The news: YouTube introduced a new feature introduced at Cannes Lions 2025 called Open Call that allows advertisers to post campaign briefs for its 3 million monetized creators to directly respond to, part of the platform’s attempt to streamline the world of branded content.

• Open Call allows any qualified YouTube Partner Program creator to submit self-produced videos that respond to a brand's prompt, eschewing the conventional agency matchmaking process.
• If chosen, those videos can then be promoted through Google Ads as "partnership ads," which gives brands campaign-level scale and creative control.

Open Call is initially only accessible to a select few advertisers, but it will eventually expand. Open Call's brief-driven submission process removes the step of finding the right creators, which is the main reason brands work with influencer agencies, according to EMARKETER. By providing a single, centralized system to negotiate and review submissions, it also addresses other issues like managing creator contracts and establishing content expectations.

Will it work? This feature seems to address a number of pain points simultaneously.