Member Exclusive   //   May 16, 2024

Research Briefing: Amazon promotes streaming ads to advertisers

By Li Lu

In this edition of the weekly briefing, we examine Amazon’s upfronts announcement and compare it to competitors as seen in data from Modern Retail+ Research.

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Amazon’s Prime Video ads could signal weakening retail ads

Breaking News: Amazon recently presented at this year’s Upfronts, a clear move to prove itself as a viable competitor to old-guard media companies like Disney and Comcast. The landmark moment highlighted Amazon’s move to add ads to its streaming platform, Prime Video.

This push to boost its ad products comes amid pressure from competitors in the digital ad space. Retailers like Walmart and Target have continued to grow their retail media ad networks, threatening to take dollars away from Amazon. Other retailers, like Saks, have also started their own retail networks in hopes of jumping onto the train. With the retail media space continuing to get to more crowded, Amazon has started diversifying revenue streams and making its ad offerings more robust. 

Questions: How are other competitors in the retail media space compared to Amazon? Where are marketers starting to move towards?

Answers From Research:

Amazon is still king when it comes to this type of advertising. And it has been building out more capabilities trying to attract more brands. For example, as Modern Retail recently reported, the e-commerce platform has been increasingly pitching brands on its higher-funnel advertising services, all while having them connect with its traditional retail media units.

“The trend we’ve always seen is that Amazon is leaning into brands,” Dan Brownsher, CEO of the agency Channel Key, told Modern Retail last year. “[These changes are about] allowing Amazon to become a brand discovery platform.”

As such, it is still the most popular choice; 84% of survey respondents said they used Amazon’s retail media services, while Walmart was the second most popular with with 46%.

Want to learn more: Modern Retail+ Research on Retail Media Networks examines which retailers are growing their ad business. 

READ MORE ABOUT RETAILER MEDIA NETWORKS

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Modern Retail+ Research
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