Amazon took over the Hordern Pavilion yesterday afternoon for a punchy, compelling upfronts presentation. Impressive work considering it’s still pretty new at the game—in Australia at least.
Media buyers praised the event for its brevity and the clarity of Amazon’s proposition to the market—some feat given all of the giant’s consumer touch points.
“We encourage you to think of Amazon Ads as the everything ad store,” Willie Pang, GM of Amazon Ads Australia told the crowd.
“Plan in one place, buy in one place, get advanced measurement across the board. Now, great shows, movies and expansive access to the open internet are just the start. Amazon isn’t just where Aussies choose to engage through these moments. We’re your gateway for reaching them everywhere that matters. With our global reach and local expertise, combined with the power of Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud, we’re uniquely positioned to help brands of all sizes connect with Aussies with one unified experience to deliver full-funnel impact—whether you sell on Amazon or not. One destination, endless possibilities.”
That’s the sell. The announcements were quick, big and compelling. The most potent of which, perhaps, was Complete TV. It also quoted its own internal data saying it has 5 million monthly ad-supported Prime Video viewers. Buyers B&T spoke to met that with a mixed reaction—some saying it tracks, others saying it could do with a touch more interrogation.
Complete TV
Next year, Amazon Ads will bring Complete TV to Australia (the third market for the product) an “industry-first toolset” on its DSP that allows TV buyers to plan, manage and measure their streaming TV buys and deliver spend commitments in full. It also provides buyers with AI-powered recommendations for managing streaming budget across Prime Video and other publishers, helping advertisers expand reach while eliminating media waste.
It uses real-time insights to maximise reach and frequency across linear and streaming channels, at industry-leading low fees — 0 per cent for programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals on Amazon properties and 1 per cent for PG deals on premium streaming publishers.
Australia being the third market globally for the product is a mark of the local industry’s “sophistication,” Pang told B&T ahead of the upfront presentation.
“We’re always building backwards from what advertisers, brands and agencies, are asking us for and Complete TV in our view is an industry-first way of trying to solve something that TV buyers have been trying to solve for many, many years. I solved it with spreadsheets in agency. We’re trying to help in becoming the one, unified spot to manage all of your buys and have it now powered with AI-driven recommendations. I don’t think it’s something Aussie marketers have seen before,” Pang said.
“The proposition for brands and marketers on one hand in consolidating their buys, to reduce duplicated reach, apply smart frequency capping, take all of the signals we have and make smarter decisions. But it is also massively challenging for agencies of all shapes and sizes… to manage all of their budgets across publishers. To track spend, deal commitments and be able to flick a switch to make decisions on where best to place and optimise.
“There are going to be two ways agencies and brands can access it—through Ads Planner as a planning capability within Amazon DSP, the other way is through APIs attached to the agency toolset so they will be able to seamlessly integrate it into their own planning, reporting and measurement capability.”
Brittany Crowley, UM’s national head of investment, told B&T after the presentation “it was a really interesting offering”.
“I looked around and that went off and a few people were saying they wanted to know more about that.,” she added.
Toby Farrington, associate investment director at Kaimera, said it was “the biggest takeaway”.
“They’re not the only ones doing it, they’re doing it with other DSPs. The main thing is the scale. If Amazon can do it with the scale that everybody else has, they’ll do it amazing. As soon as they get that scale, it’ll be quite exciting for sure.”
We asked Pang ahead of time what safeguards would be in place to prevent the data emanating from Complete TV’s buying, planning and measuring to preference Amazon’s channels.
“It’s a fair question. For us, this is about providing neutral capabilities so brands and agencies can make their own decisions. Giving them the insights on where they can get the most effective reach and, most importantly, it’s interoperable with all of the other tech stack that they have so they can run their own measurement. We obviously have the Amazon Marketing Cloud which will provide you with amazing measurement capability that is not just Prime Video inventory.”
Netflix Comes To Amazon DSP
In the same vein, Amazon announced that Netflix inventory would be available to buy in its DSP soon in Q4 of this year.
“It will have a material impact on the way marketers use Amazon DSP to consolidate all of their SVOD buying in one place. In the Amazon world, we have trillions of signals across buying, browsing, streaming and we bring all of that supply together, all of that inventory together, then translate it into first-party audience segments to go and target—which we think will yield better results for everyone,” said Pang.
“If I take a step back and frame it up at the industry level, where a lot of folks talk about SVOD or CTV being the future, it isn’t—it’s really the present. We know that it’s an opportunity for brands to be building more and better connections and engagement with formats that I think are more interactive that will give more relevant and better results.”
Pang is right, SVOD and CTV is very much the present. But Amazon isn’t alone in the market.
“It’s powerful,” said Patrick Fakiye, implementation and activation group director at EssenceMediacom.
