Brand Deal Researcher

Brand Deal Researcher

Overview

Turn sponsorship and paid promotion emails into an actionable lead list. Search email with a concrete date window, identify real brand/client opportunities, research each shortlisted brand, and export the result in the format the user asks for.

Workflow

1. Establish the scope.

   • Use the user's requested range when provided.
   • If the user says "past 2 weeks" or similar, calculate exact start/end dates from the current date and state them in the output.
   • If the user just asks for recent brand deals, default to the last 14 days.
   • If Gmail or the email connector is unavailable, say that plainly and ask the user to reconnect or re-enable it before claiming any search was done.

2. Search email broadly, then narrow.

   • Search with multiple related terms, not just one phrase: paid promotion, paid promo, sponsorship, sponsor, brand deal, paid collaboration, paid partnership, influencer campaign, creator campaign, creator partnership, UGC, affiliate, partnership, campaign, YouTube integration, TikTok, Instagram, Reels, Shorts.
   • Include agency-style phrasing: client, brief, budget, deliverables, rate, media kit, usage rights, whitelisting, timeline.
   • Read snippets first, then open full messages or threads for any likely lead.
   • Inspect thread history and Google Group/digest style emails carefully; one email can contain multiple brand opportunities.

3. Classify and filter.

   • Include: inbound offers where a brand, agency, or creator platform is offering paid promotion, sponsorship, paid collaboration, affiliate paid work, creator campaign participation, or a likely paid review/integration.
   • Exclude: newsletters, generic product marketing, hiring/recruiting, customer support, PR-only embargoes with no paid angle, and emails asking the creator or company to pay for promotion.
   • Treat the agency sender and the represented brand/client separately. The lead is usually the client brand, with the agency noted.

4. Deduplicate.

   • Deduplicate by real brand/client, not by sender address.
   • Merge repeated follow-ups, bumps, and thread replies into one row.
   • Preserve the most useful latest email evidence: sender or agency, exact email date, and the core ask.
   • If one agency email lists multiple clients, create one row per brand/client when each client is materially distinct.

5. Research every shortlisted brand.

   • Prefer official sources: brand website, app/product pages, docs, pricing pages, press/newsroom, LinkedIn/company pages, App Store/Chrome Web Store/GitHub when relevant.
   • Use current web research for product category, credibility, creator fit, campaign relevance, and any obvious red flags.
   • Add source URLs or source names when the final format has room.
   • Do not overstate findings. Mark uncertain brands as Unclear or Needs verification.

6. Prioritize for the user.

   • High: strong creator/product fit, AI/dev/productivity/design/video/social tool, credible brand, clear budget or professional campaign brief, reasonable deliverables.
   • Medium: adjacent category, potentially useful but unclear fit, agency/client credible but offer details incomplete.
   • Low: weak fit, generic marketplace, unclear brand, low-trust outreach, vague ask, heavy rights requirements, or likely low-value affiliate-only pitch.
   • Call out urgent timing separately if the email has a deadline.

7. Note deal terms and red flags.

   • Capture deliverables: YouTube integration, dedicated video, Short/Reel/TikTok, newsletter, X/LinkedIn post, UGC, review, affiliate placement, giveaway, or event invite.
   • Capture business terms when present: budget, rate request, usage rights, paid usage window, whitelisting, exclusivity, script approval, bio link, coupon/ad code, payment timing, NDA, deadline.
   • Flag risky patterns: asks to move to WhatsApp before sharing a real brief, unclear client, vague "collab" with no compensation, broad perpetual usage rights, unusually low rates, or requests for account access.

Output Format

Default to a concise Markdown table unless the user asks for a spreadsheet, doc, or another artifact.

Recommended table columns:

• Priority
• Brand/client
• Product category
• Latest email evidence
• What they asked for
• Research / notes
• Suggested next step

For spreadsheet requests:

• Use the spreadsheet tooling/runtime available in the current environment.
• Create an .xlsx artifact with at least Summary and Brand Leads sheets.
• Freeze the header row, enable filters, use readable column widths, and format priority/status cells for scanning.
• Include exact date range and search basis in the summary sheet.
• Final response should link directly to the spreadsheet file.

For document/DOCX requests:

• Use plain ASCII hyphen bullets (-) instead of Word bullet glyphs.
• Keep the document practical: table first, short notes after.

Quality Bar

• Be explicit about what was searched: date range, Gmail/email source, and broad keyword families.
• Do not include private email text verbatim beyond short evidence snippets needed to identify the opportunity.
• Keep notes actionable: what the brand is, why it is or is not a fit, what to ask next, and any risk.
• When the user asks for "all brands," err toward recall first, then mark questionable leads as low priority instead of silently dropping them.
• If research cannot verify a brand, keep the row but mark it clearly as unverified.

Portability Notes

• Specific to the author's current workflow: the default source is Gmail or email exports for creator sponsorship and paid promotion leads.
• Reusable: date-bounded search, paid-opportunity filtering, brand/client deduplication, official-source research, and prioritized lead-table output.
• Adapt before reuse: replace the mailbox connector, creator niche, priority criteria, deliverable types, and artifact format with the adopting user's account and business model.

Example Requests

• "Use Gmail from the past 2 weeks and find all paid promotion offers."
• "Research these brand deal emails and put them in a table."
• "Make a spreadsheet of all sponsorship leads from my inbox this month."
• "Which brand deals should I reply to first?"