YouTube rebrands BrandConnect
YouTube is reportedly rebranding BrandConnect as “Creator Partnerships” and embedding Google’s Gemini AI into the sponsorship workflow. (themediaonline.co.za) Advertisers will be able to submit a campaign brief and have AI recommend a creator roster to hit campaign KPIs, a capability Google plans to roll out by the end of 2026. (themediaonline.co.za)
YouTube has renamed BrandConnect to Creator Partnerships and is folding Gemini artificial intelligence into the tool brands use to hire creators. (blog.youtube) YouTube announced the change at its 2026 NewFront presentation, saying the system now sits inside YouTube Studio for creators and inside Google Ads and Display & Video 360 for advertisers. The company said Creator Partnerships gives brands access to more than 3 million creators in the YouTube Partner Program. (blog.youtube) Google said Gemini will help advertisers discover creators by matching campaign goals with signals such as audience fit, and YouTube said the expanded Creator Partnerships application programming interface will let selected partners plug the same tools into their own software. (blog.youtube) BrandConnect was already YouTube’s self-service marketplace for branded content, built to help advertisers find creators, run campaigns and track results. The rebrand turns that product into a more central buying tool across Google’s ad stack instead of a narrower creator-marketplace feature. (support.google.com, blog.youtube) The shift follows a year of YouTube pushing creator deals deeper into its ad products. In May 2025, Google said partnership ads powered by BrandConnect were coming to Display & Video 360, and in March 2025 it pitched BrandConnect as a way for brands to search for creators and reuse sponsored videos in campaigns. (blog.google, blog.google) YouTube has also been building the creator side of the system. In September 2025, the company said it had paid out $100 billion over four years to creators, artists and media companies, and added more brand-partnership features aimed at helping creators manage deals and earn more from branded content. (blog.youtube) For creators, the renamed tab now appears in the Earn section of YouTube Studio for eligible accounts, where they can manage campaign inquiries and choose whether to share channel insights that help advertisers evaluate them for deals. Google’s help pages say availability varies by country and by creator eligibility. (support.google.com, support.google.com) For advertisers, Google already offers a related product called creator partnerships boost, which lets brands use creator videos in Google Ads campaigns and build audience segments from linked videos. Creator Partnerships adds the matching and outreach layer closer to the point where media budgets are actually spent. (support.google.com, blog.youtube) The result is that YouTube is treating creator sponsorships less like one-off influencer deals and more like standard media buying inside Google’s ad systems. The company’s pitch at NewFront was that brands can find creators, scale campaigns across screens and measure the results in one place. (blog.youtube)
