Peak Points: YouTube wants to play advertising at the most important moment

In the future, YouTube wants to use Gemini to place advertisements in videos that receive particularly high viewer attention. The aim of the strategy is to motivate users to interact. This new plan for the video platform was announced at the Brandcast event in New York to mark the video platform's 20th birthday.

“Cliffhanger” advertising for YouTube videos

With the tool that YouTube has introduced for advertisers, the company is using old tricks from the world of television: advertising is placed in the middle of the most exciting or romantic scene of a feature film or series to achieve the strongest possible advertising effect.

YouTube does not call such important scenes “cliffhangers”, but “peak points”. The “most meaningful moments” of a video are to be identified using Google's Gemini AI.

YouTube hopes for a higher click-through rate

As an example video for such an important moment, YouTube shows a sequence from a marriage proposal video in a ski resort, in which advertising is shown shortly before or after the “I do”. YouTube is convinced according to CNBC that the “Peak Points” feature has the potential to drive more impressions and a higher click-through rate on YouTube. This is a primary metric that determines how creators make money on the video platform.

The Gemini model is trained for YouTube to analyze video elements such as individual frames and transcripts. The new Gemini-supported advertising format is still in the pilot phase and is set to go live later this year.

With such targeted advertising interruptions, YouTube could potentially achieve a stronger advertising effect and generate more revenue. On the other hand, particularly targeted users could take out a subscription instead and enjoy free advertising for a fee. Both scenarios would ultimately generate profits for Google, as there is hardly any way around the video platform.

(afl)