Why Amazon Ads stoked envy among media buyers

With 75.2% of the retail media market share in the US and 42% globally, Amazon Ads is an essential partner for advertisers with lower-funnel objectives.

However, our retail media strength inadvertently created a brand perception challenge as strong lower-funnel associations were limiting advertisers’ familiarity with our expansive full-funnel ad offering. This includes channels that help advertisers reach audiences at a massive scale; Prime Video, Twitch, Freevee, Fire TV, Amazon Music, and custom media on Amazon boxes and lockers.

Our audience were only thinking of us for a tiny fraction of what we offer, thereby limiting our awareness growth and perception as a full-funnel ad partner.

The objectives

To shift advertisers’ perception of Amazon Ads from providing lower-funnel ads to full-funnel ads, we launched an integrated campaign that ran across eight countries (US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Mexico).

Two objectives measured campaign success.

• Increase unaided brand awareness (goal: +5%)

• Increase “must buy” perception (goal: +5%)

The idea

Our core audience are marketers and media planners in charge of growing the biggest, most well-known brands in the world. Their passion for marketing makes them hyper-aware of advertising created by their competitors. When they see a brand using a new media channel in an interesting way, they’re often left feeling envious.

But envy is nothing to be ashamed of. Because for our audience, it’s a strong motivator of media experimentation. It’s the spark that drives them from: “Damn, I wish I did that.”, to: “Next time, that will be me!”.

Not only is envy shared as a compliment on LinkedIn posts, it’s been referenced by our customers as a purchase driver. A media planning director shared, “I bought a Prime Video ads sponsorship because I want you to see how serious I am. We see what you’re doing with x (competitive brand) and we want to go one better.”.

The strategic decision of using envy as motivation to try Amazon Ads’ upper-funnel media led to the campaign idea, “Don’t get media envy, get Amazon Ads.”.

Execution

Even when someone is trying to hide their envy, it often shows in their facial expressions and body language. This made film the best way to depict media envy in a lighthearted way leading to it having a significant role in campaign storytelling.

The long-form hero film follows a marketer who’s initially excited to launch a campaign for his (fictional) brand Zang, but that excitement quickly diminishes as seemingly everywhere he goes, he stumbles into ads for Zang’s competitor, ZING. ZING’s campaign using Prime Video ads, a Twitch partnership, branded Amazon boxes, and a branded Amazon Locker is inescapable resulting in the marketer’s media envy growing before reaching a breaking point when ZING is awarded Brand of the Year at an award show. The video closes with ZING’s team rushing to the stage to receive their award, leaving Zang’s marketer in shambles at a table nearby.

Short-form films communicated the product benefits of Prime Video ads and Twitch ads. The films follow the Zang marketer being served ZING’s ads, and through a voiceover, we enter his frustrated mind as he privately admits envy for Zing’s perfectly executed media.

Implementing the idea

To promote our upper-funnel ad supply, we used upper-funnel media to capture the attention of marketers and media planners.

Our awareness driving media strategy pulled on three levers:

1) press outreach to drive earned coverage

2) Amazon owned media to demonstrate efficacy

3) third-party media to extend reach and frequency

Reading advertising trade publications is part of our audience’s daily media routine. At launch, we activated press outreach to spur coverage and gain the endorsement of industry thought leaders.

Not only did our campaign promote Amazon Ads media, we used it to prove to our audience that it can reach relevant customers. We built a custom audience profile using first-party streaming, shopping, and browsing signals to efficiently reach advertisers with a 30 second brand film that ran across Prime Video, Freevee, and Fire TV. Static retargeting banners on Amazon.com promoted Prime Video ads and Twitch ads.

We extended campaign reach and frequency through third-party premium online video, social media, and high-impact digital media to communicate our brand story and product benefits.

After launching the campaign, we adapted the idea for Cannes Lions, running print creative across major publications with a timely reminder, “Don’t get awards envy, get Amazon Ads.”.

The results

In a category known for functional, product-focused messaging, our use of comedic storytelling gained the attention of advertisers globally and improved key brand perceptions.

At launch, 19 articles were written about our campaign by major trade publications that garnered 7 million impressions, 133% more impressions than our previous record for Amazon Ads campaign coverage.

Through the first six weeks of our five-month campaign, paid media drove 456M media impressions and 573,101 website visits, which had a significant impact toward already meeting our campaign goals during the initial campaign phase.

• Increased unaided brand awareness by 7.5% (goal: +5%)

• Increased “must buy” perception by 5% (goal: +5%)

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