Amazon’s first upfront promises full-funnel advertising at scale for all

NEW YORK — Amazon on Tuesday (May 14) made an enormous splash with its first-ever event during upfront week, a series of confabs where media and tech corporations make their advertising pitches to brands and agencies. Amazon’s shift from a digitally focused NewFronts presentation to at least one at the upfronts is the newest sign of the way it envisions its growing video-focused ad offerings.

For its debut, Amazon took over Pier 36 in New York, a hangar-meets-high school gymnasium bathed in neon blue light that has hosted previous upfront presentations by Disney and TelevisaUnivision. Hundreds of attendees lined as much as access the Lower East Side venue, where they might find interactive stations based on Prime Video properties, passed appetizers and swag bags.

Proving it could deliver the identical Hollywood wattage as traditional media conglomerates like Disney and NBCUniversal, the corporate called on A-listers including Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell — plus a gap performance by Alicia Keys — to exhibit just how premium their slate of content is. 

But while the event shared the bells and whistles of usual upfront presentations, Amazon quickly worked to separate itself from its competitors, namely through its scale. Prime Video now has a median monthly ad-supported reach of 200 million global customers (with 115 million within the U.S.), making it the biggest premium ad-supported streaming service each globally and within the U.S. — marks that represent “day one” for the newly ad-supported service, said Mike Hopkins, senior vice chairman and head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios.

“We’ve been constructing Prime Video right into a one-stop entertainment destination, the first place people go to seek out the programming they love, and now together with your partnership, we’re constructing a one stop advertising destination, as well,” Hopkins said at the event.

Full-funnel for everyone

Amazon executives often returned to the theme of scale, highlighting not only the amount of viewers but their quality for advertisers. Many don’t watch other streaming services or linear TV, they usually’re generally younger, more engaged and shop more. Prime Video’s average unique audience in comparison with other streaming services is 47%, and the platform drives 56% incremental lift amongst adults 18 to 49 in comparison with linear TV. The company also focused on the way in which its advertising offerings differ from those by traditional media conglomerates.

“This week, you are gonna hear a number of presentations, and everybody’s going to speak about their reach, their audience insights [and] measurement capabilities, and in fact, their content,” said Tanner Elton, vice chairman of U.S. ad sales for Amazon Ads. “Here’s the critical difference: We’re not only an entertainment company attempting to monetize our shows with the newest ad tech or third-party audience signals.”

For Amazon, sponsored product ads on its flagship e-commerce site are still the first driver of growth in a segment that increased 24% year-over-year to $11.82 billion in Q1. But with its scale and growing number of content channels, it could possibly use its first-party signal and measurement capabilities to make all marketers “endemic to Amazon,” based on Sarah Iooss, director of U.S. agency development and Twitch for Amazon Ads.

But it was the January addition of ads to Prime Video that “connected the dots” across the Amazon universe, based on closing remarks by Alan Moss, vice chairman of world ad sales for Amazon Ads. All together, Amazon sees its offering as full-funnel advertising, at scale, for every brand.

“It now not matters whether you sell on Amazon or not,” Moss said. “With our clean room and other leading ad tech, we might help all advertisers connect awareness and brand objectives on to sales outcomes and category growth.”

Content still rules all the pieces

Upfronts were traditionally utilized by TV networks to unveil their fall programming slates, but as streaming has upended the model for TV and film, the presentations have followed. As with its competitors, Amazon has looked to tap into mental property and deliver content that’s familiar for consumers who increasingly crave the comfort of nostalgic favorites.