When Amazon takes the stage for its upfront presentation Monday evening, the company believes that it has an ace up its sleeve that will help its slate of live sports stand out from the rest: Because it’s all streaming, it can offer personalization, targeting and even shoppable ads at a scale that it thinks none of its competitors can match.
“Especially in the fragmented media landscape that we’re in now, sports are really the only thing left that can drive a large tune in live audience at scale, very valuable to advertisers,” says Jay Marine, Amazon Prime Video‘s global head of sports. “However, normally that’s being watched on linear, so you’re getting that scale, but you’re not getting any insights other than the Nielsen demo.”
“So what we’re able to do, which excites advertisers, is deliver that live event scale, combined with the digital insights, combined with the Amazon shopping capabilities. So we can really close the loop,” Marine adds. “A customer can go from watching the game to seeing an interactive advertisement that they can one-click ‘buy,’ and it’s showing up at their door in a couple hours. That is great for customers number one, but as you can imagine, advertisers love it. And so I think we’re really positioned to deliver something that they can’t find in the rest of the market.”
Marine also teases much more targeted ads, so if Toyota is sponsoring an NFL game, a viewer who may be in the market for a pickup truck may see a spot for that model, while someone who may be interested in a minivan would see a different spot.
Amazon, of course, has turned Thursdays into its sports anchor with NFL Thursday Night Football, and it plans to continue that when it adds the NBA later this year, which will join the WNBA, NWSL and NASCAR in the company’s stable of rights.
“This is the first year that we’re really going to we’re going to have a 12 month calendar of top tier live sports,” Marine says.
And the company plans to really lean into the Fall and holiday season, when the NBA and NFL will be in full swing.
“This will be our third year of Black Friday football, really establishing something that’s a franchise that’s incredibly valuable for customers, for the NFL and for Amazon,” Marine says. “We’re going to build on that this year in a big way, both with the NFL, but we’re also going to introduce an NBA double header after the after the NFL game, so it is going to be a day of sports on Black Friday for our customers.”
That will continue all the way to Christmas, where Amazon will have the primetime game on Christmas Day, following Netflix’s window earlier in the day.
“That bookend period from Black Friday to Christmas, from a sports perspective, and for an advertiser to be on Amazon Prime sports during that buying season, I think is going to be very powerful,” Marine says.
And the games will be eminently shoppable, so Amazon and its advertisers can turn spots into instant sales.
As for what Prime Video has planned for the NBA, Marine says the company is aiming to build a big tent, one that will bring in new fans while also appealing to the hardcore, and finding ways to incorporate new technology into the broadcasts.
“It’s about delivering a fresh perspective, but also educating fans on the game, and then not taking yourself too serious and bringing joy to the game,” Marine says. “There has never been a more talented phase of the NBA, if you really study how good these guys are. So we’re going to celebrate that.”
