- Amazon has hired a former Disney executive to spearhead its efforts to introduce ads to Prime Video, according to media reports.
- Jeremy Helfand is joining the corporate as vice chairman and head of advertising for Prime Video ahead of the ad tier’s planned rollout later this month. The executive previously helped develop Hulu’s ad business before taking up broader duties at parent Disney that touched on properties including Disney+ and ESPN.
- Helfand, who posted concerning the move on his LinkedIn page, will guide strategy for a business segment that is anticipated to generate billions more in revenue for Amazon’s media juggernaut and serves as a key piece of the streaming category’s shift toward implementing more conventional commercials.
Amazon has snapped up a media veteran with established know-how in designing an ad business for the streaming age. Helfand played a very important role in constructing out Hulu’s offerings, later translating that have to other corners of Disney’s empire like Disney+ and ESPN. Helfand most recently was in command of Disney’s global advertising platform strategy, product, engineering, operations and partnership ecosystem across linear, digital and streaming channels, per his LinkedIn page.
Helfand has a tall order to fill leading Prime Video’s wider charge into advertising, which is able to hit markets including North America on Jan. 29. Prime Video has steadily added programming that acts as a magnet for brand dollars, securing the rights to the NFL’s prime-time “Thursday Night Football” in 2021. But it’s a comparative latecomer in launching a definite ad-supported streaming option where commercials appear around most TV and film content, following within the footsteps of rivals like Netflix, Max and Disney+ which have come under pressure to prove streaming could be profitable. Amazon moreover owns ad-supported streaming brand Freevee.
Prime Video is included as a part of the favored Prime subscription package, giving it a large reach. Amazon has promised that ad loads will initially be limited, and users pays a further $2.99 per thirty days to avoid commercials entirely.
Prime Video’s advertising expansion is anticipated to generate as much as $5 billion in annual revenue for Amazon, according to Bank of America forecasts cited by Bloomberg. That will further bolster an advertising segment that has risen to turn out to be certainly one of Amazon’s fastest-growing areas of business thanks to the corporate’s ability to wed campaigns closer to the purpose of transaction on its sprawling e-commerce marketplace. For example, Amazon ran the NFL’s first Black Friday game in November, linking a closely watched game to a blockbuster shopping holiday.
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