Amazon Ads has unveiled a number of new ad formats and advertiser tools to coincide with the start of the Uefa Champions League and NBA seasons.
They include new interactive and shoppable ad formats, tools to tailor creative for different audience demographics, and post-match remarketing tools.
Amazon Prime Video first began streaming Champions League matches last season, after it bought rights to 17 first-pick matches on Tuesday nights in 2022. Last summer, Amazon further agreed to an 11-year media rights deal with the NBA, which grants Prime Video exclusive global streaming rights to 66 regular-season NBA games, including the in-season tournament’s semifinals and finals.
Beginning next year, Prime Video will also have rights to exclusively stream 30 WNBA regular-season games, including postseason games.
In support of its large investment in sports rights, Amazon is looking to capitalise on the commercial opportunity. UK MD Phil Christer outlined the streaming giant has designed “a series of new ad innovations that help put brands at the heart of the action.”
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These include new interactive video ads, which allow users to click an “Add to cart” or “Get email” button with their remote to shop or enquire about products without leaving the stream.
Amazon Ads is also offering “audience-based creatives” for Champions League and NBA buyers. Previously launched in the US during Thursday Night Football streams, the feature uses first-party insights to help brands tailor creative to specific audience segments based on geographic, demographic and behavioural data insights.
For instance, Amazon claims a car manufacturer can simultaneously play different ads for different vehicles, each targeting distinct audience segments, all within the same 30-second window.
Post-match, Amazon is also enabling options for brands to remarket to audiences who viewed their ads during the live events, such as through other Amazon products like Fire TV, Twitch or in Amazon’s online store.
Christer claimed that more than 13m people in the UK and Ireland watched Uefa Champions League matches on Prime Video last year, and that such viewers spent 140% more on Amazon compared to other Amazon customers that made a purchase during the same period last year.
“Nowhere are our audiences more passionate than when watching live sports,” he commented. “With these new innovations, we’re helping brands tap into that passion, at relevant moments, with ads that don’t just grab their attention but drive measurable outcomes that marketers care about, like sales in our store, sign-ups to their mailing list, or bookings for their hotels.”
Live sport has become increasingly valuable to advertisers as opportunities to reach large, live, engaged viewers have been disrupted by media fragmentation.
Sports rights have themselves fragmented across different linear and streaming properties. Apart from the likes of Amazon acquiring increasingly-expensive rights, individual creators are now getting in on the action, as with the Bundesliga.