What you need to know
- Amazon Ads will introduce three new interactive ads for Amazon Prime Videos on TVs and other living room devices.
- The company says this will allow users to seamlessly shop during the 15-30 second commercial breaks between their shows/movies.
- These ads are designed to appear even when a video is paused and present facts about the brand that help users shop better.
Streaming on Prime Video is about to get a little busier as Amazon announced on Tuesday (May 7) that it will be adding three new interactive and shoppable ad formats to its streaming platform on living room devices.
The company said Prime Video will now receive an expanded range of interactive and shoppable ad formats, including remote control features for living room devices that are a step ahead of the usual QR code that appears in an ad.
Brands can now present shoppable carousel ads to help viewers browse and shop multiple product varieties on Amazon during commercial breaks in Prime Video shows and movies. Brands can also use interactive pause and branded trivia ads on Prime Video TV shows, movies and live sports.
These interactive ads are designed to appear in three different formats during commercial breaks or when the video is paused.
- Buyable Carousel Ads: Brands present a sliding assortment of their products that customers can explore on Amazon and add to their cart using most living room remote controls. Viewers can pause these ads to browse the products.
- Interactive break indicators: These appear when viewers pause the show or movie they are streaming. A translucent ad with brand messages and images as well as “Add to Cart” and “Learn More” creates an overlay on the screen, replacing the usual break screen with information about the show/movie – these ads appear evenly after the commercial break and disappear when that happens Video continues.
- Interactive Brand Trivia Ads: These provide facts about a specific brand and give users the opportunity to shop on Amazon, learn more about services and products, and even unlock rewards. Customers can use their living room remote to add a product to cart, request information via email, and claim rewards like Amazon shopping credit when purchasing eligible items.
Amazon research found that interactive ads are more effective at increasing engagement rates and driving product sales because they allow viewers to add items to their shopping cart while watching a show/movie.
“We are building innovative experiences to help brands better connect with customers as we work to transform streaming,” said Alan Moss, vice president of global ad sales at Amazon Ads.
“Ads in Prime Video offer advertisers an unparalleled experience to achieve any full-funnel marketing goal – be it awareness, consideration or conversion,” Moss added.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted during the company’s first quarter 2024 earnings call that the company’s efforts to bring ads to Prime Video are off to a good start and that advertisers are “excited to expand their advertising options.” to be able to expand.” [with] Video” beyond the previous offerings.
Is this a good move for users?
Many people find advertising on streaming platforms frustrating, and not everyone is willing to pay $2.99 on top of their Prime Video or Amazon Prime subscription to get rid of ads. Instead, viewers wait laboriously for the 15 to 30 second commercials to finish. Imagine an additional layer of interactive ads to divert your attention.
The downside, however, is that Amazon apparently wants to increase sales with these new ads and it remains to be seen how viewers will react. Will they really find these ads appealing or will they become even more frustrated and consider switching to an ad-free streaming platform?
Amazon isn’t the only platform that has introduced interactive ads. Since 2022, they’ve been appearing more frequently on Hulu, Max, and Peacock, and customers weren’t thrilled with these changes.
Kara Manatt of the media and advertising group Magna told Variety last year that “a bad experience or a lot of advertising junk undermines the impact of advertising and is really bad for users.” Manatt said research has shown that customers also changed their behavior and canceled their streaming service subscriptions.
Amazon Ads first introduced interactive video ads in 2021 on services like IMDb TV on Fire TV devices and has rolled out the format to the majority of its streaming TV portfolio, including shows, movies and live sports on Prime Video, Twitch and Fire TV channels, further expanded and third-party streaming TV apps.