How advertisers can connect with relevant audiences through streaming TV and audio
October 26, 2021
Audiences can access streaming media from almost anywhere—wherever they have a television, smartphone, or computer—which means it can be included in almost any part of their lives. Streaming content can reach audiences in a variety of moments throughout their day. They might be streaming a film for family movie night, playing music to keep them energized during a workout, or watching a cooking show to inspire them while they make dinner.
What this means is that, for advertisers, streaming media presents the opportunity to meet audiences where they are. The best advertising isn't an interruption, but an addition to the customer experience.
How can streaming media bring you closer to your audiences?
One way to enhance, rather than disrupt, the audience experience is to connect with them.
"Here at Amazon Ads, we help brands seamlessly build connections with their audiences through a wide range of choices and in different streaming mediums," said Alan Moss, VP of global ad sales at Amazon Ads.
Creating connections with audiences can help you engage with them more deeply, making your brand more memorable. So how can you connect with audiences through streaming content?
Streaming audiences are growing, and Amazon Ads can help you reach those audiences where they are. "Amazon Streaming TV content and Twitch jointly reach an unduplicated monthly audience of 135 million viewers across the US,"1 Moss said. "To put that in perspective, that’s 1 in 3 people in the United States."
Just one example of the ways Amazon Streaming TV content can reach audiences is through live sports. Prime Video will be the new exclusive home for Thursday Night Football beginning in 2022. National Football League (NFL) games are watched by tens of millions of viewers—in fact, in 2020, Thursday Night Football ranked #2 in ratings out of all regularly scheduled TV programs, only behind Sunday Night Football.2
That's exciting on its own, but "American football is just the beginning," said Moss. "Amazon is expanding with live sports and events globally." This expansion includes tennis with Roland-Garros in France, the US Open, Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour in the UK; football with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League in Germany and Italy, Ligue 1 in France, and the English Premier League in the UK; the Women’s National Basketball Association; and regional coverage of the New York Yankees and Seattle Sounders FC in the United States.
Outside of live sports, brands can connect with audiences through entertainment such as IMDb TV, which is "a modern version of a network with the inventive, deeply satisfying storytelling audiences crave” from a streaming service as described by Moss. IMDb TV can reach audiences beyond linear TV—almost half of IMDb TV viewers do not subscribe to a pay TV service. And among them, 26% are cord-cutters and 17% are cord-nevers.3
How can you make ads more interactive in streaming content?
Content like Twitch, Thursday Night Football, and IMDb TV help you reach streaming audiences. But how do you make the experience of streaming TV ads more engaging? By giving viewers the ability to take action instead of only watching.
Moss shared with the unBoxed audience the ways that interactive ads, currently in beta, are creating engaging audience experiences.
Viewers can interact with brands on the IMDb TV app on Fire TV by using their voice or their remote without disrupting their viewing experience. They can take Amazon shopping actions such as "Add to Cart" and "Add to List." We’re introducing a new shopping action, “Send Me More Info,” to the interactive video ad experience that enables viewers to request product details via email or by scanning a QR code on screen to visit a brand’s landing page.
Moss also shared that we’re making it even more natural for audiences to engage with our Interactive Audio Ads. For example, after hearing an Interactive Audio Ad while listening to Amazon Music’s ad-supported tier on an Alexa-enabled device, customers can simply ask Alexa to “Remind me,” “Send me more information,” or “Add to cart” —Alexa will know which product is featured in the ad, and add that item to the cart or set the relevant reminder.
These interactive ads help brands engage more actively with audiences, and help audiences by eliminating the need to remember the name of the product or service from the ad. Reducing friction and making it more natural for audiences to take an action helps make the moment of connection a positive enhancement to the customer experience.
Dive into our full coverage of unBoxed to learn about more new advertising and marketing tools and dig into other trends and ideas discussed at Amazon’s annual meeting of the minds.
1 Amazon internal data, 2021
2 Hollywood Reporter, US, January 2021
3 GfK Simmons, US, 2020