Issue #25: The Matchmaker Era 💎

Issue 25
March 16th, 2026

Here's a fun thought experiment: what if the biggest problem in the creator economy right now isn't money, reach, or even trust? What if it's just... finding each other?

Think about it. Brands are spending more on creator marketing than ever (74% are increasing budgets this year, according to impact.com). Creators have more platforms to monetize on than ever. And yet the actual process of connecting the right brand with the right creator is still weirdly broken. Brands are scrolling through DMs. Creators are cold-pitching with media kits that may or may not get opened. Agencies are playing telephone in the middle and charging 20% for the privilege.

This week, YouTube basically said: "We'll fix this ourselves." And what they shipped might be the most important infrastructure play for creators since revenue sharing. Let's dig in.

YouTube wants to be your brand deal matchmaker. And it's bringing Gemini to do it.

On Monday, YouTube officially launched Creator Partnerships, a completely revamped platform that replaces the old BrandConnect system and merges it with the Creator Partnerships Hub into one unified experience. It's live now in seven markets: the US, India, Indonesia, the UK, Brazil, Australia, and Canada, with more countries coming later this year.

The headline feature is AI-powered brand matching. YouTube is using Gemini to analyze billions of data points across its 3 million partner program creators, helping brands find the right creator for their campaign based on audience demographics, content style, engagement patterns, and more. Instead of brands manually searching through spreadsheets of influencer stats, the AI does the scouting.

But it's what's built around the matching that makes this interesting. Tubefilter reported that the new platform includes four major feature areas: enhanced brand matching and outreach, channel insight sharing (so creators can selectively share their analytics with brands), built-in collaboration tools including a native Media Kit and "Open Calls" (think: open casting calls from brands that creators can apply to), and a streamlined onboarding flow.

The whole thing is integrated directly into YouTube Studio for creators and Google Ads and DV360 for advertisers. So brands aren't using a separate tool. They're finding creators in the same dashboard where they're already buying ads. That's a huge deal. It means creator partnerships are now sitting right next to traditional ad buys in the media mix, not off in some side platform that the media buyer has to log into separately.

For creators, the most exciting piece is Open Calls. Instead of waiting for brands to find you, you can browse brand campaigns that are actively looking for creators and pitch yourself. Right now it's US-only, but YouTube says it'll expand globally in 2026. Combined with the native Media Kit (which pulls your analytics directly from Studio), it means the entire pitch process can happen inside YouTube without a single email thread or Google Doc.

And here's the context that makes this all click: YouTube reported that over one million channels used its AI creation tools in a single month, and more than 20 million viewers used the Gemini-powered Ask tool. YouTube isn't just adding AI features for the sake of it. They're building an ecosystem where AI handles the boring parts (discovery, matching, analytics sharing) so creators can focus on the creative parts. That's the right bet.

The bottom line: YouTube just went from being a video platform that happens to have brand deals to being a full-service matchmaker for the creator economy. The combination of Gemini-powered matching, Open Calls, and native Media Kits makes this the most complete brand partnership infrastructure any platform has built. If you're a YouTube creator who's been doing brand deals through DMs and email, it's time to set up your Creator Partnerships profile. And if you're a brand, this just made YouTube the easiest platform to find and work with creators at scale. The other platforms are going to have to respond.

Three data points that tell a bigger story.

This might sound small, but hear me out. Instagram rolled out the ability to reorder photos and videos in a carousel after you've already posted it. You just long-press and drag. All your likes, comments, and saves stay intact. Dataconomy confirmed the feature is rolling out globally. Previously, the only fix for a bad carousel order was to delete the entire post and repost it, killing all your engagement in the process. The reason I'm flagging this isn't because it's a game-changer on its own. It's because Instagram is on a streak right now: 20-frame carousels, second-by-second retention data, shareable insights, carousel reordering. They're quietly becoming the most creator-friendly platform from a tools perspective. When a platform starts shipping quality-of-life features at this pace, it usually means they're about to ship something much bigger. Keep your eyes open.

Inc. published a piece this month that perfectly captures a trend we've been watching all year: the "no-name creator." The thesis is simple. Consumers are sick of being sold to by influencers and celebrities. They can spot a paid endorsement from a mile away. So brands like Poppi and Bobbie are betting on everyday users instead. Not micro-influencers. Not nano-creators. Literal random people who just happen to love the product and make content about it. The Staples Baddie (who we covered two weeks ago) is the poster child for this, but it's becoming a full-on strategy. Algorithm changes have made viral-scale reach harder for any single creator, which means the math now favors a thousand no-name advocates over one big influencer. If you're a creator, don't panic. This doesn't mean you're obsolete. It means the definition of "creator" is expanding, and the smartest brands are going to work with you and an army of everyday fans simultaneously.

