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.
It’s like 15 seconds every couple of videos. I mean I get it, but TV my entire childhood was 21 minute shows with 3 sets of 3 minute ads per 30 min block. Movies that were 90 minutes would stretch to 2-2.5 hours with the ads. I saw Titanic once and it was closing in on 5 hours. It’s really not that bad to me.