Amazon Prime Video launches its ad option in Australia today, with Australians being shown ads on the streamer unless they upgrade to the ad-free option without advertising. In Australia, the upgrade will cost users an extra $2.99 per month.
According to Paul Kent, managing director and co-founder of Deep Media, the launch of advertising on Prime Video “is a smart decision given that 30% of subscriber households shopped on Amazon within the last month.”
“By combining Prime Video’s premium content with Amazon’s powerful first-party targeting and ad tech capabilities, brands can now achieve significant reach and engagement.
“In addition, where this could become particularly disruptive is by being able to tie back to e-commerce/retail metrics in a traditionally hard to track area like Streaming TV, which for so long has mostly been used similar to TV with basic awareness and reach goals,” Kent added.
Paul Kent
Amazon announced the launch of its ad option in November last year, with plans to launch in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in January, with Australia, France, Italy, Spain and Mexico to follow later in the year.
At the time, Amazon said the aim was “to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers while simultaneously offering advertisers reach, frequency, and opportunities to tailor messages.”
This strategy of fewer ads won’t be a hurdle for advertisers, however, with Kent saying it will work for both brands and consumers.
“Amazon approaches every decision working backwards from the customer and appears to be going for a less is more approach with regards to the volume of ads. A positive side-effect of this ‘customer obsession’ will be to provide advertisers with cut-through, via strict frequency capping and monitoring of repetitive ads.”
With 81% of streaming watch time happening on CTV, for Kent, the launch “brings even more competition within the streaming TV landscape where Amazon already has an enviable position.”
“As an Amazon Ads verified partner, we explain to many of our clients that the strength of first party data – from the car you drive to telco you use – that Amazon has, takes them well beyond e-commerce. Overlaying this data with the Prime Video opportunity opens up the business to an even broader range of advertisers.”
See also: Amazon Prime Video faces class action lawsuit over introduction of ad tier