Fast Company's 2026 Most Innovative Companies list dropped today, and the social media picks are telling. Reddit, Patreon, Tumblr, Letterboxd, Twitch, and Pinterest all made the cut. The through-line? Human authenticity. Fast Company's argument is that in a world drowning in AI-generated content, the platforms that let you find actual human connection are the ones innovating. Reddit and Tumblr are winning because people go there for real opinions, not polished content. Patreon made the list for shipping features that help creators build sustainable audiences and income. For creators, this validates something we've been saying: the pendulum is swinging back toward platforms where community and authenticity matter more than algorithmic reach. If you've been sleeping on Reddit, Patreon, or even Tumblr as distribution channels, now might be the time to reconsider.

What the platforms shipped this week and why you should care.

YouTube Creator Partnerships replaces BrandConnect and the Creator Partnerships Hub with a single, AI-powered platform. Live in seven markets (US, India, Indonesia, UK, Brazil, Australia, Canada). Features Gemini-powered brand matching across 3 million creators, native Media Kits built from your Studio analytics, Open Calls for brand campaigns, and direct integration with Google Ads and DV360.

Why this matters for creators: If you're in the YouTube Partner Program, go set up your Creator Partnerships profile right now. Fill out your contact details, build your Media Kit, and browse Open Calls if you're US-based. The creators who get their profiles set up early are going to show up first in Gemini's brand matching results. This is a classic "first-mover advantage" situation. Also: if you've been relying on third-party platforms to manage brand deals, this might make some of them redundant. YouTube just built the pipeline directly into Studio.

Instagram is testing a new profile display that replaces your "Following" count with "Friends," which only includes mutual follows. The change is cosmetic (it doesn't affect how your content gets distributed), but the signal is massive. Instagram told Business Insider this is about making "friend connections more visible and meaningful." They also launched carousel reordering (finally) and continue to expand carousels to 20 frames with mixed-size image support.

Why this matters for creators: The "Friends" test is Instagram telling you where the platform is heading: connection over reach. If your growth strategy is built entirely around follower count, you're optimizing for a metric that Instagram is actively trying to deemphasize. Start paying more attention to mutual follow-back rates, DM conversations, and community engagement. Those are the signals Instagram is going to reward going forward. And use the carousel reorder feature. Seriously. Being able to A/B test which image goes first without deleting and reposting is a surprisingly powerful optimization tool.

Snapchat is hosting The Snappys on March 31 at its Santa Monica headquarters, its first-ever awards show dedicated to creators. Comedian and Snap Star Matt Friend is hosting, and DJ Khaled will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. Categories include Spotlight MVP, Best Storyteller, and Breakout Creator of the Year. Snapchat also continues expanding its Creator Subscriptions program (now in the US, Canada, UK, and France) and launched Lens+, a premium AR tier where select creators can build and monetize exclusive Lenses.

Why this matters for creators: Snapchat is making its biggest-ever push to be taken seriously as a creator platform. The awards show is a legitimacy play, and the Creator Subscriptions expansion gives creators a real recurring revenue model on Snap for the first time. If you've written off Snapchat, it might be worth a second look. The platform still has over 800 million monthly active users, and with these new monetization tools, there's a real opportunity for creators who get in early before the space gets crowded. The Lens+ monetization angle is particularly interesting if you're into AR content creation.

Get ready for the age of the algorithm pitch.

Here's the thing about YouTube's Creator Partnerships launch that I think a lot of people are going to miss: it's not just a new tool. It's a fundamental change in how brand deals get made.

Until now, the brand deal process has been mostly human-driven. You build a following, you (or your manager) pitch brands, someone at the brand evaluates your stats, and if the vibes are right, you get the deal. The new system flips that. Gemini is going to scan 3 million creators, and it's going to surface the ones it thinks are the best match for each campaign. That means your "pitch" isn't just your media kit anymore. It's your entire channel: your content consistency, your audience demographics, your engagement patterns, your niche alignment.

So what do you actually do about this?

Optimize your YouTube profile like it's a landing page. Your channel description, video titles, tags, and categories are all data points that Gemini can use to match you with brands. If your channel description is still "hey I make videos lol" from 2022, fix it. Be specific about what you cover, who your audience is, and what kind of partnerships you're open to.

Build your Media Kit now. YouTube's native Media Kit pulls data directly from Studio, but you still need to set it up. Go into Creator Partnerships settings and make sure your analytics sharing is configured. The more data you share, the better Gemini can match you. This is one of those cases where transparency directly helps you.

Think about what makes you unmatchable by AI. This is the counterintuitive move. While everyone's optimizing to be found by the algorithm, the creators who'll command the highest rates are the ones with something the AI can't replicate: a unique voice, a specific community, a level of trust that's hard to quantify. The algorithm gets you in the door. Your humanity closes the deal.

This same logic applies beyond YouTube. Every platform is moving toward AI-assisted creator discovery. The Edelman Trust Barometer data from a few weeks ago showed us that trust flows through creators now. YouTube's Creator Partnerships is the first major platform to build infrastructure around that insight. It won't be the last.

That's all for this week. If you found this valuable, forward it to a creator friend who needs to hear that smaller might actually be bigger. And if someone forwarded this to you, sign up to get your own issue every Thursday.