Why do LMG channels no longer disclose "sponsored" or "showcase" in the title?

[Avocado Diaboli]

5 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

I read it.

You wrote, "I personally would like to see titles marked as sponsored content."

Your interpretation of the document was incorrect, and I hope you have learned what that the image you posted refers to.  Selectively quoting parts of sentences doesn't make you right.

Again, funny that you ignored the ad standards pages about YouTube, notably absent is sponsored in the title, or any rules to dictate the titles of videos.

 

No, it's just that it's a matter of interpretation and you think you have the objectively correct one. And seeing that you're incapable of that type of nuance doesn't fill me with confidence that a discussion with you about this will lead anywhere useful.

[Sauron]

Interesting, I haven't been watching much LTT outputs for a while and looking at the main channel it seems like they either no longer release any (or barely any) "showcase" videos on it, or they're just not disclosing it in the title or thumbnail anymore. To their credit the LTT videos I have been convinced to click on in the past months were not paid ads (well, sponsor spot aside), make of that what you will.

8 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

if you don't run adblock

at some point you gotta wonder why you should bother if creators aren't upfront about monetizing you anyway...

[ToboRobot]

13 minutes ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

No, it's just that it's a matter of interpretation and you think you have the objectively correct one. And seeing that you're incapable of that type of nuance doesn't fill me with confidence that a discussion with you about this will lead anywhere useful.

You are right, this conversation isn't leading anywhere useful because you don't want to admit you are wrong.  

[Imbadatnames]

5 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

You are right, this conversation isn't leading anywhere useful because you don't want to admit you are wrong.  

How about you’re both being insufferably arrogant? 

[ToboRobot]

1 minute ago, Imbadatnames said:

How about you’re both being insufferably arrogant? 

It's frustrating when someone points to a document and states that it says something, and then refuse to listen when you point to that same document that disproves their assertation.  I honestly don't know a more polite way to deal with this, other than to not say anything.

 

[Imbadatnames]

Just now, ToboRobot said:

It's frustrating when someone points to a document and states that it says something, and then refuse to listen when you point to that same document that disproves their assertation.  I honestly don't know a more polite way to deal with this, other than to not say anything.
 

You can both be wrong. I’m not digging through 4 pages of comments to get the full picture but all in all neither of you are likely to be 100% correct and bitching about who’s more correct is just going to end up in escalation and a mod wading in with the hammer.

 

In the end LTT isn’t what it once was, the content quality has dropped significantly despite being more polished and transparency in the mainstream videos is far lower than it should be by the standards LTT laid out years ago. Unfortunately that’s what happens when people prioritise money over standards . Looking at their stats the channel is on the decline in terms of growth and views over the last three years, don’t know how much of that is to do with covid and how much is to do with let’s say “the old guard” being driven out by clickbait. Personally don’t watch much anymore outside of WAN, most of the videos seem to be about throwing money around and flexing rather than well thought out, entertaining or useful content. 

[ToboRobot]

3 minutes ago, Imbadatnames said:

You can both be wrong. I’m not digging through 4 pages of comments to get the full picture but all in all neither of you are likely to be 100% correct and bitching about who’s more correct is just going to end up in escalation and a mod wading in with the hammer.

 

 

That is it.  

 

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

at some point you gotta wonder why you should bother if creators aren't upfront about monetizing you anyway...

Because people have parasocial relationships with Linus/LMG and as a result they feel obligated to support them financially.

 

 

 

Sponsors being their biggest source of revenue (35% in 2021) is probably why they really want people to click (and thus give views) to videos. If people aren't interested in watching ads (which is the only logical explanation why fewer people click a video if it has SPONSORED as the first word in the title) then it is in LMG's interest to try and trick people into clicking on the video anyway, even if it is something they don't want to watch.

 

 

 

At the end of the day, this discussion really is about LMG having two choices.

1) Inform their users properly what the content is, and make interesting enough content that people want to watch it.

2) Be dishonest and try and trick people into viewing something they aren't interested in. For example trying to trick people like OP into giving them views on an ad, even though OP has no interest in watching said ad.

