Are we witnessing an "active" negative marketing campaign?

[Tagbert]

I completely agree. It's easier and faster for a YouTube reviewer to run a machine through a bunch of benchmarks than it is to do a nuanced real-world look at how it performs. These folks aren't interested in nuance, they're interested in getting clicks by putting up content, then moving on to creating the next batch of content.

In their defense, if they were to do more real-world tests and not lean on benchmarks so much, they would be open to charges of unfairness because they spent more time on one machine in Xcode and less time in Final Cut than they did on another machine, for example, so the results couldn't be accurately compared. So I can see the reasons why they just rely on benchmarks.

Which is why it's a great idea to ignore them.

Most of their subscribers are coming there for the big surprise reveal or the “we’re smarter because we’re cynical” hot take on anything that might be different about a new product. I’ve listened to interviews with some of the YouTubers. They picked up a lot of new subscribers in 2020. Now that people are back to work, they are watching less YouTube and the income numbers are down for the sites. They say to compensate, they have had to ramp up the hype levels on their headlines and on their general banter. Doing an in-depth review that takes a reasoned take on the features does not get the clicks. A headline that doesn’t scream, doesn’t get attention. They can run the same video once with a straight forward title and once with a hyped title and the hyped ttile gets 10 times as much traffic. In the face of that, they have a hard time taking the tone down. It’s a trap.

 

[Mainsail]

Most of their subscribers are coming there for the big surprise reveal or the “we’re smarter because we’re cynical” hot take on anything that might be different about a new product. I’ve listened to interviews with some of the YouTubers. They picked up a lot of new subscribers in 2020. Now that people are back to work, they are watching less YouTube and the income numbers are down for the sites. They say to compensate, they have had to ramp up the hype levels on their headlines and on their general banter. Doing an in-depth review that takes a reasoned take on the features does not get the clicks. A headline that doesn’t scream, doesn’t get attention. They can run the same video once with a straight forward title and once with a hyped title and the hyped ttile gets 10 times as much traffic. In the face of that, they have a hard time taking the tone down. It’s a trap.

That’s true of most social media and major news outlets (both sides of the aisle). Screaming banners and headlines sells and attracts viewers.