Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: One salad, two bombs, and three Joe Rogans

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.

---

Joe Rogan got a lot of face time on our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Reports in the leadup to the 2024 election–and now that the election is over, he’s getting even more. This week, he’s not just spot #1, but got in at #6 and #7, too. Aside from the Roganpalooza, we have Kurzgesagt and NileBlue both chiming in for some Ms. Frizzle moments, plus a stretchy Short and a deep dive into dinner from that one very pale, deaging-obsessed biohacker who uses his son like a Mad Max: Fury Road blood bag.

Check it all out right here:

#1 Joe Rogan Experience #2226 – Theo Von
Channel: PowerfulJRE
Brand: ZipRecruiter
Views: 6,129,277

After hosting both Donald Trump and JD Vance for interviews ahead of the 2024 election, Joe Rogan got a thanks in their victory speech as the electoral college votes stacked up in Republicans’ favor. But he wasn’t the only one enlisted for the Trump/Vance podcast tour: Theo Von also hosted both candidates, and similarly got a nod in their victory speech. Now, in Rogan’s latest episode, he and Von come together for a chat that’s part postmortem, part personal interview. Like we mentioned above, this three-and-a-half-hour episode (sponsored by employment site ZipRecruiter) isn’t Rogan’s only appearance on this week’s list. He’s also at spot #6 interviewing comedian Tim Dillon (sponsored by dog food company The Farmer’s Dog) and spot #7 with comedian/libertarian commentator Dave Smith (sponsored by ExpressVPN).

#2 The Most Insane Weapon You Never Heard About
Channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Brand: KiwiCo
Views: 4,404,438

Rogan isn’t the only one making a reappearance: Kurzgesagt is back, moving up to slot #2 after hitting #3 last week with a video about the oldest lie on the internet. This week is something a bit different–not a lie, but a secret. We all know about the Manhattan Project, but what about Project Sundial? Meet the world’s largest unbuilt bomb, which would’ve had a blast force equal to 100 million pounds of TNT and, if detonated, could send the entire world into a civilization-ending nuclear winter. Sundial was planned for testing at the University of California Radiation Laboratory, but ultimately (and probably for the best…) it was never constructed, let alone set off. Kurzgesagt’s 14-minute video goes into the device’s fascinating history–all sponsored by kids’ hands-on learning subscription company KiwiCo. KiwiCo also paid for five other videos this week, including one from longtime robotics enthusiast YouTuber Simone Giertz.

#3 Stretchiest Phone Case… #shorts
Channel: TechJoyce

Brand: Ninjala
Views: 4,107,446

At #3 is a bit of a weird one. This video is in the time-honored style of 5 Minute Crafts, where people spend way more than five minutes (and likely way more than five bucks) making an inconvenient solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. It’s also a full 60-second ad. In it, lifestyle YouTuber TechJoyce–who takes a different approach to the “faceless channel” phenomenon by blurring her own face in every video–tells viewers she got kicked out of a movie theater for trying to bring in a bag of Skittles. The solution? Spend $113 on the Flex Pouch, a phone case with a stretchy silicone pocket. She stuffs all the Skittles in the pocket, making a very obvious rainbow-colored bulge, and successfully skips into the theater. The video, which is of course sponsored by the Flex Pouch, has netted 4 million views and nearly a thousand comments, including one that asks the most important question about this whole ordeal: “Why didn’t you just put it in your pocket?”

#4 Making pop rocks from scratch (is complicated)
Channel: NileBlue
Brand: Brilliant
Views:  3,995,676

Welcome to bomb Number 2 of this week’s list. And while this bomb won’t set off a nuclear winter, its detonation could deprive you of serious deliciousness. NileBlue‘s video, coming in at #4, follows him as he tries to DIY childhood favorite candy Pop Rocks. As you might suspect, the process is a lot more chemically convoluted than expected. Turns out it takes a lot of effort to make hard crack (no, not that kind; just watch the video, you’ll get it). Like many other science videos on YouTube, Nile’s latest is sponsored by online learning company Brilliant, which paid for nearly 30 other videos this week.

BONUS #1,659 Trying the Bryan Johnson “Anti Aging” Dinner
Channel: Sauce Stache
Brand: Miracle Made
Views: 34,766

If you haven’t heard of Bryan Johnson, we’re a little bit jealous. The guy is a biohacker obsessed with rewinding the clock and deaging his body so he can live forever. He’s been all over internet news the last couple years, making big claims about his age-reversal success, calling his son his “blood boy,” and, unsurprisingly, shilling supplements. Part of Johnson’s schtick is sharing the rigorous routines he adheres to in order to become Benjamin Button. Those routines includes what he eats–and one YouTuber decided to give his menu a shot. Culinarian Sauce Stache whipped up one of Johnson’s dinners, which includes fairly normal ingredients (chickpeas, grape tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and avocados) topped with his branded olive oil, which his company Blueprint calls “snake oil.” We won’t spoil what Stache thinks of the meal–but we will say his video is sponsored by Miracle, which says it produces “NASA-inspired” bedsheets.

---

…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.