 

 

LMG has chosen option 1. Personally, I am really bothered by that because it means they prioritize money above their viewers wants.

There are plenty of reasons for why they do this, such as them being a for-profit company that want to make as much money as possible. Some might be okay with that reason, and some might not.

I am not because I strongly believe companies should not resort to tricking customers.

The product (their videos) should be good enough that it well-informed customers (viewers) willingly buys (views) said product.

 

If a big Hollywood Studio deliberately packaged let's say an horror movie in a DVD case that looked like it was a comedy, and filled the text on the back with very vague text and images that gave the impression of a comedy, then I think people would rightfully be upset. "Comedy movies sell better than horror movies so we are just trying to maximize profits by tricking comedy-watchers into buying our movie" would not exactly be a solid argument in my mind. "We at the movie studio has to make money from our bad movie because we got employees to feed" is not a good argument either.

[Arika]

10 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Snip

I do find it amusing that LMG is afforded the

"they can mislead me because they they a big company and need to make money"

(Not just referring to this thread but all the other threads we see about click bait as well)

 

Yet I could list out quite a few other companies that are always on this forum's chopping block for exactly the same reasons.

[Neroon]

8 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

i don't complain about LTT store pricing. i don't complain about certain sponsors. i'm complaining about the way it's communicated that a video is sponsored. 

And changing the way it is communicated, would cost them money. It's that simple. Again I get that you don't like it, but it's done like that for a reason, money being that reason.

 

If you have a suggestion that won't cost them money, I'm sure they will look at it.

[saintlouisbagels]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

I do find it amusing that LMG is afforded the

"they can mislead me because they they a big company and need to make money"

(Not just referring to this thread but all the other threads we see about click bait as well)

 

Yet I could list out quite a few other companies that are always on this forum's chopping block for exactly the same reasons.

I feel like this argument can't be attributed to something like LMG though. There's is no other LMG to turn to once this channel is far gone.

For general retail there's Wal-Mart, Target, or Amazon.

For sustainable water bottles you can side with Hydro Flask or Kleen Kanteen.

For sports clothing you can pick between The North Face, Patagonia, Fjallraven, etc.

For VPN you can do PrivateVPN, NordVPN, etc.

If your favorite video essay creator starts being shady, there's countless others to pick from.

 

Where do the hell do you go from LinusTechTips?

We're here for the personalities that can only be found here.

 

Do you start to watch more MKBHD? GamersNexus? JaysTwoCents?

All of them are excruciatingly different demographics and none of them have the insane upload output of LMG.

[Arika]

9 minutes ago, saint_louis_bagels said:

I feel like this argument can't be attributed to something like LMG though. There's is no other LMG to turn to once this channel is far gone.

For general retail there's Wal-Mart, Target, or Amazon.

For sustainable water bottles you can side with Hydro Flask or Kleen Kanteen.

For sports clothing you can pick between The North Face, Patagonia, Fjallraven, etc.

For VPN you can do PrivateVPN, NordVPN, etc.

If your favorite video essay creator starts being shady, there's countless others to pick from.

 

Where do the hell do you go from LinusTechTips?

We're here for the personalities that can only be found here.

 

Do you start to watch more MKBHD? GamersNexus? JaysTwoCents?

All of them are excruciatingly different demographics and none of them have the insane upload output of LMG.

What you've essentially advocated for here is that because they are (essentially) a monopoly (to you and to others) that they are allowed to mislead their fans/viewers to get more money?

 

That's scary.

[saintlouisbagels]

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

What you've essentially advocated for here is that because they are (essentially) a monopoly (to you and to others) that they are allowed to mislead their fans/viewers to get more money?

 

That's scary.

I mean you can make things sound as big, bad scary capitalism as you want if it fits your narrative.

Ultimately this is just an entertainment outlet to most people - so 1st world problems - and it doesn't matter at all. So why make it seem like a huge deal? I love Linus, Jake, Riley, etc. But I don't know them and it won't hurt my soul if they went away. If LMG makes misleading stuff it's extremely inconsequential and they lose some clicks. If they make compelling stuff, then that's f*cking awesome and everyone wins.

