Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: Trampolines, time travel, tater tots

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.

After taking AMP to the #1 spot last week, MrBeast is nowhere to be seen for this week’s Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report. Instead, sciencetubers dominated sponsored content, with Veritasium scooping up not one but two slots, an “atomic trampoline” coming in at #1, and Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell making yet another appearance with a video he says will make physicists “very grumpy” (and, judging by the comments, he’s right).

#1 Making an atomic trampoline
Channel: NileRed
Brand: Opera
Views: 6,317,276

If you hear the words “atomic trampoline” and imagine an ultra-bouncy backyard surface that may or may not put you in the ER–well, that ain’t it, but we’re right there with you. We learned a lot from NileRed‘s video this week–which, unlike Kurzgesagt’s, might make a lot of physicists very un-grumpy, because he spends an hour intricately diving into the process of making an atomic trampoline. That process involves using a layer of amorphous metal to get a metal ball to bounce up and down significantly more than it would on top of a regular stainless steel cylinder, and it takes an impressive amount of lab work to get right. NileRed takes viewers with him into his laboratory, showing them all the steps to get the trampoline up and running, and the end result is pretty cool. His video, like more than 30 others this week, is sponsored by browser Opera.

#2 What Everyone Gets Wrong About Planes
Channel: Veritasium
Brand: Ground News
Views: 5,691,539

Here to teach us yet more things we don’t know is Veritasium, in his first of two videos this week. This 20-minute upload is a smorgasbord of aeronautical information, answering FAQs on everything from whether plane doors can be opened mid-flight to whether airplane mode on phones actually does anything to why food tastes worse in the sky to the nitty-gritty of how jet engines work. It includes several expert interviews and a couple case studies on famous flights that went wrong–but don’t worry, Veritasium caps it all off with a final question and answer: Is air travel safe? (Spoiler: yes.) His videos have two different sponsors, with this one being news aggregator Ground News, which has become a bigger and bigger presence on YouTube as the election nears. It sponsored over 50 videos this week.

#3 We Traveled Back in Time. Now Physicists Are Angry.
Channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Brand: Brilliant
Views: 4,743,132

Okay, here’s the angry physicists video. Why are they angry? Well, Kurzgesagt is taking extremely complex concepts of our universe and not only oversimplifying them, but “lying a bit” about them, he jokes. Basically, he’s postulating that because we here on Earth are moving faster than the speed of light through space, we’re actually traveling backward in time…despite aging forward. (We’re not physicists, so if we got that wrong, please don’t get mad at us too.) A few professionals have chimed in in the comments, with one explaining, “Moving faster than light doesn’t NECESSARILY mean you’re moving back in time. What it does mean is that you’re moving forwards in time in some reference frames, backwards in time in others, and are ‘stationary in time’ in yet others.” Ah, science. This video, like many of Kurzgesagt’s, is appropriately sponsored by online learning platform Brilliant.

#4 Why Democracy Is Mathematically Impossible
Channel: Veritasium
Brand: Brilliant
Views: 3,746,151

Timed for the upcoming presidential election, Veritasium‘s second video of the week (also sponsored by Brilliant) is a somewhat grim look at whether true democracy is mathematically possible. He looks at various structures of the United States’ current voting system and discusses case studies like the Bush v. Gore election, where people in Florida who voted for farther-left-than-Democrat candidate Ralph Nader ended up helping to elect Republican Bush. We’ll spoil a little bit here: he concludes that “first past the post” voting systems do make democracy mathematically impossible, and since that’s what the U.S. uses, we’re in a bit of a pickle. We’ll let him explain the math behind that assertion, though.

BONUS #2,305 6 Genius Tater Tot Recipes You MUST TRY! From Casseroles, Skillet Dinners, Appetizers & More!
Channel: In The Kitchen With Momma Mel
Brand: June’s Journey
Views: 26,775

Momma Mel also made our list twice this week. An East Tennessee native who says her goal is “to see our families gathered around our dinner tables again sharing meals and making memories,” she’s been uploading recipe videos since April 2021, focusing on easy-to-make dishes using easy-to-obtain ingredients–like bags of frozen tater tots. Look, we’re all for culinary content where folks go to Whole Foods and buy a bunch of fresh veggies and meats to turn into a three-course meal that takes a full day to cook, but a lot of people just don’t have the money or time for that, and Momma Mel gets it. This video is sponsored by detective-themed mobile game June’s Journey (also sponsored #1,752), while her second video, 3 NEW Quick & Easy CASSEROLE Dinner Recipes, was sponsored by meat and seafood delivery company Good Chop.

…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.