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Sponsored content on road.cc

by quiff
Thu, Jan 27, 2022 16:04
2

One for the road.cc team. I would have posted this on the article in question, but comments seem to be locked.

I was reading road.cc recommends - A closer look at the Vitus ZX-1 Evo and Vitesse Evo . The article makes clear that it is sponsored and contains paid promotion by Vitus, and includes a link to read more about sponsored content. That information says reviews are never sponsored.

It's true that road.cc 's separate detailed reviews of the two bikes in question are not sponsored. But it seems odd to me that the road.cc recommends feature is then paid for.

Can you explain the process in more detail? How does something get into road.cc recommends, and how does that then interact with sponsorship? I'm not questioning the integrity of the reviews, just confused, as on the face of it "this recommendation is sponsored by the manufacturer" really dilutes the value of that recommendation.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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2 comments

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Jack Sexty | 2 years ago
5 likes

Hi there - fair question, thanks for asking! 

We started road.cc Recommends last year to showcase the products that got particularly high review scores, so readers can see what we recommend the most in one easy place. Every month we look at the most recent month's reviews - everything that scores 10/10 makes it in, most 9s do and some 8s do. When we've got our list, the road.cc tech team write mini articles about each product, and we also produce a monthly Recommends video. 

When the products featuring in road.cc Recommends are confirmed, our sales department might approach some of the brands included to ask if they want to advertise off the back of their inclusion. This all happens some time after we've picked the products to go in Recommends - we specifically don't involve our sales department in choosing what goes in Recommends.  

I hope this explains things. Re comments on sponsored content - we lock them unless the advertiser specifically requests we unlock, which is why you couldn't comment under that article. 

Cheers,

Jack 

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quiff replied to Jack Sexty | 2 years ago
4 likes

Thanks for the explanation Jack. That's what I expected, I just think the end result ("road.cc recommends, sponsored by the featured brand") jars a bit, and will naturally make people question the value of your (genuine) recommendation.  

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