 

I think the closest example would be Buzzfeed's collapse. As a general company they were... okay. But they were full of talent, and people stayed around for the talent. And obviously people followed the talent once things got bad (e.g. The Try Guys).

Edited July 6, 2022 by saint_louis_bagels

[Arika]

19 minutes ago, saint_louis_bagels said:

I feel like this argument can't be attributed to something like LMG though. There's is no other LMG to turn to once this channel is far gone.

you just answered your own question in your next post

 

5 minutes ago, saint_louis_bagels said:

And obviously people followed the talent once things got bad (e.g. The Try Guys).

If LMG was to collapse and people stick around for the talent, then they will follow the talent to their new platforms, a few of them stream, i imagine some would make their own channels.

 

But you still can't use the "They should be allowed to mislead their viewers to get more money because they are a big company and no-one else is like them" If they can only stay a big company because of egregious click-bait and outright false video titles designed to get clicks, then they aren't a successful company, they are successful at being misleading, which isn't something anyone should praise or support  any company for regardless of who is part of said company.

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, saint_louis_bagels said:

I feel like this argument can't be attributed to something like LMG though. There's is no other LMG to turn to once this channel is far gone.

For general retail there's Wal-Mart, Target, or Amazon.

For sustainable water bottles you can side with Hydro Flask or Kleen Kanteen.

For sports clothing you can pick between The North Face, Patagonia, Fjallraven, etc.

For VPN you can do PrivateVPN, NordVPN, etc.

If your favorite video essay creator starts being shady, there's countless others to pick from.

 

Where do the hell do you go from LinusTechTips?

We're here for the personalities that can only be found here.

 

Do you start to watch more MKBHD? GamersNexus? JaysTwoCents?

All of them are excruciatingly different demographics and none of them have the insane upload output of LMG.

You seriously think that they are so unique? They are an entertainment tech channel. I would argue that there are many. The others might not be as big, but they are hardly one off. 

[leadeater]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

which is the only logical explanation why fewer people click a video if it has SPONSORED as the first word in the title

Well there is a situation that seems to be quite evident by the posts here that "sponsored content" is automatically garbage and shouldn't be watched. I'm not discounting that videos here and other channels have been the case but lets not discount that a sponsored or showcase video or w/e can still be a very good video to watch entertainment and/or information wise.

 

If people are going to skip/not watch literally any video with anything like that in the title regardless of the video itself then that is in my opinion a personality flaw with themselves. One can be perfectly happy with that though, just know you have it and don't pretend otherwise. Like myself, I block all YouTube ads etc and will skip any integrated ads in video if they suck however I am quite happy to watch an entertaining ad. If there is a give and take then I'm fine with it, if it's only take and annoyance then I will do something about it.

 

I have zero shame in saying I ad block the hell out of most things because 99.99% of the time it's irrelevant and yelling and I don't care, there might be some good in there somewhere but every time I give it a chance aka device without ad block it's the same mess still. And that's really where I think the issue is, the likelihood sponsored content is actually good or not, not that it's sponsored. 

[Blue4130]

31 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Well there is a situation that seems to be quite evident by the posts here that "sponsored content" is automatically garbage and shouldn't be watched. I'm not discounting that videos here and other channels have been the case but lets not discount that a sponsored or showcase video or w/e can still be a very good video to watch entertainment and/or information wise.

 

If people are going to skip/not watch literally any video with anything like that in the title regardless of the video itself then that is in my opinion a personality flaw with themselves. One can be perfectly happy with that though, just know you have it and don't pretend otherwise. Like myself, I block all YouTube ads etc and will skip any integrated ads in video if they suck however I am quite happy to watch an entertaining ad. If there is a give and take then I'm fine with it, if it's only take and annoyance then I will do something about it.

 

I have zero shame in saying I ad block the hell out of most things because 99.99% of the time it's irrelevant and yelling and I don't care, there might be some good in there somewhere but every time I give it a chance aka device without ad block it's the same mess still. And that's really where I think the issue is, the likelihood sponsored content is actually good or not, not that it's sponsored. 

