Amazon welcomed media agencies to its Connected Worlds presentation on Wednesday evening for a closed-industry event showcasing the year ahead.
The event’s focus points included ad-supported tier, new international and local content on Prime Video, sports streaming rights, first-party data and e-commerce offerings.
Mediaweek caught up with media buyers – PHD’s Hugh Davidson, Katherine Pochroj from EssenceMediacom, Sebastien Kriegel from UM Australia, and Avenue C’s Paula Lopes – who attended the event to get their thoughts on the platform’s offerings, what piqued their interest and what it means for their clients.
PHD’s Hugh Davidson echoed Amazon Ads general manager, Willie Pang, who summarised the line-up across e-commerce, content and ads throughout Australia as “Big Things”.
“They’ve had a strong launch to date across Prime Video and Amazon’s scale across the broader ecosystem has strong potential to ensure they are a key partner for advertisers – even if they aren’t active across the storefront.”
Davidson highlighted the presentation’s focus on international and local content hitting screens in the next few months and the opportunity for advertising revenue thanks to streaming rights for ICC men and women’s World Cup, NBA and WNBA.
He noted the emphasis on data and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), Davidson said: “The data clean room capability is definitely an opportunity for advertisers to build their own advanced audience segments and insights.”
Hugh Davidson
Aside from content and data, Davidson said Amazon discussed improving the user experience across its ads and e-commerce offerings.
“A solid ad-supported Prime Video product is the key for their future growth and early results from launch partners is promising as is capitalising on advertisers’ overall screen strategies.
“The benefit to our clients is the scale and audiences that Amazon are able to offer across all of their products, leveraging these will strengthen their capability across the full marketing funnel,” Davidson added.
For Katherine Pochroj, head of media solutions and investment – Sydney at EssenceMediacom, said the introduction of Prime Video ads in the local market is “groundbreaking” as it positions the Amazon streaming platform as the largest ad-supported premium streaming service worldwide.
“This move is a game-changer for our clients, allowing for new opportunities for breakthrough media. The opportunity to place brands within engaging, high-demand content like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, ICCC cricket, NBL and Aussie dramas like Deadloch places Amazon as a major video disrupter in Australia.
“Whilst the content Amazon teased for 2025 is balanced, it was only a teaser. Deeper insight into what’s coming in 2025 not only from a content POV but for the ad product is needed.”
Pochroj said that the local Amazon Prime Video launch “is a testament to their commitment to interlacing quality Australian content and sports experiences with innovative advertising solutions.”
Katherine Pochroj
“The breakthrough potential for EssenceMediacom clients is enormous. The potential for utilising Amazon’s billions of 1PD signals across their total ecosystem to drive meaningful connections with brand’s high value audiences is energising not just for endemic brands but all brands. This potential relies on a balanced experience for audiences and the product maintaining a light ad load.”
She cited Pang who called the four key elements of scale, precision, content, and measurement – as “critical to what brands need to drive meaningful breakthrough impact in a cluttered market.”
“Amazon’s ability to reach Aussie audiences across diverse touchpoints at different moments of the day with solid measurement is enticing.”
Pochroj said: “At a pivotal moment in the fragmentation of the video landscape in Australia it’s exciting to see Amazon’s full funnel potential for our clients particularly with the success of APV. Their dedication to creating not only seamless eCom experiences for Aussie customers but content that tells unique Australian stories shone through at their connected worlds event.”
See also: Amazon Prime Video launches ad option in Australian market
Sebastien Kriegel
Sebastien Kriegel, senior digital director at UM Australia, called Amazon’s access to audiences across shopping, streaming and listening a “huge opportunity to advertisers.”
“The 360-degree access to audience data at every stage of the funnel allows advertisers to not only target specific audiences with precision, but also capture clear measurement of path to conversion and the media touchpoints that influence people prior to purchasing.”
Kriegel noted the inclusion of major sporting events such as NBA, WNBA and international cricket extends beyond the premium programming and provides UM clients the opportunity to reach highly engaged audiences that tune in.
ICC Cricket World Cup
Avenue C’s digital director Paula Lopes highlighted Amazon’s emphasis on its the potential reach of 10 million Australians with the debut of its streaming ad platform with the case studies, local scale and data to back it.
She said that Amazon’s sports broadcast multi-year deals with the NBA/WNBA and ICC were focus points that cemented the streaming platform’s position as more than an entertainment company with multiple series and movies in the works.
“Amazon is where people go to shop, listen, read, stream, and watch, and the power of their first-party data remains unmatched,” Lopes added.
Paula Lopes
Lopes noted Amazon’s stat that 53% of its subscribers belong to households with three or more members, indicating likely subscription sharing.
“This suggests that Amazon’s ecosystem could be reaching over 10 million Australians, underscoring their significant reach and scale. It’s particularly interesting that the once ‘untouchable’ streaming audience is now not only accessible but enhanced with a multi-signal audience profile through Amazon.”
Lopes added that it’s time to examine the data with the streaming ad service now running and brands such as Suncorp, Lego, and McDonald’s with campaigns already in market and the initial results in.
“It’s time to dive deeper into the data, including MMM analysis, to understand how their combination of compelling content, vast audience, rich first-party data, and clean rooms can help brands succeed across the entire consumer journey within Amazon’s extensive ecosystem.”
See also: Prime Video, NBA, and WNBA enter 11-year global media rights agreement
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Top image: Hugh Davidson, Katherine Pochroj, Sebastien Kriegel and Paula Lopes