Amazon is now ready to target NFL ads, which big brands have been asking for, and is celebrating its buzzy new Freevee show “Jury Duty” at its NewFronts pitch, two pieces of news that highlight the streaming potential the e-commerce juggernaut is eager to sell to advertisers.

Amazon has had its hand in prestige programming with originals such as “Rings of Power,” “The Expanse” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” among others, but those were made for its ad-free service Prime Video. “Jury Duty,” which debuted last month, comes as Amazon has been looking for a show with some online caché that can help spur interest in Freevee, its ad-supported free app competing with Peacock, Disney+, Roku and others.

“Our team expected it” to be a hit, Alan Moss, VP of global sales at Amazon Ads, said of “Jury Duty.” Moss, speaking ahead of Amazon's NewFronts, also said the program was the subject of many “pre-upfront” conversations with brands. James Marsden, known for roles in “X-Men,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” and “Westworld,” among others, stars in “Jury Duty” and made an appearance at Amazon's NewFronts presentation on Monday night.

Amazon seems to be putting more weight behind Freevee, announcing plans during its presentation to stream more of its originals to the platform, which launched in 2019 under the name IMDb TV. Amazon also spent time promoting its other video platforms such as Fire TV, Prime Video, Twitch and the recently acquired MGM+.

Ad targeting in the NFL

Amazon has another decade to stream “Thursday Night Football” in its deal with the NFL and has made a litany of updates to its ad services going into the 2023-24 football season. One of the major announcements, which had been expected this year, is now official: NFL advertisers will be able to target ads during the games. Brands had been asking Amazon to make such targeting available—otherwise, advertising on streaming looks the same as on TV. Now, football advertisers will be able to run “audience-based creative,” Moss said, using Amazon insights to serve different creative to different users all in the same ad break.

After its inaugural season showing NFL games, Amazon still had work to do to get brands the same reach that they had come to expect from football on linear TV. Ad agencies were promised the potential to extend ad buys within Amazon to make good on any ratings shortfalls.

“[Amazon has] a bunch of advertisers who use them to run connected TV ads but limited inventory,” said David Dweck, senior VP of paid media at digital agency Wpromote. “So, that’s a pretty intelligent play … to pipe into Paramount and others.”

Also: Amazon DSP measurement—what brands are getting wrong

Amazon also has more inventory through which to target ads, because of deeper publisher relationships. Amazon has been quietly striking Amazon Publisher Direct deals with other streaming TV players, including Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which run apps on Fire TV and subscription channels on Prime Video. The publisher direct deals are an outgrowth of Amazon Publisher Services. Amazon is using its ad tech—the demand-side platform open to advertisers—to deliver commercials. 

Measurement and competition

On the measurement front, Amazon announced partnerships with iSpot and VideoAmp. It also touted Amazon Marketing Cloud, its version of a data clean room that brands use to connect their first-party data to Amazon audiences. Amazon has been making significant upgrades with the marketing cloud, the DSP and the publisher direct deals, making it possible to run ad campaigns and then get a good read on the effect of those campaigns on sales. Amazon wants to enable brands to track results even when sales happen outside Amazon’s own e-commerce store, Moss said.

The idea is to help brands “plan, optimize, and measure campaign outcomes … across Amazon properties and third-party stores,” Amazon said in an announcement ahead of its NewFronts.

Amazon’s ad business grew 21% to $9.5 billion in the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Google’s total ad business dipped but was basically flat year over year in the first quarter, at $54.6 billion; and YouTube’s ad revenue declined 2.6% to $6.9 billion. Amazon and Google are competing in digital video, commerce-related advertising and ad tech. YouTube even got its own NFL rights last year, when it scored Sunday Ticket, which comes to the service this year.

Amazon is trying to extend the amount of ad space it has, and part of that strategy was on display in its NewFronts pitch. Amazon announced it would release 100 Amazon “Original Series” to Freevee viewers. The programs, including “Wheel of Time,” “Reacher” and “Troop Zero,” were initially created without ad breaks for paying Prime Video subscribers. Amazon has long been blurring the boundaries between Prime Video and ad-supported viewing.

At last year’s NewFronts, Amazon announced “Bosch: Legacy” would stream to Freevee, after the original "Bosch" program was produced for Prime Video. Amazon also announced virtual product placements at last year’s NewFronts, which was a way to insert brands into shows in post-production.