veritasium

Balls, Goals, and Sponsorships

Added 2019-08-02 22:58:05 +0000 UTC

The video I've linked shows your shade ball's life story. There are behind-the-scenes shots, things I cut from the video and some clips from the original video. I've really enjoyed this project so I hope you have too! I have a few hundred extra shade balls and I will mail them out this month to people who missed out the first time around. Please make sure your address is correctly entered in Patreon.com/pledges if you want to receive a shade ball.

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When I started on Patreon, it was clear to me that 'per video' was the best structure. That way patrons aren't charged if I'm off for a month or more doing other things or if I do a sponsored video (as I launched today with BMW): https://youtu.be/GATuMWAFBUA

This video hasn't been received well by a significant fraction of the audience so it raises the question: should I even do sponsorships anymore? The perception seems to be that the reason to do sponsorships is greed, but I disagree.

More than anything, I want to be able to keep making videos that are in depth, high quality, and on subjects I'm passionate about. As we've seen over the years, YouTubers' careers are precarious. You never know when you may experience a downturn you'll never recover from. Sponsorships bring in significant revenue that can keep you going in a rough patch, enable you to hire employees and freelancers (as I have recently done), and take bigger risks like traveling to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site or investing thousands of dollars in scientific equipment.

These benefits must be weighed against the obvious detriment that some content on the channel is of a commercial nature and not free from bias. My sense though is that most of the audience is savvy enough to see these videos for what they are. I always try to make the best, most accurate videos I can and push for complete editorial control. (The videos are also free, identified as sponsored content, and no one is forcing anyone to watch them). But I would like to know your thoughts so please leave them in the comments below.

I have come to see you as a thoughtful board of advisors so it is your opinions that matter the most to me.

Thank you!

Derek