Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.
We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.
And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
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There’s some off-brand-color gold featured among the most viewed branded YouTube videos this week. And that’s not even the one produced by MrBeast. In the words of much-sponsored, YouTube veteran Phil DeFranco, let’s just jump into it.
#1 I Adopted 100 Dogs!
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Surfshark VPN, Jinx, Spot Pet Insurance
Beast Philanthropy is a MrBeast off-shoot channel started by MrBeast himself Jimmy Donaldson in 2020 with the expressed intent to raise funds to support a burgeoning food bank. Since then its Executive Director Darren Margolias and Chief Creative Officer Dan Mace have expanded on that vision to bring visibility – and a lot of help – to causes all over the globe and the people behind them. The channel is a repository for the team’s altruistic efforts. But sometimes a feel-good video makes the bump from Beast Philanthropy to MrBeast proper. That’s the case with I Adopted 100 Dogs!
The video holds true to the title, except it doesn’t mention the David Bautista cameo or the fact that the video sponsor Spot Pet Insurance is giving all the new pet parents free pet insurance for life and the other video sponsor Jinx is giving the new pet parents free dog food for life. The final video sponsor Surfshark VPN isn’t giving anything directly to the doggos, but they did pay for a portion of the video production (and it’s at least “$2 million” budget) and give the shelter $50,000 so it can help find more pups find new homes.
#2 Making purple gold
Channel: Nile Red
Brand: Opera
Nile Red is a 32-year-0ld Canadian chemist who uploaded three videos in all of 2023 to his main channel. (And that was a kinda prolific year! In 2022 there were only two videos.) He uploaded his latest and most viewed of the trio on December 22. It’s a 53-minute-and-20-second magnum opus devoted to a special kind of alchemy where Nile attempts, and attempts, and attempts to turn real gold into purple gold.
The dedication exhibited by Nile is inspired as is the ad read for Opera at the end of the upload. If you’re a fan who’s going to get through almost a full hour of purifying, melting, casting, and grinding on repeat, I don’t see how you’re not going to download “the best browser” that Nile’s ever used.
#3 I Tested 1-Star Camping
Channel: Ryan Trahan
Brand: Shopify
Formats are a YouTuber’s best friend. Amazing ones can make entire careers. Good ones can provide enough inspiration to elicit several pieces of content. Ryan Trahan found a fantastic one in Testing 1-Star _____. So far that blank has been filled with restaurants, hotels, theme parks, and now camping.
What’s great about this particular format is the creator can fill the video with excerpts from the 1-Star reviews and then validate and/or debunk them. For instance, Ryan parlays the ominous 1-star review of “bears in the woods” into an ad read. He dresses up in a bear suit and then tells the Ryan not dressed up in a bear suit to chase his dreams and make that product using Shopify‘s suite of services. It’s more than a bearable interlude to the regularly scheduled programming in which Ryan also hints at selling a “yummy snack” through Shopify in the not-so-distant future.
#4 Jay’s World S2 Ep.03: Problem Kid GOES TO WAR with BABYSITTERS | Dhar Mann Studios
Channel: Dhar Mann Studios
Brand: Word Farm Adventure – Brain Games
Dhar Mann used to not post so many sponsored videos.
The insanely popular YouTube morality storyteller who gets 200 million views in an off month averages upwards of 20 long-form videos in 30 days, but he’s only uploaded two or three sponsored videos in the entire year! His average of over four million views per long-form video and family-friendly programming certainly provides him an opportunity to get more brand deals. And recently it seems like he’s been taking a little more advantage of those kinds of stats.
Since December 2023, Dhar has put up three sponsored videos. The latest is for World Farm Adventure, which gets a full on 90-second scripted commercial in one of Dhar Mann Studios’ school sets before the content of the actual video ever begins.
BONUS: #1,830 Clean Any Electronic Device! #sponsored #tronicsfix #bw100
Channel: TronicsFix
Brands: BW-100
What I really love about the internet are the deep niches content creators get into. That’s nothing new, though. For nearly a decade now if you’ve wanted to find some content around your most specialized and esoteric interests, there’s a Mariana Trench-sized ocean of material for you to dive into. What is new, though, are the sponsors of deep niche content creators. This video from TronicsFix is a great example.
Steve Porter is a DIY enthusiast, proprietor of his own electronics repair shop, and content creator under the TronicsFix handle. He’s up to more than 1.5 million subscribers and his most popular videos are the ones where he fixes video game consoles (Can he do it or not?!?! Tune into find out!), but I also very much appreciate this sponsored Short from electronics cleaning product BW-100. It’s a quick commercial that’s practical, pointed, and reflects a robust industry of influencer marketing that’s happening in the niches all over the internet.
…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
