6 key lessons from Good Good Golf’s YouTube success

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

BLOVIATION STATION
I’ve recently developed an obsession with the dudes over at Good Good Golf. The group of golfer-influencers is probably the fastest-growing media entity in the sport over the last five years — a success story that speaks to the proliferation of (and money within) the YouTube creator economy right now.

“Real media” folks love to dismiss Good Good’s success as one-trick-pony algorithm-chasing, but the money they’ve made is very real. (Real enough that Callaway signed Good Good to a seven-figure endorsement deal that includes a line of the group’s exclusive gear, and significant enough that 24-year-old group leader Garrett Clark drives a $160,000 car.)

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

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

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

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

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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 center of the brand.

Principally, Clark says, the group operates as a merchandise company, which I find surprising. The decision to hone in on apparel over advertising speaks to the plight of making money in digital media even for uber-popular creators, and the fickle nature of advertiser dollars, which tend to be extra sensitive to market pressures. As with most media businesses, content is still the fuel for the Good Good machine, but even with a wildly successful channel, content isn’t stable enough on its own to build a business around.

“Our goal has always been to create a big 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 thinks now ‘who created them?’”

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

Each of Good Good’s individual voices maintains an unusual amount of personal freedom (encouraged to operate their individual social media and YouTube channels). Creator contracts stipulate only exclusive apparel rights — “because that’s the entire brand,” Clark says — but the rest of a creator’s involvement remains largely up to them.

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

LESSONS
What does Good Good’s growth in the space mean for the golf content space writ large? Here are a few of my topline takeaways:

– The media business can be a very lucrative place for winners on major platforms like YouTube. Good Good has made a killing here by understanding the YouTube algorithm and dialing its content to maximize growth, which has led to bigger sponsors and bigger merch sales.

– The proliferation of major platforms like YouTube will continue to fragment media’s moneymaking pursuits. If the biggest winners on the platform are unwilling to structure a business based around the success of their content, then larger brands should be viewing YouTube’s massive resources the same way.

– And finally, it’s best to have a business that isn’t solely reliant on advertising. Brand loyalty is crucial, but it’s not enough to stave off the industry’s worst instincts.

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

You can check out the rest of the interview with the Colin and Samir Show below.