Imagine watching “The Summer I Turned Pretty” – a YA romance series that’s filmed in the coastal town of Wilmington, North Carolina – on Prime Video and, upon pausing an episode, seeing an ad for flights to beachfront destinations.
It won’t be long before that scenario becomes a reality.
Contextually relevant pause ads were just one of three new formats Amazon unveiled on Monday in advance of its upfront presentation.
The second format is called “real-time retail signals” which, as one would expect from the name, pulls in a retailer’s information directly from their Amazon storefront to inform creative, including product details, pricing, reviews and shipping information.
The third format, dubbed “call to action,” includes interactive elements, such as “subscribe now” and “book an appointment,” which can be useful for brands that also offer services they don’t sell on Amazon.
But the new contextual Prime ads stand out, according to Amazon, because the format uses machine learning technology to analyze the content being watched.
Contextual awareness will hopefully keep Amazon’s system from recommending the same kind of vacation or travel brands that would make sense for “The Summer I Turned Pretty” during an episode of, say, the postapocalyptic series “Fallout.” (Unless, of course, the Brotherhood of Steel is out there somewhere offering Vertibird rides.)
Advertisers can also create AI-generated and, as Amazon put it, “highly relevant” ad copy that refers to what’s happening on screen and also uses a brand’s existing creative assets as a guide. This will help establish a “natural and relevant connection” between what people are watching and what ads they see, turning ad experiences into “extensions of the entertainment experience, not interruptions,” stated Alan Moss, Amazon’s VP of global sales, in a release.
Contextual pause ads will launch in Q4. The other two new formats – retail signals and calls to action – will be available sooner. Both are set to roll out in the third quarter, an Ad Amazon spokesperson told AdExchanger.