“You can still buy Netflix through DV360 and The Trade Desk. But the uniqueness here is that you can’t buy Amazon Ads anywhere else. It gives you that full ecosystem of streaming in one platform and understands your uniques, reach, frequency, all the different metrics that really matter to us in one place rather than getting data from one DSP another part from another and not really speaking to each other to be able to draw insights.”
“It’s good news, it’s a great addition,” added Crowley. “It can only mean good things for agencies and clients. I do have questions on how it works and what it means. It does muddy the waters a bit but it’s an interesting space to be playing in… They are Amazon, and in the past their focus has been Amazon but there’s more reference to the wider market and planning and making it easier to plan and trade and the wider job that needs to be done.”
“What is available today is pretty much all the programmatic inventory among the broadcasters for their BVOD inventory, then across the other streamers—in future the likes of Paramount Plus, Foxtel’s inventory. We’ll see what happens as the market continues to expand,” added Pang.
“Ultimately, it’s flexibility for the brand to pick and choose where they buy and we’re trying to make it as efficient as possible.”
Ads formats
There were two new ads formats (or new to Amazon Prime Video at least) on offer.
Interactive video ads enable viewers to take immediate action through simple interactions—whether by remote control, mobile device scan, or voice command. Viewers can add products to their Amazon cart or learn more about brands directly, without leaving the streaming experience. Amazon said brands can connect their upper funnel streaming TV ad campaigns with their lower funnel outcomes, like add to basket and product sales.
Interactive pause ads will have viewers shown a translucent ad featuring brand messaging and imagery, along with an “Add to Cart” or “Learn More” creative overlay. These interactive overlays remain available as long as the content is paused, extending engagement opportunities beyond traditional ad breaks.
Amazon referenced a Kantar study in the US showing that brands using video ads showed a 30 per cent uplift in brand awareness compared to campaigns that did incorporate these formats. It quoted its internal data showing campaigns using the interactive ads formats Prime Video interactive ads in their streaming campaigns generated 36 per cent more orders compared to those without interactive features.
“I think they’ve said ‘None of this is new’ we’re just going to do it as Amazon and we’re going to probably do it a little better which is quite refreshing. The thin I love about Amazon is they never try to reinvent the wheel. They take what works and they just make it at a larger scale which, from an advertising perspective, is quite refreshing because you get bombarded with new stuff all the time,” said Farrington.
“As an industry, I feel like we’re at something of a peak and Amazon is just riding that peak and doing things a little better and more efficiently.”
“Interactive ads where you can add directly to cart from a pause ad if you’re an endemic brand on Amazon is such a cool opportunity for a brand to test because it removes a step,” added Fakiye.
“They’re taking the strength of Prime Video and the content [more on that in a second, reader] but they’re really closing the loop by bringing in their commerce,” said Crowley.
“We need to prove business outcomes. They’re well placed to do that and that’s the full-funnel solution, improving through the suite of their products, the data and the measurement that’s possible.”
New Content, Cricket, NBA
Finally, the fun stuff. Amazon Prime Video (which remember is only one string to Amazon’s hefty war bow) had a few new content announcements.
Deadloch is returning for season two after proving to be a hit around the world. In fact, Nina Oyama, one of the stars, hosted the upfront. Luke Hemsworth has also joined the cast. Pat Cummins, Australian cricket team captain, joined Hwei Loke’s head of Prime Video on stage, too—causing one or two swoons from the crowd.
“[Oyama] was hilarious,” said Farrington, “though maybe a few jokes about Newtown that didn’t land for other people. I found them quite funny. Probably laughed a bit too hard at a couple of them.”
From next month, its 11-year NBA partnership commences giving Prime members exclusive access to 67 regular season games, all Emirates NBA Cup Knockout Rounds, every SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament games, and first and second round Playoff action.
Prime Video will also have all the matches of the upcoming ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 live, exclusive and free for all Australians. Prime Video will also exclusively broadcast the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup in January, 2026, and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in February, 2026.
Blade Runner 2099, Scarpetta with Nicole Kidman, and Elle are set to feature alongside MrBeast’s Beast Games, too and an AFL docuseries.
“They showcased the breadth of their content and talent. It’s really driving a lot of attention and traction,” said Fakiye.
“There’s a lot of good stuff. With the sport, I think the streaming platforms have tapped into the fact it’s what Aussies want and, if they want subscribers, that’s a big gap,” said Crowley.
The final word
What matters, of course, is whether this upfront will change anyone’s plans for the coming year.
“Depends on the brand,” said Fakiye.
“It gives me more confidence in the depth of Amazon’s content and the power of its content that has those cultural and iconic moments that keep people coming back day-to-day… there’s a really strong proposition.”
“Possibly,” said Crowley.
“We’re mid-way through upfronts season and there’s a lot of announcements to come from Seven, Nine, 10. The [Amazon] content is quality. AI is an asset but we want to stand against bland. They did nod to that and there’s great capability through Brand+ and Performance+ and that’s the stuff that’s going to shift the dial.”
