Amazon, along with companies like Twitter, Snap and Google’s YouTube, will pitch advertisers at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s NewFronts event.
The Spring NewFronts is a digital media take on the traditional TV upfronts, when advertisers have traditionally captured a large chunk of their annual TV spend. During the NewFronts, online publishers, platforms and other companies organize presentations and parties to show their programming, audience data and tools to media buyers. This year’s event will take place virtually from May 3 to May 6.
Amazon’s advertising business has captured growing market share in the digital ad industry, a theme that is likely to continue this year. A survey of Cowen ad buyers in January found that Amazon will gain market share among the major digital ad companies in 2021 and 2022. The survey was based on responses from 52 senior US ad buyers in December, representing $ 15 billion in US ad spend.
Amazon was set to make its NewFronts debut in 2020, but said it would not participate in the event as the Covid pandemic began to erupt in the US.
This year’s presentations include companies such as YouTube, Roku, Twitter, TikTok and Snap, in addition to publishing world players such as BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, BBC News and Vice Media Group. Other new players on the NewFronts include A + E Networks, Entercom, Estrella Media, Penske Media and Vizio. Mainstay Hulu will not be part of this year’s event; instead, it will be featured in parent company Disney’s own events.
The IAB said the event attracted more than 14,000 brands, agencies and media buyers in 2020. This year’s event promises to explore how consumer behavior transformed during the pandemic and how content creators programmed across all video formats.
Amazon’s growing advertising company
Amazon’s fourth quarter 2020 earnings report showed the benefits of a rebound in advertising after a pandemic dip. Amazon’s “other” category, which is mostly ads, delivered $ 7.9 billion in revenue this quarter, up 64% from a year earlier.
Amazon could also benefit as advertisers brace themselves for upcoming privacy changes from Apple that will affect their businesses. “We believe that AMZN is extremely well positioned to drive out [Apple’s privacy] changes due to the transparency of the grant and the overall high intention of platform purchases, ”Deutsche Bank analysts said last month.
The e-commerce giant talked about some of its initiatives at the IAB’s annual leadership meeting last week. His VP of Global Ad Sales Alan Moss said that with a line of IMDb TV originals launching this year, it would provide product integration and brand content capabilities to help advertisers “authentically tailor their brand to cultural moments and genre themes. ”
Moss also discussed how Amazon plans to expand its podcast ads.
In another panel, Amazon Studios COO and co-head of television Albert Cheng spoke about the growing awareness of selling goods directly on TV screens, Deadline reported last week. He said that “T-commerce” is still in its infancy, but Amazon is making progress there. Amazon, for example, streamed Savage X Fenty shows and embedded those live streams with buying opportunities.