• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 16, 2023

YouTube wants advertisers to "own the moment,” so the company continues to develop a set of tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) from Google that seamlessly distribute campaigns across formats.

Introduced on Monday, Spotlight Moments automatically identifies the most popular, relevant videos -- making it easier for advertisers to own the moment around key events and holidays when viewers are most engaged.

Susan Schiekofer, chief digital investment officer at GroupM U.S., an early beta partner, said in a Google blog post announcing the solution that Spotlight Moments optimizes “advertisers’ business outcomes and reinforces the dynamic content and cultural tent poles that are at the forefront of their minds.”

The AI-powered technology identifies popular YouTube videos related to a specific cultural moment. For example, during Halloween an advertiser might want to drive awareness for its brand next to certain content.

Advertisers can choose to serve ads across Halloween-related content on YouTube and curate them into dynamically updated playlists that live on the sponsored hub. Brands will automatically appear alongside the most relevant and engaging content associated with the moment.

Austin Wignall, managing director of YouTube Brand Advertising, wrote in the blog post that Spotlight Moments gives brands share of voice across video content surrounding the world’s biggest cultural moments.

Spotlight Moments joins technology such as Video Reach Campaigns to drive awareness, and Video View Campaigns to drive brand consideration.

Advertisers can also choose to reach further into the funnel by adding ad solutions, such as First Position, YouTube Masthead, Google TV Masthead, and In-Feed Displays.
Advertisers adopting Video Reach Campaigns with in-stream, in-feed and Shorts saw the campaigns in tests deliver 54% more reach at a 42% lower CPM compared to in-stream only, the company said. The tool becomes generally available to all advertisers in November.

Video View Campaigns saw similar results in testing delivering 40% more views and a 30% lower cost-per-view than in-stream only, according to Google data. Video View Campaigns launched to general availability last month.