Amazon has shared its plans for Amazon Prime Video in Australia at a closed-door meeting, prioritising a focus on first-party data, retail media and sports partnerships.
While media outlets were not permitted to attend the Amazon Connected Worlds event, a number of media agencies shared key takeaways with AdNews.
Kinesso's head of commerce, Hope Williams, said the event emphasised Amazon’s ability to seamlessly integrate entertainment, technology, and shopping, offering a dynamic canvas for both consumers and marketers.
"Amazon’s innovative advertising solutions leverage extensive first-party data across billions of browsing, streaming, and purchasing signals, for unmatched scale and precision targeting. This approach allows for highly effective marketing strategies that resonate with the right audience at the right time," she said.
"A recurring theme was Amazon’s commitment to delighting customers by merging exceptional award-winning Prime Video content with seamless shopping experiences through advanced technology. This fusion of content and commerce empowers marketers to link their investments and campaign performance to smarter measurement and tangible business outcomes.
"By fusing commerce and first-party data with massive reach, unprecedented audience targeting and closed loop measurement, Amazon is setting a new benchmark for retail media solutions in Australia and elevating industry standards."
Amazon reported its advertising business growing 20% to $US12.77 billion in the June quarter. This was seen as just below expectations by market analysts of $13 billion.
The business is still small compared to Amazon’s retailing but is growing fast, putting it third in the world behind Google and Meta for digital advertising.
Amazon Australia reported a 50% increase to $153.36 million in advertising sales in 2023, according to documents lodged with corporate regulator ASIC.
Avenue C's digital director, Paula Lopes, said that during the event, Amazon emphasised why they are the largest ad-supported streaming service globally, with over 200 million subscribers worldwide and 4 million in Australia.
"Beyond multiple series, movies, and local adaptations, sports are set to be a major focus for Amazon in the coming years," she said.
"They’ve secured an 11-year deal with the NBA/WNBA and a local partnership to broadcast the ICC. However, Amazon made it clear that they are far more than just an entertainment company. Amazon is where people go to shop, listen, read, stream, and watch, and the power of their first-party data remains unmatched.
"They also shared key audience insights, revealing that 53% of their 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.
"With their streaming ad service now live and early adopters such as Suncorp, Lego, and McDonald's having already launched campaigns and collected initial results, 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."
Amazon Prime Video started displaying advertising on the streaming platform in Australia in July.
Many brands still consider the streaming buy in its infancy phase, as a testing and trialling exercise.
Recent research from Telsyte shows that Netflix remains the clear leader in Australia in terms of viewership with 6.2 million subscriptions at the end of June 2024, followed by Amazon Prime Video (4.8 million); Disney+ (3.1 million); Stan (2.6 million) and Paramount+ (1.8 million).
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