Amazon Advertising completes 2021/22 OTT Upfront
July 29, 2021
Amazon Advertising has wrapped up its 2021/22 OTT Upfront. These efforts, which have resulted in a 40% increase in the number of upfront advertisers year-over-year1, will enable more brands to engage streaming audiences as OTT (over-the-top) viewership continues to rise.
“Our mission is to keep raising the bar on the customer experience for both advertisers and viewers. That’s why we’ve been laser-focused on investing in premium content, creating innovative ad experiences, and making streaming TV advertising smarter and simpler as viewing habits continue to change,” said Mark Eamer, Vice President of Video Ads and IMDb TV, Amazon Advertising. “We are thrilled to help brands reimagine their media strategies and achieve greater results by engaging viewers who are tough to reach with traditional TV.”
In May, Amazon participated in its inaugural NewFronts, where we highlighted some of the ways Amazon Advertising enables marketers to reach audiences at scale with streaming TV video campaigns. This included a slate of new IMDb TV Originals, including a half-hour drama from Dick Wolf, a home renovation project with Jeff Lewis, a docu-series with country superstar Luke Bryan, and a dramedy from Clea DuVall and Tegan and Sara Quin. We also unveiled our new actionable video ads solution (beta) that allows viewers to take Amazon shopping actions―including “add to cart,” “add to Alexa shopping list,” “buy now,” or “shop now”―directly from the ad.
Amazon Advertising announced its first 2021/22 OTT upfront partnership in the week following NewFronts with Publicis.
“With the rise of streaming TV viewership and growing number of OTT options, we’ve been working hard to create unique ways for brands to break through the clutter and build connections with the most relevant audiences across Amazon, including IMDb TV and Twitch,” said Alan Moss, Vice President of Global Ad Sales, Amazon Advertising. “We’ve received a positive response from our advertising customers during this upfront, and look forward to collaborating closely to deliver on their goals and help move their businesses forward.”
Reaching streaming TV audiences with Amazon Advertising
With Amazon OTT video ads, brands can show up alongside content across IMDb TV, Twitch, live sports on Prime Video, top-tier network and broadcaster apps, and Fire TV’s curated News app. Advertisers can also participate in branded entertainment opportunities with IMDb TV. This includes organically featuring products or services in the storylines of IMDb TV Originals, and producing custom, co-branded creative assets for streaming TV campaigns or other channels like social media.
Our premium streaming content helps brands engage audiences at scale, as Amazon OTT and Twitch jointly reach an unduplicated monthly audience of 120 million viewers across the U.S.2 Additionally, advertisers can connect with viewing audiences based on Amazon’s first-party streaming and shopping signals, and analyze campaign performance with Amazon Advertising’s suite of measurement solutions.
“We are constantly evaluating how we can better serve our clients and deliver solutions that help extend the value of their media investments,” said Susan Schiekofer, U.S. Chief Digital Investment Officer, GroupM. “Amazon Advertising’s scale and insights, paired with a deep understanding of the streaming TV landscape and commitment to innovation, presents a very compelling offering for marketers who want to engage today’s viewing audiences. We’re excited to lean into the opportunity at hand here and enable our clients to continue connecting with audiences in more substantive and impactful ways.”
To learn more, check out our OTT video ads.
Sources
1 Amazon Internal, 2021
2 Nielsen Media Impact household and Amazon internal, 2021