BRAND PARTNERSHIP PROPOSAL
OVERVIEW:
I love this quote because - to me - it perfectly summarizes the value that exists when brands and influencers collaborate:
"Research shows that consumers overwhelmingly trust influencers and their recommendations. This develops because people typically follow influencers over a long period of time and come to feel that an influencer is almost like a friend. This also results in consumers forgetting that influencers are paid to sell the products — whether overtly included or not — that they feature in their content," explained Colin Campbell, associate professor of marketing at the University of San Diego's Knauss School of Business and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advertising Research.
For these options for collaboration, I want Glyph to become a character in the world of my channel. When my audience sees me on set, editing remotely, capturing photos, or livestreaming about my favorite gear they’re going to see Glyph drives. This may be a momentary mention in a channel member video, a dedicated Community post or included in a tutorial about my remote video editing workflow - I want Glyph to be the SSD drives my audience sees.
Even if we were to pursue paid sponsorship on my channel in the future, I know I can integrate Glyph’s products into my channel in an organic, pleasing way. Here’s a recent comment from a viewer that reinforces that my approach is effective:
I’VE ALREADY PROMOTED GLYPH
In this video I talk to my viewers about which SSD I would buy if I had to buy a new one today. In the end, my choice is the Glyph Atom PRO Portable Thunderbolt NVMe SSD v2.
I also mentioned Glyph drives appearing in Apple’s BTS video where they showed how they filmed the October 2023 Event with the iPhone 15 Pro Max:
Now 25 likes and two comments isn’t anything earth shattering - this is more of an example of the kinds of posts I regularly make in YouTube Community (an often overlooked space for creators to use to connect with their audience in between uploads - especially when showing real-world situations where they’re using various trusted products).
Now from these promotions, I’ve tracked in GeniusLink that my link to purchase these drives has been clicked nearly 400 times in just a few months. Even if only a few of those clicks have converted to sales, that’s a lot of fresh awareness for the Glyph brand for the clicks that didn’t convert.
Full disclosure: when I look at my Amazon Associates earnings reports I’m seeing no sales of Glyph drives.
ENGAGED COMMUNITY
Let’s take a look at how some past brand deals have worked out on my channel.
FILMCONVERT NITRATE
Note the bump in sales in June 2023 - this is the result of doing two live editing livestreams where I show my workflow for editing a YouTube video and demo FilmConvert Nitrate during the process of making the video. In a one to two hour livestream, I maybe spoke about Nitrate for just a few minutes.
UPPBEAT
I produced a dedicated video for Uppbeat promoting their music subscription service, and I continue to include a link (alongside other music services) in the description of all my videos - since August-ish 2021.
HEDGE
I connected with Hedge a few years go because I wanted to make a video that showed my viewers how to copy footage from their cameras to two SSDs simultaneously using the Hedge app (which is now called OffShoot). That video has just over 5k views in two years, and I’ve included a link to Hedge in the description of all of my videos since then.
With over 2k clicks, I’ve seen terrific conversion from this video, and I’m waiting on Hedge to report this year’s sales results. Between June 2021 and November 2022, total sales of Hedge with my link was 27 with gross revenue of $3,009.85.
TRACK CLUB
I partnered with Track Club early in 2023 and produced a few sponsored videos and included a link to their service in the description of all my videos. They gave my audience a 4-month free trial - something I requested and they had never done before. I’m just now starting to see my referral bonuses come in…
MONOGRAM
I produced a dedicated video featuring Monogram’s Video Console (approx $800 USD). They provided an affiliate link and a 10% discount to my viewers. Sales results are as follows:
2022 | $2,995.50
2023 (through Sept) | $1,437.30
TOTAL: $4,432.80
This product has not been featured as a “character” in the world of my channel other than appearing in the background of photos or video b-roll, so these sales have resulted from a single video that features a link to the product.
MY AUDIENCE
One thing to keep in mind is just who makes up my audience - sure there are hobbyists and freelance editors and filmmakers, but there are also BIG YouTubers who watch my videos and big YouTubers (and their teams) are looking for the best products, services etc. to help them crank out content.
Ultimate Night Vision | 1.63M
Sophia Chang | 891K
FatheringAutism | 732K
RavenBlaze | 684K
Roberto Blake | 602K
BSR Wedding Films | 458K
I have 35 channels with over 100K subs that subscribe to my channel. And those are only the channels that share publicly which channels they subscribe to.
