Is your Marketing so good it sucks?

Apr 29, 2021 11:42 am


Sometimes you can be too clever and too entertaining for your own good...

Hello Content Creators!

If you've never watched YouTuber Colin Furze, get ready to go down his rabbit hole. He is without a doubt one of the most entertaining video creators in the world.


In a recent video he builds a bicycle using hydraulic pistons for tubes, adding a pump and actuator to allow him to customize the tube lengths and geometry while riding.

It's gloriously unsafe and weird.

But it's the sponsor message that really got me thinking.

So good it's bad?


This is one of the best sponsor message integrations I've seen...and also possibly ineffective. It starts at 3:46 and you can watch it here.

Here's why I think it's too good for its own good:

  • It's entertaining enough that I want to watch it; a good start.

  • It shows the product and features really well, but I'm so entertained by what the host is doing that I'm not really paying attention to what he's selling.

  • It's extremely well integrated into the content in that he flows straight into it while keeping the viewer engaged (no chance to skip!), and the entire thing is filmed in the same environment. But the sponsor's product isn't really relevant to what the video is about.

Here's the thing: I'm sure that mobile game studio knows that Colin's audience demographic is likely interested in their game. But, it's so unrelated to what this video is about that I wasn't really interested in what he was talking about, only in how he was talking about it.

This discrepancy doesn't necessarily create a disconnect, but it doesn't allow the video's content to reinforce the product being advertised.

Altogether, this makes the sponsor and its message largely forgettable.

What's the takeaway?

We all want to get creative and have amazing marketing content. And I applaud that...I loved Colin's bit.

The tricky part is making sure that the humor, entertainment, or whatever other tactics you're using will:

  • reinforce your brand position
  • aid brand and product recall
  • make a connection with the customer

There are lots of ways to do this while still being wildly creative and entertaining. Email me if I can help you brainstorm ideas for your brand.

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A Recent Content Project


On my recent family road trip, we stopped at three different brands (Fezzari Bicycles, ENVE, and VanDOit) to do a quick factory tour.

How quick?

I filmed both bike brand tours in the same day.

For both, we emailed a few times prior to the visits to outline expectations and goals. Upon arrival, we did a quick initial walk through of their facility to familiarize ourselves and finalize the path and key talking points. Then we hit record and started walking (and they started talking). See below for the equipment I used.

The last one, at VanDOit, we did a quick walk through so I could see what was new, and then my son followed me around with a GoPro HERO9 Black for a fast walk through. It literally took as long as the video lasts. Our entire visit was about 45 minutes, and it wasn't even planned until that morning.

The point is, creating great content that's super interesting for your customers is easy, especially when you work with the content creators who know what they're doing.

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Cool Stuff I've Found


For the two bicycle brand tours above (and numerous others) I use the Rode Wireless GO ($199) microphone plugged into my iPhone. I added a TRS to TRRS cable ($10) plus Lightning adapter ($8) because Apple uses the four-ring headphone connection (TRRS) as opposed to the common three-ring (TRS) connection...this is critical, otherwise an iPhone won't pickup the audio. The included TRS cable works fine on most cameras, and a 3.5mm-to-USB-C might be required for some Android phones.

I set my iPhone to 4K 24fps for basic recording, and I put the phone into the Movo PR-1 Grip Rig ($26) that has a cold-shoe mount on top in case I need to use a light or switch to a shotgun mic like the Movo VXR10 ($40).

I attach the Grip Rig to an Altura 62" monopod ($22) which lets me hold one hand low on and the other on my phone...farther-apart hand positions reduce shakes and jitters dramatically, yielding much smoother footage.

(side note: the GoPro's image stabilization is so good you don't need much of a handle, but adding a mic is still a good idea when your subject is going to be further away or not speaking directly at the camera)

Altogether, I have a portable movie system that yields great audio and video for about $300 (plus phone). Not bad.

Make it good, but make it quick,


Tyler Benedict

PS - If you want more killer video/content creation product tips and reviews, subscribe to my YouTube channel ... there's a lot of good stuff coming up there. In the meantime, you can watch every session from my Peak Content Summit strategy conference for free!

PPS - If you like this, please forward it to a fellow content creator or marketer... Thanks!

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