YouTube Boils the Ocean

💡 TOP STORIES

A special report on the 30+ new features YouTube launched at last week’s Made On YouTube event, and the scary strategic implications.

DYNAMIC BRAND SEGMENTS COME TO YOUTUBE

The biggest announcement? Sometime next year creators will be able to dynamically insert host-read sponsorships instead of permanently burning them into videos. Even better: if you sell it, you keep it. No revenue split with YouTube. (If you accept YouTube’s inventory in those slots, of course, they’ll take their cut).

Why is this such a big deal? Because videos often live long after the value of their in-show sponsorship fades. Now those branded segments can either disappear or have new branded ads swapped in based on region, date, or other criteria…  all without destroying the video’s shelf life.

As with most things, the devil’s in the details.  Back in 2007, my MCN Revision3 pioneered in-show sponsorship on YouTube. @Brad Murphy built the model, and @Damon Berger legitimized it on official YouTube paper.  But when other MCNs cried foul, YouTube tried to claw it back, nearly killing us. So while today’s terms look creator-friendly, don’t assume they’ll stay that way. Also note: podcasts have offered dynamic host read insertions for years, but performance often lags behind burned-in ads. Building a brand into the narrative arc with multiple mentions and consistent tone (and even wardrobe) will almost always drive more value than a single swappable segment.

As it rolls out, here are some potential ramifications that you need to monitor and perhaps leverage.

• A/B testing of host reads: You’ll have to do it manually, but now you can test performance with multiple variants.  With AI’s emerging ability to generate numerous variations quickly, this could dramatically increase performance…  or flop just as fast.  I predict a world where sponsor clipping becomes common… and crushes performance.

• Mine the back catalog: Got old videos with outdated sponsor plugs but steady views?  Your back catalog just became much more valuable. Yes, you’ll have to manually trim the old read and mark the ad slot, but for popular videos it’s probably worth it. Did you sell your back catalog’s monetization?  It was likely only for AdSense, opening up a new revenue stream. Expect tools to emerge that find and clean potentially profitable videos.

• The Return of the Son of the Bride of the MCN: Networks bundle channels and optimize back-catalog sponsorship could see a rebirth.  Because YouTube doesn’t take a cut (yet), the economics just became much better.  But if this eats into YouTube’s ad revenue, expect another herd-culling.

• Tentpole Takeovers: From Black Friday and Halloween to viral TikTok-driven memes, creators with deep catalogs can spin up short-term, high-value sponsorship tied to cultural moments and dates. 

• Pricing Pressure: Dynamic slots could standardize YouTube sponsorship pricing.  A win for brands and creators looking for quicker deals at standard pricing. But more “good enough” inventory could drive CPMs down as supply expands faster than demand.

• Host Reads Become Ads: A baked in sponsor read is now a portable unit.  Imagine VidCon, for example, funding a top creator’s sponsorship read and then serving it across YouTube, at scale and even against competitors. Platform only, but still.

• Legal: Brand contracts for in-show sponsorships need to change now. Lock usage to non-exclusive, YouTube-only rights for a defined term, add clear swap and removal language, specify flight dates, regions, and fallback content, and clearly separate dynamic slot fees (paid directly to you) from any programmatic spend through Google/YouTube ads. Include reuse restrictions (brands can’t redeploy your host-read elsewhere without a separate license) and any exclusivity carve-outs, so you stay free to sell other slots once their flight ends.

• Winners and Losers: Smart creators, agile brands and networks with strong ops win.  Startups and agencies focused on creating and serving lazy host reads lose.  The “building on rented land” lesson remains: don’t bet your business on YouTube alone.

This is the ad product I wish we’d had at Revision3 in 2007. It’s going to rewrite how creators, brands, and networks think about sponsorships. But remember: what YouTube giveth, YouTube can taketh

OTHER NOTABLE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Doubling Down on AI: AI is everywhere across short-form video platforms, and now YouTube is pushing it hard internally across both Shorts and Longs. Creators can auto-generate clips and sound for Shorts, “borrow” dance moves with motion transfer, turn dialogue into songs, shift styles to anime or pop art, and drop in new objects (product placement included). Translation also gets a boost with AI-powered lip-sync dubbing that adjusts facial features to match the new language. The risk? An AI backlash is already in full swing. These features could slow it down… or speed it up. My money’s on speed.

Podcast Video: Don’t want to turn your audio podcast into video? Soon YouTube will do it for you. I just hope there’s a “Stoner” filter that makes it look like a 1960s acid test.

