Google Places Optimization and YouTube Videos -

Google Places is a Google product.  So is YouTube.  Google loves content.  So, if Google Places offers you a place to put up 5 videos as part of the content, you should use that to the max.  Is there any strong evidence that having one or more videos will improve your ranking?  Not that I know of.  However, keep in mind that the purpose of any listing is not merely to be seen, but to have someone take action.  If 1000 cars an hour drive by my retail store, but nobody comes in, I'm not a happy retailer.

Therefore, you want to create nice videos, like this one I created for a Los Angeles Personal Trainer.
Give them solid titles that help to reinforce the keywords you are working on for your business.  In this case I used Lose Weight by Knowing Good Fats from Bad Fats - LA Personal Trainer and Nutrition Expert.  Repeat the keywords in the description on YouTube and then repeat the keywords again in the Tags. 

From there, you may want to upload the video on your blog, website, or even write a press release that tells about the release of this great new video.  You can also upload the same video on other video submission sites like Vimeo or Daily Motion.  Use slightly different titles when you do this. 

You can upload videos to Google Places from other submission sites, but why would you?  Google seems to go out of their way not to favor their own products, but YouTube gets about 90% of all video traffic in the world.  I'd use them for every video you do.