VGU Talks: Game Promotion On YouTube
This has been an ongoing debate for many years now, but since I have been on the YouTube circuit for approaching eleven years now, I thought I would give my two cents about this whole practice.
First off, this video was originally spurred on by a reddit post by Ben Tester of Wales Interactive. In this he was telling of an event that occurred not long ago as he offered a YouTube personality with a few million subscribers the chance to play his game and advertise it on the channel. The YouTuber, who was never named, said that he would bring up two to three talking points for an offer of $17,600. Whilst the same with a link in the description below would apparently cost $22,000.
Now these practices have been going on for a very long time now and seeing money being dealt with between developers and publishers with people on YouTube is a norm. But in this case the offer is just too outrageous for the developer in question. Bear in mind that these are only going to be ‘talking points’. With this in mind, we could see a video with the name of the game brought up two or three times and not even have a link in the description for people to see it for themselves. There was even no mention of video length, detail, gameplay etc. It just makes the YouTuber in question seem very big headed and way too big for his own boots. Especially when he is asking this much from an indie developer of all people.
So what do I think is a perfect use of this practice? It has to be a simple balance between partnership, quality of product and the price. If you have never worked with a developer or publisher before and you are asking for outrageous amounts, chances are that a deal will never work out. Working with the company closer to assist with initial advertisement with no money shared could benefit you a lot more in the long term as they can keep approaching you with more opportunities. Bear in mind also that you should only be charging for the quality that you can produce. $22,000 is a lot of money for a single video, so you better have the quality to back up the price. Failure to do so could also result in a lack of viewership as well as work with the developer/publisher in the future.
Now this isn’t just targeted at the YouTube personalities that wish to work with these companies, the big wigs themselves also need to keep one big element in mind. Whether what is brought up in a video is good, bad or in depth criticism, it is still advertising for your game no matter how big or small you may be. This is also another good reason for the company to gain a relationship with the YouTuber in question overtime instead of just placing all your eggs in one basket. You are able to analyse their style and see whether it is the best reception for your product or not. For the companies it is more of a matter of reception and advertising rather than straight up money making schemes.
The debate goes way deeper than what I have brought up, but this statement as well as the video should give you guys an idea as to where I stand on the matter. We at VGU work very closely with developers and publishers to guarantee that you, the consumers, get to know exactly what you want to know.
Do you have any thoughts on promoting video games via YouTube? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.