If you ask any YouTuber who makes a living from YouTube, they’ll tell you that ads aren’t always a reliable source of income, even if you have millions of people watching you. Therefore, many YouTubers have delved into the world of YouTube brand deals. What YouTubers call brand deals, companies most often refer to as influencer marketing when they reach an agreement with a creator to show off or talk about their products in a video. Essentially YouTubers advertise a product in a video for something in return, usually monetary, though free samples and gifts are frequent. There’s even a website called apexdrop where YouTube creators can sign up get thousands of dollars worth of gifts each year.
Here’s a video of Casey Neistats famous unboxing videos, where brands and startups send him a bunch of free stuff to talk about in his videos.
How do YouTubers Get Brand Deals?
There are a few different ways YouTubers get brand deals. One is through a talent network and manager. When a creator is big enough they can start thinking about joining a network. These networks take a percentage and in return provide you with brand deals, collaboration opportunities, and opportunities to go to cool events like red carpet premieres or famous conferences like VidCon.
Truly professional on the Warcraft red carpet. pic.twitter.com/8R6eLvgkaF
— MatPat (@MatPatGT) June 7, 2016
Matthew (Matpat) Patrick and his wife Stephanie at the premiere of World of Warcraft.
Creators can find an agency by either looking through the offers they may get through email or going out and looking to join one of their choosing. Here are some of your favorite creators and their MCNs (Multichannel networks).
Jacksepticeye YT – Disney Digital Network
Liza Koshy YT – AwesomenessTV
Tanner Fox YT – BroadbandTV
Jaiden Animations YT – Channel Frederator Network
Jacksfilms YT – Fullscreen
Zoella YT – Gleam Futures
Influencer Marketplaces
No network? No problem. There are marketplaces available for your convenience. Another way other than networks that YouTubers can acquire brand deals from is through influencer marketplaces. These sites allow you to look through companies and products that are looking for influencers to promote their product. You can submit to trying a product out or doing an unboxing or the such. If approved, you’ll make a video or post (depending on the deal) about the brands’ product. The company will then review it, approve or ask for a change and then you post and get paid. There’s also the option to link up with other creators for collabs.
The great thing about doing brand deals is it’s easy but honest income. Writing this, I talk from experience. Don’t be discouraged that you have enough but still not a substantial number of subscribers. Some companies just want someone, anyone, to make a review on their product so they can learn how to improve it. I’ve done that many times aside from any social media. Go out and try it. That being said, two Marketplaces you can join if you are a creator are Famebit and Influence Vision.
Famebit was bought by Google, thus a likely candidate for YouTubers especially. The site takes 20% of what you earn from a brand deal. It’s a bit high and more than an MLN. However, that doesn’t take away too much from the site. That brings me to the requirement as a creator to be on the site. You must have at least 1,000 subscribers to join. Makes sense as it is owned by YouTube, where you have to have 1k to even be monetized.
Influence Vision, on the other hand, is an open marketplace for any influencer, not just YouTubers. What makes them stand out from other marketplaces is that they are based in Europe. You can use their platform to find likeminded YouTubers from Germany, Austria, and many other European countries. Then, you can contact them directly if you feel like they would be a good collaboration partner. The influencers who have joined Influence Vision say that the platform creates a lot of value for them because Influence Vision gives them a choice what brands to collaborate with. This way they can promote only the products, which will be a good fit for their audience.
Some more benefits are:
- Earn honest money; get paid for your awesome content;
- Find new products for your audience
- Get gifts from brands for free
- Meet your next international collaboration partner
- Demonstrate your creativity as a YouTuber.
Types of Deals
There are two types of brand deals two different types of brand deals: full integration and sponsored mention. Full integration is a whole video dedicated to the brand. A commercial. Take, for instance, Markiplier’s promos with Axe body spray.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=m0sW7jiY_yI
The other type, a sponsored mention, is much more common. Here is an example by Mr. Beast who made a video spending $50k. He was sponsored by World of Tank Blitz, a mobile game.
