Digital Marketing

Sponsorships and Partner Branding: Reinventing Video Marketing One Relationship at a Time

A small clothing brand, working with WebMotion Media, had a brilliant idea back in the years when YouTube was still developing. Many users had upwards of 50,000 subscribers in their channel, and they were making a little bit with the advertising revenue. The brand thought it wise to reach out to those people and see if they would be willing to sponsor a small brand. The clothing company would send them clothes to wear in the videos. The users with a lot of subscribers would wear the clothes in the video, share a link to the clothing brand in the video description, and even talk about the brand in the video. It ended up being a very organic transaction. The user promoting the video did not feel as if they were shamelessly plugging something. The clothing brand obtained an influx of visitors through these channels.The Right Size AudienceThis process, once tactful and focused, is now standard of YouTube branding. It is certainly possible reach out to these channels that have hundreds of thousand subscribers and obtain a glorified sponsorship. A smart strategy is to approach a YouTube user that has a relatable quantity of subscribers. A small brand may not have a lot of luck reaching out to the biggest stars in the industry. They need someone in the 30,000 to 60,000 subscriber range. A lot of big stars also have contracts out. They are not allowed to work with smaller independent brands.Scratching BacksThe strategy with http://web-motion.co.uk/our-story works so well because it rarely compromises the art of anyone involved. Each member scratches the others back, and the marketing comes across as legitimately organic. This is perhaps the greatest innovation in YouTube video advertising. It makes sense to take typical sponsorships and apply them to the Internet. The fascinating thing is looking at how long it took to get there. YouTube is now the entire system around this concept. They allow the users to have their own shop within their YouTube channel. This changes the landscape at web-motion.co.uk in the number of ways, some good and bad. Savvy brands can still provide something new and unique t