My name is Marques Brownlee
my channel name is MKBHD, and the theme is tech videos
anything from smartphones to cars to TVs
anything with an "on" button.
I think the main point of a collaboration is
to make the video better
to bring something into the content that couldn't otherwise have been there
and hopefully share their work with my audience
and my work with their audience.
Like, if you made a Venn diagram of my channel
and the channel of someone I'm looking to collaborate with
I don't want it to be too much of an overlap
or one circle inside the other
because the audience would probably have already gotten that perspective
if they already watch this channel.
But you don't want it to be completely separate
because then you're sort of losing the connection to that topic.
So having a slight overlap
that's the perfect opportunity to see if you can collaborate with that person.
I think it often first helps
to pick a video topic and then chose the collaborator.
So, I did a video about a new electric truck.
I have a friend who's really into trucks already
and makes his own videos and does a DIY sort of style of channel
so I had him talk about it because that's something I couldn't speak to.
They can say things that I wouldn't have known to say
and that helps the video.
And, a recent video where I had a bunch of different YouTubers
in the video
was really entertaining and exciting and it made that video better
and also each one of them had their own voice and style and perspective
that would make you want to go watch the rest of what they do
so it was kind of a win-win.
The audience got a better video
and each of those creators who participated
got some people also going to watch the rest of what they did.
The style of the collab changes based on who's involved.
I've interviewed Elon Musk, I've interviewed Kobe Bryant
and you often think like
"what could those people possibly get out of me interviewing them?"
But they often get to tell their story
in a way that they haven't been asked about before
or haven't had that opportunity to share before.
The other side of it is when I'm just talking with a creator
that's the easiest type of video
because they can riff on something forever
they're good on camera
they can ask me questions
I can ask them stuff.
I've only had maybe 1 or 2 creators in the area
to collaborate with.
So almost all of the rest of them are from people in different regions
where I'll either travel to them or have them submit a clip.
So, I guess if you're a newer channel
looking to reach out to other, more established channels
"look, I have this expertise here, I would really love to help you
or to give you this bit of content here
"but also, maybe check out my previous videos
"maybe you like something you see here
"and you want to bring something I haven't mentioned into the picture."
So, make your own videos as good as you can
and then ideally, they speak for themselves
as far as people wanting to collaborate with you.
I think a practical suggestion
as a small creator to reach out to big channels for a collab
is, obviously there's email, but also social media works really well.
I think just tweeting at someone or getting in touch via social
looks very different, especially if your audience backs you up
or they say "Hey yeah, I'd also like to see that."
That looks very different in someone's radar than an email does.
That's actually how I got Elon to agree to an interview.
I tweeted at him
there were obviously people seeing that tweet and replying
and they got into that, and he agreed.
So that's definitely something that works.
You can look at a collab 2 ways after the fact.
You can look at it on paper, and the numbers
and you can look at the final product
the actual video.
Obviously on paper you want to see that the audience enjoyed the video
that they got to see it
and that maybe some people from your channel went over
and viewed their video and subscribed to their channel
and vice versa.
You also kind of just want the video to end up
better than it would've been if they weren't involved.
So that's more of a sentimental evaluation of a collab
but I just kind of want to look back and say "I'm glad I brought them in"
or "I'm glad I went to his studio," or "I'm glad I had them in a Q&A."