YouTube Launches ‘Open Call,' a New Way for Marketers to Solicit Branded Content From Creators

For several years, YouTube has provided a matchmaking service to connect marketers with top creators to promote their wares. Now the video platform has a new tool that it's hoping will make it even easier for brands to enlist creators for campaigns at scale.
YouTube on Tuesday announced Open Call, which will let brands broadly request sponsored content from creators who are part of the YouTube Partner Program. The new feature is powered by YouTube BrandConnect, the platform's marketplace for brands to discover and partner with creators. The announcement is timed for the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the advertising conference taking place this week in the south of France.
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With Open Call, based on a marketer's creative brief, creators can proactively respond by creating videos that match the parameters of the project and then share them with the brand. At that point, the brand that issued the Open Call can decide which videos to use in their campaigns. The marketer can then promote creator videos as 'partnership ads' in Google Ads.
Open Call 'gives creators of all sizes the opportunity to pursue new relationships with brands,' Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, director of product management, YouTube Ads, wrote in a blog post about the new feature. Marketers can 'lean on the relevance and trust of YouTube creators to get more from your social strategy on YouTube.'
Initially, Open Call is available for 'select advertisers,' with a broader rollout planned in the coming months, according to YouTube.
YouTube says there are more than 3 million channels in the YouTube Partner Program, which shares ad revenue with creators (and provides other perks) if those creators meet certain minimum thresholds.
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