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Turkeys, Touchdowns, and Taps
Brands are experimenting with Amazon's new interactive ad formats this Thanksgiving. Here is what five of them think so far.
No issue tomorrow because of American thanksgiving.
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Marketers are stuffing their media plans with Amazon's new shoppable ads this Thanksgiving—should your brand be serving the new ad format?
As the holiday weekend kicks off, five media buyers shared with Digiday that they're experimenting with Amazon’s new shoppable ad formats to gauge whether viewers will engage with these interactive ads to make purchases and how they might impact brand performance.
To keep the risk low, most are setting aside small experimental budgets, less than 10% of their monthly media spend.
What’s Cooking with Amazon’s Shoppable Ads?
Amazon introduced three “interactive” formats earlier this year:
Add-to-Cart Video Ads: Viewers can instantly add featured products to their cart with a remote click.
Interactive Pause Ads: Ads that appear when viewers pause their shows, driving brand engagement during breaks.
Shoppable Carousel Ads: These let customers browse and buy multiple products during ad breaks on Prime Video.
With 130 million subscribers to its ad-supported tier (around 80% of its total user base according to eMarketer, Amazon is sitting on a huge audience primed for testing these new formats. And consumers are gearing up for holiday deals with a massive viewership expected for Prime’s Black Friday NFL coverage of the Chiefs vs. Raiders.
Note: individuals of any age who watch video via app or website through an ad-supported subscription at least once per month. Source: EMARKETER Forecast, February 2024
Brands Testing the Waters
So far, most marketers are playing it safe.
Brett Fischer, performance media supervisor at media agency Collective Measures, shared that toy brands VTech and LeapFrog are adding Amazon's shoppable ads to their Thanksgiving campaigns. While he didn’t share details of the agreements, he said, “We don’t want to bet the house on these shoppable units. It’ll certainly be more of a testing approach at first.”
For brands like Fisher-Price, the focus is on “test-and-learn” strategies. The company’s senior vice president said the Mattel brand had already "dabbled" with the formats, acknowledging that they are still in the early stages. He added that Amazon remains "critically important" to its holiday strategy, but did not share performance results from those initial tests.
Neither of the executives said what percentage of monthly media budgets would be put aside for shoppable formats.
Some agencies, however, are betting bigger.
At Juice Media, which works with direct-to-consumer brands like Dollar Shave Club and Goldbelly, shoppable formats could account for up to 20% of their spend, though the agency declined to share specific figures or disclose which clients are participating.
Live Sports + Shoppable Ads = A Winning Combo?
Thanksgiving weekend marks Amazon’s second year of streaming NFL games on Prime, with high advertiser demand for the Black Friday matchup.
Google Pixel, Microsoft, and Uber Eats are among the brands that snagged spots in the sold-out ad inventory, while 40% of the advertisers are newcomers to Amazon’s football coverage, according to a company spokesperson.
The spokesperson declined to confirm the percentage of ads featuring shoppable formats.
🎯 What This Means for You
Thanksgiving weekend is a critical test for Amazon’s shoppable ads. While marketers are cautious with their investments, the combination of holiday shopping, live sports, and interactive formats could pave the way for a new era of advertising.
How these ads perform could determine how shoppable ads fit into your media strategies moving forward.
Today’s Other News
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Which brand is credited with starting the tradition of sponsoring a balloon-filled parade on Thanksgiving Day in New York City? |
🎁 Everyone who guesses will be entered in our monthly draw for a full year of our Premium Newsletter free!
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