I`m on the side where if you`re disclosing business information that is clearly intended to be left confidential, especially when this was explicitly instructed by one party, and you release that information anyways in an attempt to produce some type of hit piece against said individual, that is absolutely ridiculous in my book. I don`t care if an NDA wasn`t signed, this is basic business ethics. I also don`t care how far south the negotiations may have gone.
Here`s all Undrdog had to say in this case once it was understood that negotiation terms couldn`t be met: (Hi Pan, we`re unable to agree to terms in this case, thanks for showing interest in our products and reaching out, we wish you best.) Done, next email. Business is literally that simple until egos get in the way of common sense decency in my own business experience.
Pan has put the effort and investment in to build a channel and brand that carriers a very large value for detailing businesses. A 600K subscriber channel commands a large advertising potential, and his content is literally the perfect type for him to be charging for his time to partner with businesses that want to get the name out about their brands or new product offerings.
Not only that, but the trickle down trending effect of someone like Pan highlighting a brand goes down through a wide pool of other content creators. Now you`ve got a flood of reviewers or influencers wanting to get their hands on the new hot Undrdog item that no one has heard about until Pan`s video put them on the map, most of which are just going to buy it outright, and it just ends up being free advertising further boosting the snowballing trend. IMO, $11K sounds like a bargain for a 600K channel to post a well organized, well produced overview of the brand highlighting the types of products they offer, especially when you factor in that trickle down effect. I certainly never heard of Undrdog until this monumental business fiasco came to light.
You as a business are not offering paid sponsorships? You don`t want Pan in particular to do a video on your stuff? Ok, here`s what the response email should look like: (Hi Pan, we`re currently not offering paid sponsorships at this time, thanks for showing interest in our products and reaching out, we wish you best.) Pan`s reply doesn`t even need to be read at that point, next email.
And what in the world is Scott HD thinking being the conduit to even produce a hit piece video? Scott already had the viewership momentum, his channel was already growing steadily, and the type of content that he`s producing is completely different than Pan`s and not in competition with each other. You don`t go from Scott`s channel to Pan`s channel, you get the overview from Pan`s channel and then you funnel into durability result videos like Scott`s. Pan`s videos existing doesn`t hurt your own content, you benefit from the amount of people that Pan brings into the detailing realm that will eventually land onto your own videos when YouTube decides to recommend them to viewers that were watching Pan`s channel.
You want to say you`re the unbiased source, you`re the peak of objective testing and reviewing, you`re not "bought and paid for"? Fine, say that in your videos, keep doing the videos that you`re doing, it doesn`t mean you have to cancel someone else who is doing a different style of video, who has a very strong case to be charging for his work, time, quality, and most importantly access to his large viewership as I already stated above. Not only that, Pan has been disclosing paid sponsorships as is required by the FTC, no channel as big as his is going to risk being fined through non-disclosure.
Everyone can say what they want about Pan, the reality for me is he has earned every single one of those 600,000+ subscribers. His videos are well organized, well presented, easy to follow, packed with information, not dry, and those are the exact reasons why so many people have subscribed to his channel. Obviously he`s doing something right, and the idea that we have to police the "bias" of individuals over disclosed sponsorships or police company`s that offer sponsorships is ridiculous. The idea that sponsored or paid content shouldn`t exist is ridiculous. And the manner by which private business emails were disclosed without the knowledge or consent over something as basic as terms of contract is ridiculous as stated.
Won`t stop me from watching either channel. I love Scott`s durability result videos. I`ve also met Pan in person and never got the impression that he`s just some scamming doucher milking off an easy topic. Not to speak for him, but I get the impression that it`s a genuine and strong passion about detailing that is the reason why he`s not going to sit by and take heat or criticism that he doesn`t believe is warranted. You might disagree with that, you might not agree with how he defends himself, but he`s in his videos responding to a massive amount of replies and questions and he`s active on a lot of other channels. I even saw him in Chelsea`s channel leaving a comment giving her props for her review on Undrdog`s coating weeks before this fiasco went down, before she was dragged into this mud for picking a side in Scott`s video in the comments over a non-issue. Won`t stop me from watching her channel either, she`s also got great content in my opinion. But the passion Pan has for detailing is genuine, and he`s identified, understood, and facilitated a fantastic platform with YouTube to showcase that passion and be lucky enough to make a good living doing so.
Bonehead video from Scott over a non-issue in my opinion. Really bonehead business decision from Undrdog, especially leaking the private contract details.
. Thanks for doing those tests and sharing with us.
