Everything we announced at YouTube Brandcast 2026
New Creator Shows, frictionless checkout on connected TVs, affiliate partnership ads, and more are here to help brands connect with viewers.
May 13, 2026 [[read-time]] minute read
Viewers don’t just watch YouTube to be entertained, learn something new, or make decisions, they come to YouTube with purpose. Be it brand building or driving performance, with YouTube, you no longer have to choose — all your objectives can be met on one platform.
At Brandcast 2026 — hosted by Trevor Noah, with appearances from creators like Adam W, Ashley Alexander, Dwyane Wade, and Quenlin Blackwell, plus performances from Chappell Roan — we showed brands new ways to turn our trusted creators and AI tools into their competitive advantage for the YouTube Era.
Tap into new, exclusive YouTube Creator shows
YouTube creators are not only the heart of our platform, but they’ve become the new Hollywood — a powerful opportunity for brands.
We continue to support the new stars and studios who are reinventing entertainment. That’s why we’re introducing a new, exclusive slate of Creator Shows on YouTube. Marketers can now tap into Kareem Rahma’s “Keep the Meter Running,” Alex Cooper’s upcoming Met Gala docuseries, “Before the Steps,” and more — making it easier for brands to harness the power of Creators.
13X
When creators talk about products on YouTube, viewers are 13 times more likely to search for the brand and 5 times more likely to buy.
Turn creator trust into measurable business impact
Creators aren’t just driving culture, they’re building trusted relationships with their fans. When creators talk about products on YouTube, viewers are 13 times more likely to search for the brand and 5 times more likely to buy1.
Look at Coach. When they refreshed their brand to reach Gen Z through purpose-driven storytelling, they partnered with YouTube to help build a creator-led cultural ecosystem. Most recently, Coach’s "Explore Your Story" campaign showed how YouTube is helping drive both cultural relevance and measurable business impact. The results were clear: in a single quarter, they saw a 60 percent jump in Gen Z brand awareness, a six-fold increase in consideration, and a sustained acceleration in Gen Z acquisition.
New ways to connect with viewers from discovery to checkout
We also launched new features that connect brands to YouTube's most impactful cultural moments and trending conversations:
- Custom Sponsorships: Uses AI to dynamically surface videos tailored to a brand’s desired moment.
- Masthead with Custom Content Shelf: Enhances the YouTube masthead, allowing marketers to curate additional content alongside their hero creative on YouTube’s most prominent placement.
- Buy with Google Pay: Allows viewers to complete purchases directly on their CTV with just two clicks.
- Affiliate Partnerships Boost: Lets brands amplify organic content that their products are already tagged in (a win-win for Creators too, who earn with YouTube Shopping affiliate links).
- Multimodal Video Creation: Uses Google’s latest AI models including Gemini, Nano Banana, and Veo to move from creative brief to final production with just a few prompts.
The future of media and marketing is not just something we’re watching happen — it's something we are building together, across Creators, brands, and viewers, only on YouTube.
1. When users viewed an organic video on YouTube about a brand, they were 13X more likely to make a branded search and 5X more likely to make a purchase. Source: Google Internal Data, n=60, 2/1/2026-2/28/2026, Global