Here’s another example for a sponsored mention. Early 2017 the city of Dubai contacted Jay Alvarez to shoot a project for the city. He invited all of his friends and ended up going crazy until they spent the entire video budget. Here’s the video:
You can find more information on the types of brand deals and much more on this article by the Internet Creators Guild.
Big Brand Deals
Some of our favorite creators have landed some really good brand deals over the years. Let’s look at a few of the most memorable.
1) RiceGum:
Brand – Monster
Everyone had to do a double take at their screen during the super bowl when they say RiceGum. RiceGum was asked to be in a commercial for Monster. Not the drink, the audio tech company. RiceGum is a vlogger but has made several diss tracks, and was at his peak in popularity, likely leading to this deal.
2) Logan Paul
Brand – Doritos
Before much of the controversy Logan has been in, he starred in a Doritos commercial. Back in 2015 Logan starred as a character who won’t give up his snack to a ghost. Logan was also trying to be an actor, which likely led to this deal being finalized.
3) Markiplier
Brand – Axe
I mentioned the deal with Markiplier and Axe earlier in the article. It’s no mistake that everyone knows Axe body spray. If you are a millennial, you know the smell from every guy in high school. It’s not a small company. Axe and Markiplier made a series of videos that not only advertised the product but aimed to appeal to Mark’s audience. Here is another promotional video where they take Mark’s audience’s favorite thing, gaming, and merge with the product. Gives me Scare Pewdiepie vibes honestly.
Don’t forget! Mark has raised $1,405,536.53 on Tiltify.com for charity!
4) Shane Dawson
Brand – Taco Bell
Everyone’s favorite vlogger and documentary creator, Shane Dawson one had a brand deal with Taco Bell. Back when he had shorter hair and was slightly less flamboyant. He starred as the lead of a two-minute promotional video for Taco Bell’s ordering app. It’s a fun video where Shane insists he’s famous but everyone disagrees. Hey Taco Bell, hit me up. I want a commercial.
5) MatPat
Brand – Amazon Fire
MatPat has many channels but is most known for the Game Theorists. It’s a channel where MatPat (Matthew Patrick) makes theories about video games and tries to prove them. He also has a channel similar to that but with movies, the Film Theorists. This is likely what led to the partnership with Amazon Fire TV. There were several videos with the first featuring Matthew talking about Stranger Things.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uy0lXjzqzWQ
6) Good Mythical Morning
Brand – Wendy’s
Rhett and Link came out with a very entertaining Wendy’s commercial. It’s a bit long but keeps your attention. The commercial is for Wendy’s Honest tea and features an original song by the duo. We love our favorite YouTube dads and turns out, Wendy’s does too.
Rhett and Link are also part of Google’s Preferred Program, where Google aggregates YouTube’s top content, such as Good Mythical Morning, into “easy-to-buy packages for brand advertisers”.
7) Casey Neistat
Brand – Mercedes-Benz
Our ever suit wearing New Yorker, Casey Neistat has done many big name brand deals. One is the commercial he did with Mercedes-Benz CLA. The video features a catchy tune with Casey being pulled on his skateboard by the car and a bit of him driving the car.
8) Domics
Brand – Crunchyroll
One of our favorite animators, Domics, does frequent sponsored mentions of Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll is one of the most popular sites to watch anime. Animation hosting site sponsored by an animator. You can see why they like to have brand deals with Domics.
9) PeanutButterGamer
Brand – Blue Apron
Like Domics, PeanutButterGamer does frequent sponsored mentions. But this one is for Blue Apron. Blue Apron sends you three healthy recipes and the ingredients to your door a week. PeanutButterGamer doesn’t really do food videos, but everyone eats and most of us are too lazy to eat healthily. So Blue Apron has their options to sponsor. Now that I look at it, I might try it out.
10) Alissa Violet
Brand – Quay Australia
Alissa Violet teamed up with Quay Australia to release her own line of sunglasses. She made a video introducing them, appearing proud of her achievement. There are a few different types named Clout, Finesse, Bo$$, and Hindsight.
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