll end up with a cupboard full of cheap accessories sent by low-end brands which are utterly awful imitations of much better products. Some, you’ll feature on your channel. Others, you’ll leave to gather dust once you realise how terrible they are (while fending off incessant “where’s our video?” chase emails from the brand in question).
I went through that. I still occasionally fall foul of it today - although I’m far more worldly when it comes to those brands these days; I can smell a cheap knock-off a mile away in my email inbox. But it’s a rite of passage and something one must experience while building a tech review brand.
As your brand grows, those requests from tinpot brands will only increase, but they’re joined by enquiries from far more interesting outfits. Names you’ve actually heard of come knocking - and this is where it gets really hard in terms of saying “no”.
Trust me - no matter how big the brand, or how flattering it may be for them to consider you as a potential marketing channel, the partnership has to work for both parties. Often, it does - in most cases, actually. But sometimes, it really doesn’t - and it’s always the creator that’s left out in the cold.
For a partnership with a big brand to work, several elements need to fall into place. Firstly, whatever it is they want you to feature on your channel must have some relevancy. New products fall into that category, but so do older products which have regained relevancy due to external factors (new trends, competitors, or celebrity endorsements - that kind of thing). If there’s no relevancy, there’s no audience, and that renders the video completely pointless.
Secondly, the product needs to be right for your audience. This is an easy one to get wrong, because you may love the product and therefore be blindsided by its relevancy to your wants and desires, but if that only matches 2% of your audience, it ain’t worth featuring.
Lastly, there needs to be a financial reward for you. Unless you’re running your tech reviews brand for fun, the brand partnership must be given full commercial consideration. It’ll cost you money to make the video - even if the only overhead is your time (which is, ironically, the most expensive overhead you have). The resulting video, therefore, needs to be profitable either through sponsorship, affiliate income, or AdSense (or a combination thereof).
The partnership to which I referred at the start of this newsletter ticked the first two boxes. The brand in question is always releasing new, relevant, and timely products, and as noted earlier, they’re a decent fit for my audience. I’ve also worked with them before, and have positive engagement data to back this up.
The problem? It was the commercials. They were - not to put too fine a point on it - insulting. A very brief period of negotiation (if you can call it that) resulted in the brand countering my proposed rate with a number that would barely cover the cost of making each video. I’d be in the red, immediately, as soon as the video went live and it would be highly unlikely to ever break even with affiliate income or AdSense thereafter.
This isn’t unusual with big brands. As mentioned, most are respectful and negotiate in a way that works for both parties - but some... well, they just take the piss. Their budgets are clear for everyone to see (if you’re enlisting the help of the biggest creators on the planet to help sell your stuff and you’re always appearing on Instagram’s ad platform, you definitely have a decent marketing budget) but when it comes to working with smaller creators, it’s a case of “here’s the dregs of what we have left in the pot - be grateful we’re even considering you”.
I don’t care how big the brand is - if I can’t make a profitable video that represents a smart use of my and my audience’s time, I won’t do it. Nor will I contribute to any form of devaluing of the creator industry and audience access by saying “yes”.
What’s worse is that I’m fully aware I’m not alone in having to fend off this kind of thing. This particular brand reached out to a number of my fellow tech content creators at the exact same time and with the exact same pitiful offer.
Guess what they said?
We’re in this together, folks.