Live Improvements:  One of the ways humans differentiate from bots is by going live – warts and all. YouTube is adding simultaneous vertical and horizontal streams, the option to layer your own live commentary on another creator’s stream (likely borrowed from their NFL experiments), and tools to make live less intimidating for newcomers. Monetization upgrades include a side-by-side ad format and the ability to flip a stream from public to members-only.

Clipping: Opus and other clipping startups are officially on notice: YouTube will now clip livestreams, podcasts and likely other longform videos into snackable, vertical, Shorts (which you presumably can repost elsewhere too).  Rented land is never stable.

AI Advice: An enhanced AI partner will interpret analytics, summarize community comments and suggest content ideas.  I’m naming mine “AL.” It’s early days, and while this will rattle VidIQ, Spotter Studio, Viewstats, and others, it will probably lag dedicated apps for some time.

But Wait, There's More: A/B testing expands to titles along with thumbnails.  You can collab with up to five creators, expanding discoverability (although the posting channel keeps all the revenue).  And it looks like NIL will join content copyright, which is awesome – although it adds another way for bad actors to strike down your channel.  And companies like Vermillio now find themselves competing directly with YouTube.

READING THE STRATEGIC TEA LEAVES

YouTube’s latest moves combine creator empowerment with platform consolidation. By pulling clipping, analytics, NIL, and AI-enhanced production into its core product, YouTube isn’t just innovating, it’s boxing out companies like Opus, VidIQ, Agentio, Vermillio, and Spotter Studio that built complementary businesses on the margins. It echoes Meta shutting down its API and Twitter de-platforming early app partners. At the same time, YouTube is leaning hard into AI, rolling out features whether creators want them or not. For creators, that means convenience in the short run, but also less choice, fewer independent tools, and deeper dependency on YouTube’s roadmap. And with their AI push, YouTube is signaling it wants to dictate the future of creation, even in the teeth of a powerful backlash.

With so many features dropped at once, YouTube may also be shifting its product cadence. Instead of dribbling out updates week by week, the platform seems to be hoarding announcements for splashy reveals timed to blunt competitors (aka the concurrent Meta Connect). That makes headlines, but it also reflects a top-down product strategy… one where YouTube dictates the pace and scope. For creators, it means less time to adapt and more pressure to swallow whole waves of change.

Why now? Because YouTube is a mature business in a saturated market while parent Google’s search monopoly crumbles. To keep growing, YouTube expands sideways: into TV bundles, subscriptions, and now the tools others built to support its creators. For shareholders, that’s rational. For creators, it’s another reminder: consolidation may not just repeat the cable trap, it could erode the entire YouTube ecosystem.  Or turn YouTube into the only game in town, owning the audience and squeezing creators and brands with no viable alternative.  Done right, though, it could give creators more consistent monetization, standardized sponsorship tools, and a platform strong enough to fend off rivals while still sharing the spoils.

Read more about everything that launched at Made for YouTube on YouTube’s Blog and this comprehensive Tech Crunch story too.

• Related: Want more strategy?  @Ben Thompson just posted an insightful interview with CEO @Neal Mohan from the “Made on YouTube” event. (Stratechery)

VANQUISHING MIDDLEMEN

I’m so inspired by what Sephora just announced with their new “Sephora Storefronts”.  It’s a new way for creators to build stores right on Sephora.com.  What does that mean?  Creators can finally prove just how valuable they are to brands, while Sephora can welcome new and powerful creators into their mix.  Sure, third-party platforms like LTK, ShopMy and Amazon offer real value to creators.  But I really believe deep and direct links between creators and brands are the future.  There’s no data like first party data. (Retail Touchpoints)

DISCOVERING DISCOVER

I just discovered that I actually HAVE a Discover Feed on my Google phone (although I’ve been using it for a while).  Even better, more of my favorite creators are likely coming to it.  Why?  Well MSN has become a strong and profitable home for creators over the last year or so, and Google thinks it should get a piece of that.  I’d like to see LinkedIn creators there too.  (Google)

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💡 PLATFORMS

YOUTUBE

• Finger in the Dyke?  Why YouTube’s slop problem might be too big to stop.  (The Current)

• Midterms: Could 2028 be the YouTube election? (Politico)

META

• Icky: Meta lures guys to Threads with names and photos of young teen girls.  The photos were posted by parents to Instagram.  But still. (Guardian)

• Glass B Gone: The new Meta Ray Ban glasses include an overlay screen and hand gestures to send messages, zoom images and more.  Now we can sound like a lunatic – and act like one too!  Still I want it.  (Meta) 

• Live Demo Fail: But not until they fix all the problems. How embarrassing for Zuck. (Futurism) 

• Finding Creators at Scale:  New Facebook and Instagram APIs launch in early October that promise to make it easier for brands to find and evaluate relevant creators. Makes me want to start vibecoding!  Alas, I probably wouldn’t survive the permission process. (Facebook)