I also run a Final Cut Pro Discord server that includes Serge M (61K), Dylan Bates (50K), Dylan John (45K), Brad West (40K), Rafael Ludwig (35K), Josh Sattin (25K), Cody Wanner (65K), Patrick Rambles (119K), Levi Allen (270K), Bryan Francisco (115K), Pal2Tech (150K), etc.
My good friend Cody here in Omaha is a member of the Chill DIT Discord that has 80-ish members who have worked on everything from 2nd unit DIT on Barbie & Blue Beetle to DIT on Last Chance U to loader on Godzilla: King of Monsters. I’d love to share with them any promotions or discount codes to help them make purchases. They’d also be a phenomenal resource for any market research you might want to do to better ascertain the needs of DIT/Loaders. I can certainly help facilitate that.
In early 2023 I was contacted by adventure filmmaker and YouTuber Levi Allen (270K) to help him shoot a corporate documentary for one of his clients. We spent two weeks on the road together in the US filming, and he used LaCie 5TB spinning disk drives to offload data. I’d prefer he used Glyph. :)
He also edited off of 4TB SanDisk Extreme SSDs, and while we were on the shoot two of those drives failed. They just stopped working. It’s moments like these where mentioning a company like Glyph is perfect, especially if I can connect him with a sales rep or someone at Glyph who can work with him to find the best solution for his filmmaking workflow. And then you not only have access to Levi, you have access to his audience if you end up being the hero who saves him from SanDisk drives.
BRAND AMBASSADOR
When I partner with a brand that really provides me with tremendous value, a brand that stands for something - mission over profit, a brand that viewers and colleagues can trust, I become very emotionally connected and very loyal. It’s this feeling that compels me to share the brand with everyone I know who can benefit from using it.
So if you’re looking for someone who’s really going to advocate for Glyph and listen to customers’ feedback, connect productions and content creators with sales staff, mention the product in livestreams, and post about it on social media when I have something to share, then I’m the kind of creator you want to partner with.
Kurt Russell’s character Herb Brooks has a great quote in the movie Miracle (about the 1984 US Olympic hockey team): “I’m not looking for the best players, Craig. I’m looking for the right ones.”
COLLABORATION
During our call initial call, Eric Horn proposed the following:
Two Gifted 4TB Atom PRO Thunderbolt 3 NVMe v2 SSDs
1 Dedicated video
High Quality Stills of Product in use in Various Settings
I Would Be Featured in a Glyph Blog Post
1 Month Turnaround Time
20% Discount
No Affiliate Link
No Sponsorship Fee
While I’m thrilled to know that a collaboration between us is a priority for Glyph, I can’t collaborate with brands in exchange for free product and exposure in a blog post / social media.
While I’m a “small” channel, I know that I have a very strong core audience who trusts my knowledge and expertise, and it’s a core audience that’s motivated to purchase products that I demonstrate have tremendous value.
The below video has over 78k views, and links to Samsung’s T7 drives have been clicked over 3,000 times and earned me, on average, $100 per month in Amazon Associate revenue since this video was published.
MY PROPOSAL
OPTION 1
One Gifted 4TB Atom PRO Thunderbolt 3 NVMe v2 SSD
1 Dedicated video covering how I use an SSD in my editing workflow
High Quality Stills of Product in use in Various Settings
I Would Be Featured in a Glyph Blog Post
3 Month Turnaround Time
20% Viewer Discount
10% Commission of Gross Sales with Affiliate Link
No Sponsorship Fee
OPTION 2
Two Gifted 4TB Atom Pro Thunderbolt 3 NVMe v2 SSDs
1 Dedicated video covering how I use SSDs in production & post-production
High Quality Stills of Product in use in Various Settings
I Would Be Featured in a Glyph Blog Post
2 Month Turnaround Time
20% Viewer Discount
10% Commission of Gross Sales with Affiliate Link
No Sponsorship Fee
OPTION 3
Two Gifted 4TB Atom Pro Thunderbolt 3 NVMe v2 SSDs
Two Gifted 8TB Blackbox PRO Desktop Drives
One Gifted Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station
1 Dedicated video covering my entire workflow - from production to post to archiving
High Quality Stills of Product in use in Various Settings
I Would Be Featured in a Glyph Blog Post
1 Month Turnaround Time
20% Viewer Discount
10% Commission of Gross Sales with Affiliate Link
No Sponsorship Fee
