YouTube’s looking to help creators establish more brand partnership opportunities via a new “Open Call” element within its BrandConnect platform, which will enable brands to post opportunities for prospective creators to apply to work with them.
As you can see in this example screen, via this new initiative, brands will be able to invite creators to submit custom videos that showcase their products and/or business, based on a defined creative brief. The brand will then be able to choose from these submissions for paid promotions, via Partnership Ads, providing creators with additional monetization opportunities.
As per YouTube:
“Open call gives creators of all sizes the opportunity to pursue new relationships with brands. And brands can lean on the relevance and trust of YouTube creators to get more from their social strategy on YouTube.”
It’s the latest in YouTube’s expanding array of creator partnership options, as it looks for more ways to help brands tap into short-form video, specifically, and align with evolving video trends.
Because short-form video has its own visual language and style, which can be hard to replicate for those who are unfamiliar with the format. TikTok has seen the same, with many more brands now looking to partner with top stars to amplify their promotions, which also, of course, enables those brands to get their products in front of each creators’ own audience.
On this front, YouTube’s also added new ways for Shorts creators to prompt brands for potential partnerships, while it also recently showcased its new “Insights Finder” (currently in beta), which will provide advanced discovery options, using Google’s latest tech.
These new creator discovery and connection tools aim to fuel more opportunities, for brands and creators, which will then help to keep creators active and posting in the app.
Open Call is another piece of the bigger puzzle, as YouTube looks to maintain its position as the best platform for creator monetization.
YouTube says that Open Call is currently available for select advertisers, with further expansion coming soon.
