Sub for prizes.... what are you thoughts?

Th3StuffShow

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So I've been planning on making some Th3StuffShow and Antoine T-shirts this summer, and having contests where winners win the shirts.

Subscribers (you'll have to be subbed for one) put in reply videos responding to a certain challenge or something of the sort. Winners might be voted on, or randomly selected, and then those winners will receive t-shirts.

the idea behind it is to intice responce videos which might create more traffic to my videos etc...

Is this a smart promoting tool, is it frowned upon, hated or disliked? Is it a bad thing to do?

I haven't put much thought into this, but I'm curious as to how this is perceived by this community.
 

Michael

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I like the idea myself but I think this is mainly good for actual fans of your channel and keeping them interested, I can see them thinking the prizes are great with being related to your channel and characters. I dont think t-shirts will do so well for advertising but that's probably not what you have in mind here. If you are hoping to get new subscribers it could get you a few more but I think these people will be those who have already taken an interest but just haven't subscribed yet. If you were looking to gain lots of new subscribers then a giveaway of something would work better than branded shirts in my opinion. I think it could work quite well but personally I think the amount of money you will be putting into them vs what you get back wont really be worth it, it depends, if you can get them done very cheaply then that's fine but if its say $200 for 10 of them then I would choose not to myself. You could try something cheaper perhaps pens or keyrings, I know you could probably make those yourself if you have a decent printer, some alright glossy paper and some keyring blanks.
 
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George Raymond

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If ur giving away something like an Xbox 360 then people start to get a bit annoyed, but as it is a T-shirt, it should be fine (Toby Turner does that with every video he makes).
 

Th3StuffShow

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Well i have a friend that has a T-shirt business an has offered me a great deal.

the t-shirts are for my "fans" the bonus side is that they'd have to make reply videos, and those would be the "possible" promos for my channel.

Somebody is subbed to me, so they want a t-shirt, so they make a reply video, one of their subscribers is like "what's this about?", and perhaps see one of my videos, and in the process might decide to sub me.

I have to add that i work with public a lot, and the other idea is to be able to wear the t-shirt myself and have perhaps situations where people come up to me and ask about the shirt, and that opens up conversation about my channel.

Plus I think I'd love to have some t-shirt just to wear myself in my videos.
 
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Symph

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You only have a little over 100 subs right? I think the idea in itself is fine, I'm just trying to think if realistically it's going to get alot of attention while you're still so small of a channel. If you had 1000 subs I'd think it would for sure do well, but at just over 100 it may not get the response you're looking for just yet. But I think there's nothing whorish or wrong with trying it so it can't hurt.
 

urbanlamb

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I dont mind these things but there is always a large crowd of people that sub for the free stuff get it and then will unsub. Maybe announce it as a bonus to present followers. Although there are campaigns companies hold all the time to do things like rank on facebook :)
 

Th3StuffShow

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I dont mind these things but there is always a large crowd of people that sub for the free stuff get it and then will unsub. Maybe announce it as a bonus to present followers. Although there are campaigns companies hold all the time to do things like rank on facebook :)
Yeah it's why my thoughts are more about doing this for fun.

The shirts would be for my friend and family and myself to begin with, then some of them would be for subscribers.. it's more about their reply videos creating a buzz then the actually contest or t-shirts.
 

VlogRays

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I love the idea! Any channel that gives away stuff will get more subs!
 

Th3StuffShow

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I love the idea! Any channel that gives away stuff will get more subs!
haha Cool.

After the novelty of making my very own shirt rubs off, it'll be plain and simply a way to try and promote, I won't deny that. As an example, take EricSurf6. I like him for this. He gives out a lot of cool stuff from Japan, and I reply and comment to try and get me some free stuff. lol I get a kick out of it.

I see most of you as my peers or teachers and respect what you all have to say, and so I just wanted to know how it was perceived by the community.
 
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urbanlamb

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haha Cool.

After the novelty of making my very own shirt rubs off, it'll be plain and simply a way to try and promote, I won't deny that. As an example, take EricSurf6. I like him for this. He gives out a lot of cool stuff from Japan, and I reply and comment to try and get me some free stuff. lol I get a kick out of it.

I see most of you as my peers or teachers and respect what you all have to say, and so I just wanted to know how it was perceived by the community.
lol there is nothing wrong with the idea as long as your aware what a large percentage are going to do for a tshirt and dont end up in the poor house giving away free stuff to people who may not do anything other then subscribe for the free stuff .. and dont care about the content of your videos. Not everyone is like that and of course a certain percentage will actually decide to like you for more then your free stuff lol but tons will try to take advantage in ways that will floor you like err dummy accounts etc ..