Does this qualify as a "paid product placement?"

[FreshBakedDisney]

We've recently partnered with a company that offers our viewers a free Disney vacation planning DVD. We put a graphic up in some videos inviting people to click a link in the description that will take them to a form to complete to get the DVD. It's free to the users, but we get a small commission. We're a Disney facing channel, so there is no conflict with advertising.

Does this qualify as a paid product placement per youtube guidelines? I'm not entirely sure after reading the help topic on it.

 

[TheTNGMen]

I would think so since you are getting monetary compensation for actively telling people to check something out, but not too sure on the exact rules...

 

[XXLRay]

What @TheTNGMen said. If you get paid (no matter if it's in money, products, bonus points, whatever) it's a paid product placement.

 

[Tarmack]

No, it's not.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235?hl=en

A paid product placement is when a third party specifically pays you to create a piece of content and that their product or service is featured in that content.

A referral link in the description does not meet this criteria.

Let's say that the company you're talking about decided to give you money to produce a video. That video shows a family having a great vacation and during the video someone asks them where they booked their vacation and you then talk about the vacation DVD site, that would be a paid product placement.

Now, that said, you're a Disney facing channel but does the company you're advertising properly license trademarks to product a Disney vacation planning DVD? This is entering some grey water territory.

 

[XXLRay]

They display the brand/product and they are paid for it based on commission. That very well qualifies for a paid product placement in my eyes.

 

[Tarmack]

They display the brand/product and they are paid for it based on commission. That very well qualifies for a paid product placement in my eyes.

You should view the link that I posted which explains from YouTube's perspective what they deem to be paid product placement before choosing to be wrong.

 

[XXLRay]

I did that. It says "A typical example of a paid product placement is one in which a marketer pays you ... to specifically mention their product or brand ..."

 

[Tarmack]

Yes, leave out the important piece. "integrated directly into the content"

And let's examine the "paid" part of referral links. You're only paid if you get at least X viewers to click on the link. So what if you don't get any views. Is it still paid product placement? Anyone can set up an Amazon referral link through an automated Amazon service. So someone who has never had people click on their Amazon referral link has to mark every video with that in the description as paid promotional just because of the potential that they might at some point in the future get paid despite never having been offered any money directly by Amazon?

This is nonsense. The whole point of YouTube asking for channels to mark their content if it's paid product placement is to avoid selling competitor ad space on that video where possible. And they are very clearly talking about content where a marketer or advertiser has paid directly for their logo/product/etc. to be included in the video.

 

[XXLRay]

@Tarmack but @FreshBakedDisney said

We put a graphic up in some videos inviting people to click a link in the description

Isn't that integrating it into the content?
You say that if you do a product placement bad enough so that nobody clicks on the link it doesn't count as paid but my understanding is that a payment agreement is already sufficient.
Note that some countries (e.g. the UK) require you to ad visible hints beyond activating the YouTube option. So local law may very well be even stricter than what YouTube would require.
And yes my understanding is that if you put affiliate links in the description you have to mark your video as paid product placement (and I do so) as you are potentially tailoring the content in a way that as many people as possible click that link. You are not independent any more if you get paid for the link and people need to know that you get paid if they followed it. I for myself mark such links as "Sponsored" or "Affiliate" links in the description.