Trust is the product: why tech reviewers can't be bought.

The tech audience smells inauthenticity

You can't pay your way into a tech reviewer's good graces. The audience will detect it in 30 seconds.

So how do you brief a tech creator in 2026?

The rules we follow

1. Send the product, not the script. Tech creators take notes. They're going to demo it their way.
2. Welcome honest takes. A creator who says "the analytics view is clunky" earns the audience's trust for the next 12 minutes — including the part where they say "but the dashboard is beautiful."
3. No restrictions on negative comparisons. If competitors are in their workflow, let them say so.

This is the opposite of how product PR worked 10 years ago. It's also why it works.