The Upfronts are almost upon us, and that inevitably means that many of the streamers and traditional media companies presenting will be keen to showcase their new metrics and ad options, hoping to catch ad buyer attention. Amazon Ads will be rolling out three new streaming video ad options for buyers at its mid-May Upfront presentation, and our expert entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A., shares all the details below.
New, Improved Amazon Ads
The three ad formats announced are a shoppable carousel ad, brand trivia ads, and interactive pause ads. These new streaming video ad options will build on the concept of interactive ad formats which we already saw mentioned last year, and the first interactive ad units that Amazon debuted in 2021. This will be Amazon’s first year as a presenter at the Upfronts themselves, with a Pier 36 presentation scheduled for May 14. Previously, Amazon confined itself to the more tech-focused NewFronts. However, with the addition of several live sports streaming options and other broad-audience programming, they have shifted over to the somewhat higher-profile Upfronts for 2024.
The Move to Ad-Supported
Prime Video’s abrupt, and somewhat controversial, shift to ad-supported tier offerings was one of 2023’s major streaming surprises. While we can never really know how many Prime subscriptions truly focus on their video options, rather than the e-commerce perks Prime is known for, the service itself suggests over 200M global customers are enjoying the ad-supported platform currently.
While pause ads are, themselves, not a novel concept, Amazon’s take on the ad format will see a translucent ad popup when a viewer pauses their streaming content, with a prompt to follow. The other two ad styles, however, are quite innovative within the streaming ad arena. It will be interesting indeed to see if this novelty attracts ad buyers’ attention at their upcoming Upfront presentation.