I wonder if these people skip literally every Hollywood movie? The amount of sponsorship money flowing into them is nearly uncountable. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

I wonder if these people skip literally every Hollywood movie? The amount of sponsorship money flowing into them is nearly uncountable. 

Ah yes, what catchy titles would we'll have. 

 

Burger King Panasonic eBay Cadillac GMC The Strokes Pepto Bismol Xbox Furbies Pontiac Mountain Dew Chevrolet Showcase: Transformers.

 

[Blue4130]

50 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Ah yes, what catchy titles would we have. 

 

Burger King Panasonic eBay Cadillac GMC The Strokes Pepto Bismol Xbox Furbies Pontiac Mountain Dew Chevrolet Showcase: Transformers.

 

Either posters would get larger, or font would get smaller. 

[Ashleyyyy]

6 hours ago, Neroon said:

If you have a suggestion that won't cost them money, I'm sure they will look at it.

maybe not spend so much that you're no longer profitable...?

 

3 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

I wonder if these people skip literally every Hollywood movie? The amount of sponsorship money flowing into them is nearly uncountable. 

99% of what i watch is animated so... pretty much yeah. 

[Imbadatnames]

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

Well there is a situation that seems to be quite evident by the posts here that "sponsored content" is automatically garbage and shouldn't be watched. I'm not discounting that videos here and other channels have been the case but lets not discount that a sponsored or showcase video or w/e can still be a very good video to watch entertainment and/or information wise.

 

If people are going to skip/not watch literally any video with anything like that in the title regardless of the video itself then that is in my opinion a personality flaw with themselves. One can be perfectly happy with that though, just know you have it and don't pretend otherwise. Like myself, I block all YouTube ads etc and will skip any integrated ads in video if they suck however I am quite happy to watch an entertaining ad. If there is a give and take then I'm fine with it, if it's only take and annoyance then I will do something about it.

 

I have zero shame in saying I ad block the hell out of most things because 99.99% of the time it's irrelevant and yelling and I don't care, there might be some good in there somewhere but every time I give it a chance aka device without ad block it's the same mess still. And that's really where I think the issue is, the likelihood sponsored content is actually good or not, not that it's sponsored. 

Difference is that “showcases” are essentially ads with press material read beat for beat, not a video 

[Imbadatnames]

4 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

I wonder if these people skip literally every Hollywood movie? The amount of sponsorship money flowing into them is nearly uncountable. 

There’s a difference between product placement and “this is product x, let me tell you all the points company y wants me to tell you so you think these hold merit beyond just being the text on the back of the box” 

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

Difference is that “showcases” are essentially ads with press material read beat for beat, not a video 

Not the ones I've watched from memory. They have talking points or information about the product they have to cover but that's not the only parts of the script in the videos.

 

I really don't think there is as much difference as you portray.

 

Knowing while watching the video that it's not a critique  / review is important for sure but that's not the defining factor of if the video is entertaining and/or informational or not.

 

For example, if you think this is beat for beat marketing material only then I have literally no idea what to tell you or where to go with it. Taking the points you need to talk about and making them relatable and not entirely dirt boring is part of making videos such as these actually good (this not being 10/10 entrainment ranking one, but point not withstanding) 

 

And ofc that's if we are talking about showcase videos and not just sponsored videos more broadly.

 

Edit:

But like the point was, knowing what you are watching is important but outright refusal to watch something just because it has "showcase" etc in the title is a little dumb. But it's cool, not wanting to give such videos is a chance is a choice anyone can make on their own.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

99% of what i watch is animated so... pretty much yeah. 

Animated certainly doesn't mean no product advertising, not at all.

[Neroon]

2 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

maybe not spend so much that you're no longer profitable...?

Oh wow, you cracked the code!

So basically give up the labs, and add sponsor to the video names, saves them a bunch of money. And hey, who needs to invest if you can just stand still and keep doing the same thing.