Streaming companies have spent years chiseling their way into the upfront market. Few have done so as aggressively as Amazon, which is using the annual negotiation season as a beachhead for both its ad tech and streaming ad businesses as it kicks off this week.“We’re not incremental to linear anymore. We’re competing at the broadcast level,” said Tanner Elton, Amazon’s vp of U.S. ad sales.
Speaking with Digiday, Elton argued that Amazon is now a fully-fledged member of the upfronts set, capable of going toe-to-toe with the likes of CBS, NBC, Fox or Disney with an entire portfolio of live sports rights.
38% of marketers expect deals struck during upfront negotiations to claim at least half of their media budgets, according to an iSpot survey. But that market has become a tougher place for media companies as the pendulum has swung farther and farther in favor of buyers and brands. At last year’s upfront, advertisers prolonged negotiations as they pushed for flexibility in the form of contractual opt-outs. Elton expects similar demands from marketers this season.
He’s got an angle, though. Amazon always does.
Where traditional broadcasters might point to the depth, breadth and brand safety of their output, Elton emphasizes the commerce giant’s wealth of audience and targeting data as a means of prising open ad budgets. The latter is a guiding priority among marketers today; according to a recent IAB survey — 49% list it as their top criterion when deciding where to spend video dollars.
