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Early Access - The Future of Wind Energy - Kite Power
🕑 Added 2017-07-03 14:33:44 +0000 UTC Hello All,Here is the early access for the next video. Particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on the integration with Shell. This is the first corporate sponsorship I have agreed to, as it fit with the voice and style of my channel. Have been approached many times before by large companies, but they usually want me to say things I don't agree with. I think I approached this in a balanced and ethical way, but sometimes it may look differently from the outside.
The blank spot at the end is for my end card, if you are wondering.
Now that this video is out of the way, I will get working on that expense report.
All the best,
Brian
Comments
Real Engineering
I think that's fair criticism. I was aware of it myself. It was more factor of time constraints than the integration. I talked about this in the directors commentary for $5+ patrons. I deliberately left out anything that would require complicated animations to explain, as we need to get the draft finished before the end of the month. This isn't an excuse though, I should have been more prepared.
Lieuwe
If I am honest this video felt not like the high quality educational material you usually provide, and more like a sales pitch for this companies wind turbines. I do not mind integrated videos, but I felt this missed all the usual Real Engineering aspects.
Real Engineering
Okay so this is a great response that deserves an in-depth reply. First off, there are two main types of sponsorships on YouTube. The most common is the post roll sponsorship, these are Squarespace, Audible ect. This type of sponsorship simply buy a 30 second slot at the end of the video to promote their product. They will have specific talking points they want mentioned, but it's up to the creator on how to present them. These type of sponsorships have basically no say on the content of the video. The second type of sponsorship is an integrated video, where the sponsor asks you to cover a specific topic and have a certain level of editorial control. This video is an integrated video. Shell flew me to London and asked me to pick a technology from the Meet The Future event and cover it in a video. I picked the technology that I felt fit my channel best. The only talking point Shell required was the part about funding and to talk about the Make The Future event a little. They were great and never tried to alter my script, despite having access to it throughout the process. These type of sponsors pay more than a post roll, but that's because the entire video is essentially the ad. This often gets backlash and I avoid integrated videos for the most part, because I don't believe in the product. This is the first I have done and I did it because I believed in the product.
Daniel Carrera
Overall the integration with Shell was fine. My main concern is that the video does not make it at all clear that Shell sponsored the video. In fact, even now I really don't know what Shell's role was here: - Did they pay you money to make the video? - Did they just fly you over? - Did they tell you what to say? - Did they ask you to plug their work? - Did they approach you or did you approach them? I think corporate sponsorship perfectly fine, but I do expect to know clearly which part of the video is a sponsored ad and which part is presented as your own independent research. This video doesn't make it clear where your work ends and the Shell ad begins. I saw your response to another comment that Shell gave you talking points that you were required to include. But I don't know which of the things you said were like that. I think that the best and easiest solution is to start (or end) the video with the sentence "This video was sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell <pause>", and show a logo of Shell. As an example, have a look at the YouTube videos from Crash Course. Their videos are partly sponsored by PBS. If you do that, nobody gets deceived and I'd be perfectly happy. If you want to clarify that you only accept sponsorship from products that you truly believe in, go right ahead and say that too. Nothing wrong with that, and your sponsors clearly would be happy anyway. An example of that is how Destin from Smarter Everyday ends his videos advertising Audible.com or Harris shaving products. Destin gets money for doing this, but from what he says it is clear that he really believes in these products, and that makes his advertisement all that more valuable for both viewers and sponsors.</pause>
