Weekly Prompt: Amazon Prime Video new shoppable ad formats

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled a suite of new interactive and shoppable ad formats, including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and brand trivia ads. These three new ad formats come just a few months after the introduction of ads on Prime Video and will be presented at Amazon’s streaming TV upfront presentation.

During Prime Video commercial breaks, shoppable carousel ads will enable advertisers to showcase multiple Amazon products for viewers to scroll through and add to their Amazon cart using the remote. If a viewer doesn’t interact with the video ad, the content stream resumes once the ad finishes playing.

The new pause ads will appear when viewers pause a show, movie, or live sporting event. These translucent overlay ads feature interactive elements such as "add to cart" and "learn more" buttons, providing viewers with the opportunity to engage with advertised products without interrupting their viewing experience.

The third format, brand trivia ads, prompts viewers to interact with the ad by answering sponsored trivia questions to unlock rewards or product discounts, or to receive product information via email or add more items to their cart.

What sets Amazon Prime Video’s new ad formats apart is the integration of direct checkout capabilities, allowing viewers to complete purchases directly from the ads using their TV remote, unlike other streaming platforms that rely on QR codes or mobile devices for shoppable experiences.

While Amazon has not disclosed the specifics of when these new ad formats will be widely available, they are currently being tested with a select group of advertisers and are expected to become more widely accessible later this year. With these new interactive and shoppable ad formats, Amazon Prime Video aims to offer advertisers innovative ways to engage with viewers while providing a more convenient and seamless shopping experience.

Sources:  Ad Age, Ad Exchanger, Digital Commerce 360

Meta is conducting a global test that will allow Instagram users to cross-post their images to Threads. This experience is opt-in. When users cross-post their Instagram posts, the caption will become text for the Threads post, and hashtags will be converted into plain text. Read more

Threads is rolling out a new feature that makes it easy for users to understand how their posts perform. Users can now tap anywhere on a post to display its total view count. Read more

YouTube has expanded the test of its new AI-powered Jump Ahead option, which enables viewers to skip ahead to the most engaging part of any clip. The feature has been in testing with a small subset of subscribers, and YouTube is now making it available to all Premium users in the U.S. Read more