The Power of Sponsorship Versus Regular Advertising from the Perspective of a Digital Marketing Student

Today, as I was watching YouTube instead of studying for my exams (I know...), I noticed how difficult it was for me to remember the name of the product advertised by the company at the beginning of the video I had just watched. However, the curious thing is, I could perfectly remember the name of brands, mobile games or services advertised to me weeks, months or even years ago, even though I was not interested! But why is that? The big difference between these ads is how it was introduced to me. So what is the difference between a sponsorship and a regular ad?

Sponsorship Versus Regular Advertising

What is a sponsorship?

A sponsorship is an "advertising that seeks to establish a deeper association and integration between an advertiser and a publisher, often involving coordinated beyond-the-banner placements" (Marketingterms.com). Complicated words, I know. To make it easier to understand, let's use an example!

In this video, we have an advertiser, GFuel, and a publisher, the famous Youtuber Pewdiepie. Now let's find an example of "beyond-the-banner-placements":

So, what makes this advertisement different from a regular ad at the beginning of the video? Well, the idea is that it is directly targeted at PewDiePie's vast community which makes it more appealing to potential customers. Indeed, in this video we find various elements directly linking the ad to his community such as the animated style inspired by one of his favorite anime, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and his passion for building Gundam.

(Note aside, you should really watch Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, let me know if you do and tell me what your favorite character is! )

What makes sponsorship powerful?

Now that we have seen how a sponsorship works and how it targets a specific audience, let's talk about how the targeted audience and the publisher interact with the brand being sponsored.

The power of a sponsorship lies in how a brand is then being introduced to the community. In our case, PewDiePie, in his videos, will regularly talk about the brand and drink the product while telling us how good it is. He will also promote the brand and offer promo codes in the description of each of his videos.

Now that the brand if affiliated with PewDiePie, it has become part of his community as a way for them to interact directly with the YouTuber, leading to what digital marketers call UGC; "User-generated content (UGC) is any content—text, videos, images, reviews, etc.—created by people, rather than brands. And brands will often share UGC on their own social media accounts, website, and other marketing channels"(C. Newberry, 2019). 

This reddit user known by the PewDiePie's community as "Shaker Guy" became so popular that he appeared in PewDiePie's weekly memes review for over a year! In 2021, he was even invited by the YouTuber to host the meme review with him!

GFuel is not seen as a brand trying to sell a product to customers but as a way for PewDiePie's fans to interact with their favorite YouTuber and be part of the story, making it the most powerful marketing strategy that exists.

"Nothing sticks in your head better than a story. Stories can express the most complicated ideas in the most digestible ways" Sam Balter, Sr. Marketing Manager of Podcasts, HubSpot

That's it for today! If you found this post insightful, you can also check my other blog posts!

References

BloomAds. (s. d.). Advertising vs. Sponsorship : Which is Right for You? http://blog.bloomads.com/blog/advertising-vs.-sponsorship-which-is-right-for-you

MarketingTerms. (s. d.). What is Sponsorship ? - Marketing Definition & Information. https://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/sponsorship/

Newberry, C. (2020, 8 octobre). A Simple Guide to Using User-Generated Content on Social Media. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/user-generated-content-ugc/