6 Key Lessons From Good Good Golf’s YouTube Success

Welcome back to another extended edition of the Hot Mic Newsletter, Weekly GOLF Dispatch covering all golf media from me, James Colgan. The subject of this week’s newsletter is an enlightening interview between three Good Good Golf members and two Show hosts Colin and Samir. As always, if you want to be the first to receive exclusive insights like these directly from me, click link here to subscribe to our free send the newsletter.

BLOVIATION STATION
I have recently developed an obsession with the Good Good Golf guys. The influencer group is perhaps the fastest-growing media entity in sports over the past five years — a success story that speaks to the proliferation of (and money within) YouTube’s creator economy right now.

The “real media” people want to dismiss the success of Good Good as a gimmicky algorithm, but the money they’ve made is LOT real. (True enough that Callaway signed Good Good to a seven-figure endorsement deal that includes a line of exclusive band gear, and significant enough that 24-year-old bandleader Garrett Clark drives a $160,000 car.)

Last week, the obsession led me to an hour-long interview between several members of Good Good and Colin and Samir’s showa YouTube channel run by the founders of the Lacrosse Network. The interview touches on all sorts of topics Good Good — and I recommend you check it out below — but I’ll summarize some of my most interesting learnings here.

KEY FIGURES
Good Good is primarily the brainchild of CEO Matt Kendrick, an entrepreneur and digital media expert based in Texas. Good Good is Kendrick’s second foray into building YouTube creator/influencer groups, following his work with a fishing channel called Googan Squad.

Beyond Kendrick, content creation is left to a team of about 10 producers/editors and 10 additional on-camera voices.

The group is tight-lipped about the financial arrangement that binds them all to Good Good, particularly the ownership structure and profit-sharing model. But so far, business has been good … and growing.

BULLETIN

Sign up for GOLF’s Hot Mic newsletter!

Want exclusive golf media news in your inbox? Sign up for the Hot Mic with James Colgan newsletter!

Sign up

BUSINESS STRATEGY
Kendrick manages the business side of the group’s operations, structuring each of Good Good’s three “pillars” (content, merchandise and partnerships), while creative vision is left to the voices at the heart of the brand.

Mostly, says Clark, the group operates as a commodity company, which I find surprising. The decision to up the ante on advertising speaks to the difficult state of monetization in digital media, even for well-known creators, and the fickle nature of advertiser dollars, which tend to be hypersensitive to market pressures. As with most media businesses, content is still the fuel for the good car, but even with a wildly successful channel, content isn’t sustainable enough to build a business around.

“Our goal has always been to create a great golf brand around content, hopefully one day it can be a competitor to household names like Titleist,” Clark said. “If you look at TaylorMade and Titleist, nobody now thinks ‘who made them?’

CREATIVE FREEDOM
At first, Clark admits, Good Good’s creators saw the brand as complementary to their individual channels, but it soon became clear that the relationship needed to work in reverse. Today, Good Good acts as a unifier and amplifier for its creative voices, not unlike how media startups like Puck have sought to pool the power of several high-profile independent journalists.

Each of Good Good’s individual voices retains an unusual amount of personal freedom (encouraged to operate on their individual social media and YouTube channels). Creators’ contracts only stipulate exclusive rights to the clothing—”because that’s the whole brand,” Clark says—but the rest of the creator’s involvement is largely up to them.

It’s a tricky needle to thread — and one that has led to high-profile cross-group departures, such as with fellow influencer Grant Horvat — but it’s a necessary business structure in YouTube’s individualized realm.

learning
What does Good Good’s growth in space mean for the vast golf content space? Here are some of my top recommendations:

– Media business can be one LOT lucrative place for winners on major platforms like YouTube. Good Good has made a killing here by understanding YouTube’s algorithm and dialing their content to maximize growth, which has led to bigger sponsors and bigger merchandise sales.

– The proliferation of large platforms like YouTube will continue to fragment media’s pursuit of monetization. If the biggest earners on the platform aren’t willing to structure a business based on the success of their content, then bigger brands should look at YouTube’s massive feed the same way.

– And finally, it’s better to have a business that doesn’t just depend on advertising. Brand loyalty is essential, but it’s not enough to avoid the industry’s worst instincts.

Maybe not earth-shattering stuff, but larger media entities would be wise to pay attention to the success — and shape — of life at Good Good.

Below you can watch the rest of the interview with the Colin and Samir Show.

“>