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YouTube's new ad strategy is bound to upset users: YouTube Peak Points utilise Gemini to identify moments where users will be most engaged, so advertisers can place ads at the point. (htxt.co.za)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This week YouTube hosted Brandcast 2025 in which it revealed how marketers could make better use of the platform to connect with customers.

A few new so-called innovations were announced at the event but one has caught the attention of the internet – Peak Points. This new product makes use of Gemini to detect “the most meaningful, or ‘peak’, moments within YouTube’s popular content to place your brand where audiences are the most engaged”.

Essentially, YouTube will use Gemini and probably the heatmap generated on YouTube videos by people skipping to popular points, to determine where to place advertising. Anybody who has grown up watching terrestrial television where adverts arrive as a way to build suspense will understand how annoying Peak Points could become.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

AIs are very good at finding a (locally) optimal solution without understanding the context of what that entails. When is the biggest jump in engagement? When an ad ends and the show resumes. Users tend to turn up the volume and return wandering eyes back to the screen. Therefore, every time an ad break ends, the system starts an ad break. This approach also maximizes the amount of ad time per hour of content.

(I am joking, if it is not obvious)