Amazon Ads announces three new Streaming TV ad formats ahead of debut upfront presentation
May 07, 2024
Ahead of Amazon’s debut upfront presentation on May 14 at Pier 36 in New York City, Amazon Ads unveiled an expanded suite of new interactive and shoppable ad formats for Prime Video with remote-enabled capabilities for living-room devices. These formats go far beyond QR codes, making it easier for viewers to connect with brands while enjoying the premium streaming entertainment content they love.
In the upcoming broadcast year, brands can use shoppable carousel ads to help viewers browse and shop multiple product variations on Amazon during ad breaks in shows and movies on Prime Video. Brands can also use interactive pause and brand trivia ads in Prime Video TV shows, movies, and live sports. The introduction of living-room remote capabilities significantly expands the opportunity for advertisers to use interactive formats across the vast majority of content on Prime Video, wherever it’s streamed. According to research conducted by Amazon1, advertisers running both interactive and non-interactive video ads for their Amazon product listings found interactive ads to be more effective in boosting engagement rates across the customer shopping journey, driving 10x more product page views and conversions than non-interactive formats.
“Amazon Ads continues to reimagine the streaming TV experience with interactive ad formats that are seamlessly shoppable and help advertisers meaningfully connect with customers,” said Alan Moss, vice president of global ad sales for Amazon Ads. “We are developing innovative experiences to help brands better engage with customers, as we work to transform streaming advertising through our differentiated combination of reach, first-party signals, and ad tech. Ads in Prime Video provide an unparalleled experience for advertisers to deliver on any full-funnel marketing objective—whether it’s awareness, consideration, or conversion.”
Details on the new interactive and shoppable formats for advertisers include:
- Shoppable carousel ads, which make it easy for customers to browse and shop multiple related products on Amazon during ad breaks on Prime Video. Brands can present a sliding lineup of their products that customers can explore on Amazon and add to their cart using most living-room remotes. The ad automatically pauses so that customers can browse, and automatically resumes play when ad interaction has stopped.
- Interactive pause ads, which enable customers to discover and engage with brands when they decide to pause the show or movie they’re streaming. When viewers press pause on their living-room remote, they will see a translucent ad featuring brand messaging and imagery, along with an “Add to Cart” and “Learn More” creative overlay. These ads extend the engagement opportunity beyond a traditional ad break, as the interactive overlay is available to customers for as long as the content is paused. With a click of their remote, customers can easily add the product to their Amazon cart, get more information sent to their email, and resume their stream at any time.
- Interactive brand trivia ads, which help advertisers elevate their storytelling by entertaining customers with factoids about their brand while giving them the opportunity to shop on Amazon, learn more about services and products, and even unlock rewards. Customers can use their living-room remote to add a product to their cart, request information via email, and claim rewards like Amazon shopping credits with the purchase of eligible items.
“Amazon’s engagement with consumers throughout the funnel is unique,” says Geoffrey Calabrese, chief investment officer for Omnicom Media Group North America. “With the ad innovations we are seeing from inside of their streaming offering, our clients are now able to test and learn at scale the true power of streaming TV.”
Prime Video has an average monthly ad-supported reach of over 200 million global customers. With Amazon customers shopping while watching content on Prime Video, Amazon Ads connects content to customers using Amazon’s addressable signals and first-party audiences. With this set of innovative S TV ad formats and access to a closed loop of insights, billions of signals help brands to continually improve their ad performance and campaign strategy.
Amazon Ads first introduced interactive video ads using TV remotes in 2021, and has continued to expand the format across the majority of their streaming TV portfolio, including shows, movies, and live sports on Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV Channels, and third-party streaming TV apps.
1 Amazon internal data, US, Sep 2023