When to say no to a brand deal
Have you ever been in a situation where an exciting opportunity or brand deal lands in your lap, but something deep down makes you hesitate?
Receiving offers from brands can feel like a huge opportunity, but sometimes, it’s in your best interest to pass on them as they might not serve the long-term goals you have.
Recently, I've started to receive opportunities from different software tools aimed at podcasters and microphone brands looking to partner with me. One brand in particular that I won’t name, reached out and offered to send me some of their latest products for me to review on our YouTube and podcast channels. On the surface, this offer seemed like a great idea and I agreed. I hadn’t heard of them before, but I was eager to give their gear a try.
Over the next couple of days, I started to dig deeper into this brand. I realised I hadn't heard of them for good reason. I have decades of experience in the audio space, and the fact that this brand never crossed my radar was a red flag.
After more research, it became clear that the quality of their products was inferior to what we usually use and recommend here at Bamby Media. Their microphones were priced at around $50, and frankly, it's hard to get good quality at that price point. We expect the best for our followers and community, and we only recommend what we would personally use.
There were no sustainability practices on their website, which didn’t fill me with confidence as to how they operated and it all started to paint a pretty murky picture.
So ultimately I went back to the brand and politely advised that I was no longer interested in the opportunity and was honest as to why this was the case.
It's tempting to say yes to every offer that comes your way, especially when you're excited about the possibility of a new partnership. However, it's crucial to ask yourself whether this opportunity aligns with your brand’s values and how it may affect your brand’s reputation.
Next time you have an exciting offer, take a step back and consider its actual value. Are you saying yes because you’re genuinely enthusiastic about the opportunity, or are you just excited that someone reached out?
Have you ever faced such dilemmas?
Did you ever say yes to a deal that didn’t pan out as expected, or do you have a story where saying no was the best decision you made?
I’d love to hear your experiences. Share your stories in the comments!
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: It's story time. Recently, and increasingly, I've been getting these deals come through from different tools and microphone brands wanting to partner with me.
[00:00:14] whether they have perhaps got microphones that they want us to review, they want us to check out, want us to do a video on, or that could be their specific tools that are like software tools that they want us to take a look at and then also do a review on those tools. Here's the kicker though, here's the thing that I want to talk about.
[00:00:33] certainly the point of the YouTube channel is to generate income for BambiMedia at some point. to build strong relationships with really great brands that we use all the time, that we want to talk about, that we want To feature that we want you all to know about.
[00:00:48] that's the point is to build this community around podcasting and not just podcasting, but people that use microphones. So vocalists, musicians. there's an overarching kind of theme for me and a passion for me just around audio and video.
[00:01:02] and so any way that I can work with brands and partner with people that feel really well aligned, I'm all for that. I think it's just awesome. But the thing that's been coming up for me recently is that I have had some brands reach out to me that I've never heard of, and it doesn't mean that they're bad, right?
[00:01:20] There's plenty of brands I've never heard of. They could be really good. And there was one brand in particular, which I'm not going to name, that reached out to me and said, you know, we'd love to send you some microphones, some equipment for you to review on your channel, and then you can keep Equipment.
[00:01:38] Now, this wasn't a deal where I was getting money for it, where we were getting money for it here at Bammy Media. We were just getting microphones to test So at first I thought, Oh, that sounds great.
[00:01:49] I'd love to review some different microphones that, from brands like I've never heard of, or I've never used before. And so initially I was interested. Initially I [00:02:00] kind of said. Okay, yeah, that, that could be cool. But then over the next couple of days, I started thinking about this brand. I started doing some more research and I started looking around and what I started to realize was that I hadn't heard of them for a reason. I know a lot about microphones. I have decades of experience And so the fact that this brand had never crossed my radar, that was a little bit of a red flag. And so I started thinking about it more, doing a little bit more research.
[00:02:30] And the more I dived into it, the more I sort of sat with it for a while, I started to realize that actually I didn't want to say yes to this opportunity. That even though it meant that I got free stuff and that I could create more content for our channels using this equipment and reviewing it, I actually didn't want to review it.
[00:02:51] And the reason for that is very simple. The equipment was inferior to equipment that we know that we use, that we like. The price point was way too low. you could get this microphone for about 50 and that's a red flag because if you're spending so little It's gonna break, for sure. The audio quality isn't gonna be as good.
[00:03:17] The connections aren't gonna be as good. The actual, like, hardware that they're using is probably plastic. It's not high quality metal. It's not aluminium. It's not gold plated. It's not all the stuff that actually makes really good equipment. And so I thought about that some more and there was no sustainability practices on their website.
[00:03:39] There was nothing that could convince me that this was actually an opportunity that I would want our followers, our subscribers and the people in our community to know about, to use. and so then I started thinking, okay, well, if I did get these microphones and this equipment from this brand, what kind of video would I create?[00:04:00]
[00:04:00] I would probably be creating a video that. didn't paint them in a very nice light and that's not really something I want to do. I don't want to be a person in this space that says, yeah, you know, you could start off with this really crappy equipment and that'll do.