TIKTOK

• US Sale Update:  The deadline has been extended until December, President Trump claims a deal is approved, while China demurs.  The only thing certain is more uncertainty.   (Axios)

• Buyers Revealed: Oracle, Silver Lake and a16z will hold major stakes. The “new app” is apparently still under development. (Reuters)

• Bytedance Responds:  TikTok’s parent company released a terse statement thanking Trump and Jinping for their efforts.  It was sort of odd. (TikTok)

• 85 More Days: My TikTok Countdown Clock has been updated.  Bookmark it today!  (TikTok Countdown Clock)

• Truth Lab: TikTok partners with third parties in SEA to train creators on how to make factually correct content. (Net Influencer). 

💡 QUIBIS

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

• From Attention to Exhaustion:  AI-generated spam, bot-girls and evaporating engagement presage a collapse of global social platforms. Little walled gardens are next. (Noema)

• Smart Move!  Meta Exec Dane Glasgow decamps to Paramount to run product.  Paramount needed someone like Dane –  and its even more interesting with the TikTok/Oracle/Ellison speculation. (THR)

• A16Z Discovers Attention: Clip farming is the new startup success hack, according to the mega venture capital firm. (LinkedIn)

• Viral Sense Explained: Cluely founder shares the math of going viral on X, teases secrets to be revealed in upcoming post. (Cluely)

• Changing Journalism: Fascinating interview reveals how Reuters’ first social video reporter has built a vertical video culture across the newsroom. (Neiman Lab)

• Break Up the Live Monopoly!  Good to see the FTC going after TicketMaster/Live Nation.  Breaking up this monopoly will make it easier for creators to tour. (FTC)

• $20B and Growing: A look at India’s creator economy, from nano to ultra, building value around going direct.  (Social Nation)

• Worth a Follow:  Producer and guitarist @Steve Ball writes eloquently about collaborations, building a successful career as a music creator and more.  His posts resonate beyond just musicians to creators of all types. (LinkedIn)

• Free For Now: @Doug Shapiro lifts the paywall on his super insightful “What if All Media Were Marketing” post.  Really worth a read.. and it’s free until next Monday. (Doug Shapiro)

• Cheap Talent:  AI startup Inception Point generates 3,000 episodes a week for $1 per episode – using AI hosts.  Video is next (THR)

• Creator Funding in Africa:  Media entrepreneur Chude Jideonwo launches $500k fund to accelerate African creators. (Communique)

• Great Product Launch: YouTuber @Matty Benedetto just started selling useful, but unnecessary, stuff.  A perfect match between content, community and product. H/T @Publish Press (Instagram)

• Bird Brained I love that MrBeast, Salish Matters, and Smosh will voice characters in the new Angry Birds movie. But with 16 Hollywood stars and four creators, that’s a lot of voices in the mix. It still feels like an old-school audience play. Here’s hoping next time Jimmy, Salish, Anthony, and Ian get the creative keys… rather than just voicing someone else’s work. (THR)

• Swing My Sword:  Fortnite creators will be able to make and sell items just like on Roblox.  (The Verge)

• Be a Dictator: @Zaria Parvez explains how social media managers can win in an era of abundance.  (Make It Go Viral)

CREATOR TECH – AI, AR, VR, MORE

• Busted!  Disney, WBD and NBC sue Chinese AI firm MiniMax for ripping off their IP. (Axios)

• Most AI Tools Are Misguided: @Scott Belsky argues that we should focus on tools that are in service to the story, or the creator’s vision, not simply changing a process because you can. (Implications)

• Breakthrough or Technobabble?  Later launches an AI service to determine whether a creator is right for your brand campaign.  Proprietary, AI fueled, and not real time.  Feels like new fish in an old wrapper.  (Later)

• Be Good: How to get cited in AI SEO results. (Product Led SEO)

• Poor Tom Nook: Developer hooks Animal Crossing up to an LLM, watches villagers revolt against shopkeeper/loan-shark.  (Ars Technica)

📊 RESEARCH

Advertising 2030: WPP interviewed 60 experts, including @Benedict Evans (h/t), to map out the future of advertising. The findings? No surprise: AI expectations are soaring while VR has cooled. Creators, citizen journalists and bots are projected to dominate news consumption.  Less likely?  Humanoid robots gaining real traction, or AR glasses overtaking smartphones.  For creators, experts expect the global creator economy to fragment into regional models, continued platform consolidation will weaken external tools (see YouTube above) and that as ad dollars chase creators, brands will demand even stronger guardrails around credibility and safety. (WPP)

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!) and AI was very lightly used for editing.

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