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Brand partnerships

Matching brands with creators who fit, then building partnerships with terms both sides can live with.

Brand partnerships

We don't match logos to follower counts, we match brands to creators who fit

The best partnerships are built on audience fit, not follower counts, and the industry is finally organizing itself around that. Platform matchmaking tools have consolidated: TikTok folded its Creator Marketplace into TikTok One, YouTube rebuilt BrandConnect into Creator Partnerships with Gemini-powered discovery across more than three million creators in its Partner Program, and Meta's Creator Marketplace surfaces collaborators by fit. These systems are useful for discovery, but a match is a starting point, not a partnership. We match brands with creators whose audiences genuinely overlap with the brand's, then build the deal.

How we work

A partnership with terms both sides can live with means writing the important things down before content is made: what is being produced, where it runs, for how long, whether it can be amplified as paid media, and what happens to the rights afterward. On TikTok, tagging a brand partner grants a 60-day Spark Ads authorization and access to post insights, so those windows have to be understood and negotiated rather than triggered by accident. We put the paid-media terms, the usage window and the disclosure obligations in the agreement itself, authenticated in umbraOS so both parties are working from the same record.

  • We define the audience and the outcome first.
  • Shortlists come with reasoning, not just numbers.
  • Scope, usage and rates are agreed in writing up front.
  • One record holds the brief, the approvals and the results.

Where this is going

Looking ahead, partnerships increasingly have to account for how a creator's likeness and voice can and cannot be used, especially as AI makes synthetic reproduction cheap. We write AI and likeness terms into agreements now, so the boundaries are set before anyone is tempted to cross them. A partnership that protects the creator's identity is one the creator will renew, and renewal is where the economics actually work.

How we help

Finding the fit

We start from the audience the brand needs and the creators whose audiences already overlap with it, then check the harder questions: does the creator use the product, and would their audience believe it.

Shortlists come with the reasoning, so a client can see why a name is on the list and why another is not.

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Terms both sides can live with

Exclusivity, usage, approvals, timing and pay are agreed in writing before any work starts. Creators see the same document the brand signs.

When a term is unusual we explain it, in plain language, to both parties.

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Running the partnership

Deliverables, approvals and payments are tracked stage by stage, and both sides can see the same status at any time.

When something slips, everyone hears it from us first.

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