How to find the sponsorship contact at a brand (and who actually reads your pitch)

A good pitch sent to the wrong address is a pitch nobody reads. Most creators send sponsorship emails to the support inbox or the generic "info@" address, where a customer service agent files it under "other" and nobody from marketing ever sees it. The brands that sponsor YouTube channels almost always have a specific person or inbox for creator deals. Finding it takes ten to twenty minutes per brand and roughly doubles the chance of a reply.

This guide covers who handles sponsorships inside a brand, where the contact usually lives, six ways to find it, and what to do when there is nothing public.

Who handles creator sponsorships inside a brand

The person who can say yes to your pitch depends on the size of the brand:

• Small brands and startups. The founder or the head of marketing handles creators directly. These are the fastest decisions and the easiest people to reach.
• Mid-sized brands. An influencer marketing manager, creator partnerships manager or "community" lead runs a program with a budget and a list of creators they are already working with. This is the person you want.
• Large brands. An agency runs YouTube sponsorships on the brand's behalf. The brand's own marketing team sets the budget, but the agency picks creators, negotiates and pays. Writing to the brand gets you forwarded, at best; writing to the agency gets you into the pipeline.
• Direct-response brands such as VPNs, meal kits and software subscriptions. These often have a dedicated YouTube team or a long-standing agency, because YouTube sponsorships are their main acquisition channel. They are the most organised and the most likely to have a public creator inbox.

Knowing which type you are dealing with tells you where to look.

Where the contact usually lives

Check these places on the brand's site before searching anywhere else:

• A page called Partnerships, Creators, Influencers, Collaborations, Ambassadors or Work with us, usually linked in the footer.
• The Affiliates page. Affiliate programs and creator sponsorships are often run by the same team, and the affiliate contact will forward a sponsorship pitch to the right person.
• The Press or Media page. The PR contact is not the sponsorship contact, but PR teams know who runs creator deals and will usually tell you.
• The Contact page, if it offers a choice of departments. Pick marketing or partnerships, never support.

If the site has none of these, move on to the methods below.

Six ways to find the person

1. Read the sponsored videos the brand already paid for

Creators who were sponsored sometimes name the brand's contact or agency in the description, in a pinned comment, or in a community post thanking the brand. Open three or four recent sponsored videos from channels around your size and read the descriptions. If you see "Thanks to [name] at [brand]" or "Sponsored through [agency]", you have your lead.

To find those videos, look up the brand on DiscoverSponsors. Each sponsor page lists the channels it has sponsored, with the sponsored video for each, and shows a business contact where one is available. The guide on seeing who sponsors any channel covers the manual route.

2. Search LinkedIn for the role, not the brand

Search for "influencer marketing" or "creator partnerships" together with the brand name. Titles to look for: Influencer Marketing Manager, Creator Partnerships Lead, YouTube Partnerships, Head of Influencer, Community Manager (at smaller brands). You do not need to message on LinkedIn; you need the name, which you then turn into an email address in the next step.

3. Work out the email format

Most companies use one email pattern for everyone. Find any one address at the company, from the press page, a job posting, a newsletter footer or a GitHub profile, and the format is usually obvious: first name only, first.last, or first initial plus last name. Apply it to the name from LinkedIn. An email verification tool will tell you whether the address exists before you send.

4. Check the brand's job postings

A brand hiring an "Influencer Marketing Coordinator" has a program and a manager that person will report to. The posting often names the team and sometimes the hiring manager. It also tells you the brand is spending on creators right now.

5. Ask a creator who worked with them

If you know a creator the brand has sponsored, ask who they dealt with. Most creators will share the contact, especially if you are not in direct competition. A short message such as "I saw your video with [brand], would you mind telling me who you worked with there?" gets an answer more often than not.

6. Find the agency

For large brands, search for the brand name together with "influencer agency" or "creator agency", or look at who is credited on the brand's creator campaigns. Agencies list their clients on their own sites. Once you know the agency, its creator submissions inbox is usually public, and a pitch there reaches the people who actually book channels for that brand.

Brand or agency: how to tell which one you are writing to

An agency contact looks like a person at a different company than the brand, often with a title such as Talent Manager, Campaign Manager or Partnerships Executive. Pitch an agency slightly differently:

• Name the brand you want in the subject line, since the agency runs several.
• Keep the first email even shorter. Agencies screen by numbers first, so put subscribers, average views and audience country in the second line.
• Ask to be added to their creator list for that brand, not only to pitch one video. Agencies rebook from their list when the next campaign starts.

When there is no public contact at all

Some brands, especially small consumer brands, have no partnerships page, no LinkedIn presence beyond the founder, and a contact form instead of an email. In that case:

• Use the contact form, pick the marketing option if there is one, and write the pitch in the message body as if it were an email. Forms do reach people; they are just slower.
• Message the brand's Instagram or X account and ask for the best email for creator partnerships. Social teams answer this question every day and will give you an address.
• Email the founder for a small brand. Founders read their inbox, and a short, specific pitch to a founder has a better reply rate than a pitch to a generic inbox at a big brand.

Before you send

Three checks that take a minute and save a wasted pitch:

• Confirm the brand still sponsors creators. If the last sponsored video you can find is a year old, the program may have stopped, and the contact may have moved on.
• Confirm the brand sponsors channels your size. A brand that only sponsors channels far above yours will not reply, whoever you send it to. The guide on brands that sponsor small YouTube channels explains how to read a brand's range.
• Send from a professional address with your channel name in the signature, so the recipient can find you in one click.

Keep the contact once you have it

Finding a contact is work; losing it is easy. Keep a simple list of brand, contact name, email, how you found it, and the date of your last message. When you are ready to pitch, the pitch templates show what to write, and the media kit guide covers what to send when they reply.

If you would rather not do the digging for every brand, DiscoverSponsors lists the brands that sponsored channels like yours, the sponsored videos as proof, and a business contact where one is available, with an outreach tracker to keep every pitch and follow-up in one place.