Ebony-Renee Baker, the guest presenter for week three of Intro to Content Strategy, is a Canadian journalist and content creator currently based in London, England, working fashion editor for Refinery29 UK.
During the interview, Baker tells us brands will reach out with products for her to sample, usually under the assumption that it will result in a sponsored post. However, she was adamant about telling brands that gifted products are not an exchange for content because readers are less enthusiastic about consuming content from a creator that has been “bought out.” This is not a call to boycott all sponsored content, condemning creators who take on sponsorships or gifts from brands—taking on sponsorships is a good way to network and build relationships with brands for future collaboration, and for some creators, it also helps pay their bills. Audiences however are getting better at recognizing sponsored content, labelled or not, and often opt to not interact with such. From not just my own experience, but it’s a widely held habit on the Internet to skip the sponsored section of a YouTube video. With the exception of a few beloved brands or content creators who manage to make their ads entertaining for viewers, viewers have trained themselves to bypass ads, and YouTube’s feature to break videos down into labelled chapters allows for an even easier time in skipping the ad section.
Baker, from the perspective of a fashion editor, even elaborates on how she manages to retain her audience during sponsored content. Similar to how video content creators can retain viewership during sponsored sections by making their ad entertaining and authentic, she talked about how she spins sponsorships so it still has an organic and authentic feel to the final piece. Referencing when a brand asked her to attend a conference and write a piece on it, she interviewed three people of her choosing (Gen Z women, to be specific) so the resulting article would better reflect Refinery29’s readers. Another way I have seen content creators put a unique spin on their sponsored content is by designing the ad to match their usual content style. Naming one creator, Ice Cream Sandwich, who frequently is sponsored by NordVPN has his sponsored sections animated, written, and voiced in the same humorous tone as the rest of his content, resulting in fewer people skipping the ad section of his videos.
Below is an example of sponsored content from Ebony-Renne Baker (left image) and Ice Cream Sandwich (right image), both with links to said content.