[00:04:16] And it's good enough from brands that aren't tried and tested. And there was plenty of other things on YouTube that I could find other reviews of this equipment that says like, yeah, it's okay. Like it's pretty good. It's it's, you get what you paid for. our company, Bambi Media is not that brand.
[00:04:34] We're not the one that says, yeah, it's going to be a little bit cheaper and you get what you paid for. That's not who I'm talking to. And so I ultimately said no to this relationship, a relationship that maybe could have turned into something more. And at first I felt a bit bad about saying no, because they seemed really keen on it.
[00:04:58] but I had to really think about the fact that I'm not the kind of person that says yes, just because I feel like maybe they might want me to. I, that's just not me. And so I wanted this to be a reminder to you That if you're a creator and you're getting people coming to you, asking you to review stuff or to do brand deals with you and they're not actually really aligned, instead of saying yes, like straight away, maybe just take a pause and do a bit of your own research and just make sure that it's not going to be more damaging to your brand by accepting that actual deal.
[00:05:35] I have another example where I was approached by some software tools, uh, companies that wanted us here at Bamu Media to create videos for their software. and I initially was interested because they were tools that I really like that I thought, yes, that's, this is going to be a good match.
[00:05:53] But then the difference here was, is that they had a budget of X for us to create [00:06:00] the video that they wanted us to create. Therein lies the because the amount of money that they had as their budget. Which again, I understand everyone has a budget, especially if, you know, people are startups and they're new brands and they're new tools and they're untested and whatever, they have a budget.
[00:06:17] But the budget was too low for the amount of time and effort that we put in to the videos that we create. so even though I could have said yes to that and put all the effort into this great video and yes been paid not enough, that's not something again I subscribe to.
[00:06:38] you should be paid for what you're worth.
[00:06:40] I guess an example that's different to that, so like a caveat to when you would Say yes to an opportunity. That's not going to make you enough money. That's not actually the value that you are worth is let's say you have a brand or a personality or an influencer that you really want to work with And you have to get their attention somehow, and they're not going to pay you to deliver a product to them because they don't know who you are, they don't know anything, you're the one that wants to work with them, and so you should be delivering them value, expecting nothing in return, so you can't go to them and be like, hey, have this video snippet or whatever that I've created for you, but you can't see it or use it unless you pay me, you know, 400 or whatever, in that instance, I agree with doing stuff for free to get the attention, doing your best work, putting your heart and soul into the thing, and then giving it to the person and being like here free for you to use.
[00:07:38] If you're trying to get their attention, if you want to work with them and you don't have another way. To work with them at this point, you're just giving them free value, give, give, give, and you will receive for sure. But in this situation where a brand comes to Us and says, we want you to create a video and we're going to pay [00:08:00] you this much.
[00:08:00] This is the budget. You really need to think about whether that is worth it for you. Whether that brand is going to be worth the effort, the time that you put into the video, whether that's a brand you're wanting to further a relationship with, an established, whether that is something you actually want to do, because it is so okay.
[00:08:23] to say no if it doesn't quite align. I think they also ultimately respect you as well. If you say no and you say why, so it's not like, no, I'm not interested. It's like, well, this kind of video normally takes us about X amount of time and it costs about X amount in staff to, um, produce this. Therefore, the budget you have is too low and it's ultimately for them more.
[00:08:49] It is more than it is for us as a brand. So the answer is no. So the next time you have something land on your desk that you think like maybe might be a really cool opportunity, or you just get excited because someone's reached out to you and they, they want you to do something. Just take a pause for a second and just think about what the actual true value of that opportunity is.
[00:09:12] And whether you're saying yes because you're excited or whether you're saying yes because it actually ultimately will move you in the direction that you want to go in. I'd love to know from you whether you've had opportunities come through like that before Where you felt a little bit strange about saying no, but maybe you should have.
[00:09:32] Maybe it blew up in your face. Maybe it took you four times as long to produce the thing that they're paying you a pittance for, and nothing else came from the opportunity. I'd love to know. If you want to put it in the comments, let me know. Tell me a story. That would be great. I just love that. And if you're a brand that you feel like would really gel with Bambi media and you would love to be featured, then please reach out.
[00:09:55] we don't always say no. It has to be the right person. And we're really trying to [00:10:00] build something that you, the listeners, the watches will feel like. we're giving you the best advice that we possibly can, that we're giving you the really honest look at everything that's happening in the podcasting and audio production space right now, and you feel like you can trust us enough to then go purchase or work with whoever that is.
[00:10:23] Comments are just so welcome here on the Bambi Media YouTube channel and also over on the podcast as well. And I'm just really loving delivering this kind of content to you. I hope you enjoy this little chat today. It's just a little reflection on some stuff that's been happening in our world at the moment.
[00:10:41] And, uh, Yeah, I'll chat to you again soon.
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