# Sponsors

A sponsor is a brand read out on a post. "This episode is brought to you by Acme." We extract these from transcripts and newsletter text.

Use them to see where a competitor is spending, and which publications take advertising in your category.

## Finding a sponsor

```bash
# The most-heard sponsors of the last 90 days
curl ... "https://sputnikintelligence.com/api/v1/sponsors"

# Search by brand name
curl ... "https://sputnikintelligence.com/api/v1/sponsors?q=eight+sleep"
```

With no `q` you get recent sponsors. With a `q` you get all-time matches for that name, matched without regard to case.

## What a sponsor detail gives you

```bash
curl ... "https://sputnikintelligence.com/api/v1/sponsors/<slug>"
```

The publications the brand has been heard on, with the most appearances first, capped at 100. `sources_count` tells you the real number when the list is capped.

For the posts that read it out:

```
/api/v1/posts?sponsor=<slug>
```

> **These are ads that ran**
>
> Most podcast advertising is inserted programmatically by the hosting platform. The show does not sell it and often does not know about it. A physics channel's transcript can read out an ad that a streaming platform placed.
>
> So read this data as "this ad was heard on this show". A sponsor appearing on a publication does not mean the publication signed a deal with that brand.

## Capped, not paged

This index returns at most 100 rows. `next_cursor` is always null, and passing `cursor` gives you an error. Narrow with `q` instead.

`limit` works up to 100. When the cap is hit, `total` comes back null to tell you there were more.

## Names and slugs

Sponsor names keep the brand's own capitalisation. The slug is the key. Read the name for display and pass the slug back.