PAID PROMOTION?
If you’ve spent any time watching wristwatch videos on YouTube, you’ll notice that many of them feature a pop-up that has a cash-in-hand symbol, with the accompanying text ‘includes paid promotion’; implying that the creator has been paid money in exchange for a review. To confirm, Ben’s Watch Club does not take cash payments or bribes for review spots on our channel.
Some of our videos feature this message; usually when reviewing a watch that has been provided for that review video or in the rare instances where the content features a third-party paid video sponsor. Obviously, if we have purchased a product with our own money then this message won’t be there.
Sometimes, when reviewing products that have had their ‘cost covered’ by Amazon, we disclose this in the video but do not use the ‘includes paid promotion’ pop-up. Why is this?
Well, it’s because the arrangement we have is slightly different.
How We Normally Review Products
Arrangements with watch brands/manufacturers (unless purchased ourselves) involve them providing us with the product in exchange for a review spot. Most brands that contact us proposing such an arrangement get rejected for a variety of reasons, though we do accept a few which I think our audience would find interesting. We do not allow them to maintain any creative control or final approval over the content.
This type of arrangement requires the ‘includes paid promotion’ pop-up, as according to YouTube’s descriptors, this constitutes a ‘paid promotion’; due to the agreement of receiving a product for review in exchange for the publishing of the review video (regardless of the content in that video). Therefore, we use the pop-up tool.
This does not qualify as an ‘advert’ under current UK law, due to the lack of creative control from the brand (see additional information section later on this page).
How The Amazon Arrangement Works
Currently, we receive an automated monthly reward voucher code from Amazon for our affiliate performance, with no strings attached. We choose to put this voucher towards watches for reviews on our channel.
This voucher is independent of the content of our videos and we aren’t in regular contact with Amazon representatives. Amazon does not select specific products for us to buy, review or feature using this voucher, nor do they maintain regular contact with us about our video content. They do not regulate the publishing of videos using products purchased with the voucher. We could leave the voucher unused with no repercussions.
In essence, product acquisition is not dependent on the promised production of a corresponding review video. There is no agreement on a per video basis (unlike the arrangements necessary with most brands).
Following their recommendation, videos featuring products from this Amazon voucher will not have the ‘includes paid promotion’ label. We still disclose that Amazon ‘covered the cost’ of the watch being reviewed, as it is the most accurate descriptor of how products have been obtained via this method.
In its current form, use of the pop-up would indicate that we had been paid by Amazon to make the video or that the video had been produced on Amazon’s behalf; both of which are inaccurate. Given the hands-off arrangement, it wouldn’t make business sense for us to not make use of the voucher, so we will continue to use it. Should this arrangement change and Amazon attempt to control our content, we will stop using the vouchers; as we do not relinquish creative control of our videos.
We feel that the ‘includes paid promotion’ pop-up is highly misleading for viewers, as the cash-in-hand symbol tricks people into believing that money has changed hands and that creative control has been relinquished. I have notified YouTube about this, in the hope of them adding more specific descriptors to better inform YouTube viewers about this type of arrangement.
A separate ‘includes subsidised product’ or ‘includes free review sample’ pop-up would be much clearer. We would absolutely make use of either of those latter tools if made available, as they would better describe our Amazon arrangement. The current pop-up is vague and too broad.
If you are a YouTuber reading this, hopefully, this may be useful in determining whether your situation requires this paid promotion pop-up.
Current regulations and YouTube’s guidelines are ever-changing (and often contradictory), so this may be subject to change in the future. We’re doing our best to be accurate based on current regulations; this includes reviewing our approach to affiliate marketing disclosure, so you may see slight changes on that front. Just know that our opinions/reviews are not for sale.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
THE LAW
As a UK-based reviewer, Ben’s Watch Club primarily falls under the jurisdiction of The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Current regulation stipulates that:
If you work with a brand to create some content that you’ll be posting on your own channels, it’ll qualify as an ad if the brand:
1. ‘paid’ you in some way (can be freebies, doesn’t have to be money), and
2. had some form of editorial ‘control’ over the content, including just final approval.
It’s not an ‘either/or’ – there has to be both ‘payment’ and ‘control’ for this type of post to count as an ad under the CAP Code.
YouTube’s Definition
Here’s what YouTube defines as constituting a ‘paid promotion’:
Paid product placements:
Videos about a product or service because there is a connection between the creator and the maker of the product or service (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience).
Videos created for a company or business in exchange for compensation or free products/services.
Videos where that company or business's brand, message or product is included directly, or referenced, in the content and the company has given the creator money, free products, services or similar consideration to make the video.
Endorsem*nts: Videos created for an advertiser or marketer that contain a message that reflects, or purports to reflect, the opinions, beliefs or experiences of the creator or endorser.
Sponsorships: Videos that have been financed in whole or in part by a company or business, without integrating their brand, message or product directly into the content. Sponsorships generally promote:
The brand
Message
Product of the third party
