Upfront Week: When Viewers Hit Pause Amazon Delivers . . . The Right Ad
UPFRONT CITY, N.Y.- It’s television’s upfront week and again online shopping giant Amazon is telling marketers its technology can deliver better results as it steals ad dollars from the front porches of traditional linear TV companies.
The balance between programming and technology will be an interesting one to keep an eye on during the week. While once the upfronts were all about broadcast networks’ prime time schedules, that’s now vestigial to a larger mechanism designed to use data to reach customers and compete with digital media in terms of return on advertising spend, both perceived and measurable.
Amazon last year switched nearly all of its Prime Video subscribers from ad free to “you’ll get commercials and you’ll like it.” (Or you can pay us extra, and we’ll make the commercials go away.) As a result, Amazon says Prime Video has an average monthly ad-supported reach of 130 million customers in the U.S. alone.
With its deep data on what people buy, not to mention its ability to facilitate purchases, Amazon is muscular when it comes to providing marketers with targeting.
At this year’s upfront at the Beacon Theater in New York, one of Amazon’s announcements concerns new interactive commercial formats that take advantage of Amazon’s capabilities across data, ad-tech and fulfillment.
A number of streamers have been posting ads after viewers press the “pause” button on their remotes. Prime Video says its version of pause ads use artificial intelligence so that when a program pauses, the ad that appears is contextually relevant to the program and the consumers’ mood.
Amazon is also introducing ad formats that drive consumers to buy products that are available on the Amazon website, as well as ads that use various techniques to push buyers to buy products not available on Amazon.
“Starting this year, we are introducing a contextual advertising experience that dynamically aligns the ad message with the content viewers are watching - creating a natural and relevant connection,” said Alan Moss, VP, Global Ads, at Amazon.
“Based on Amazon’s signals and fully addressable and authenticated audiences, we are uniquely positioned to offer viewers scene-aware ads as extensions of the entertainment experience, not interruptions,” Moss said.
Amazon said it is using AI technology to analyze both viewing content and advertising creative in order to select the right advertisers and right message to appear during a pause. The technology then auto-generates hyper-relevant ad copy to make ads feel like natural extensions of what viewers are watching.
The on-Amazon shoppable ad format pulls in real-time retail info such as product details, pricing, deals, reviews, inventory availability, and Prime shipping information directly from the Amazon storefront, to help customers make real-time purchase decisions with a click of their remote, and never leaving the content stream.
For brands that don’t sell on Amazon, shoppable ads can employ interactive calls to action including location-based messaging, lead generation, like “get a quote” and “book an appointment,” and “subscribe now” buttons.
Amazon says that brands that use interactive ads have seen 30% higher brand awareness, a 28% lift in purchase intent and 36% more orders.
“Our ad formats are proven to drive measurable action on and off Amazon,” said Moss.
Amazon will likely be delivering more information during its upfront, including its slate of upcoming programming.
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They may not be as important as they were in the good old days, but networks still announce their prime time schedules during the upfront.
While Fox has been focusing on live programming – sports and news – it is highlighting a scripted entertainment lineup that starts with the new one-hour comedy Best Medicine, starring Josh Charles as a doctor who moves from the big city to practice in a small town. The show is based on the British series Doc Martin.
Fox will also be launching the crime thriller Memory of a Killer, inspired by a Belgian series.
Next Easter, Fox plans a limited series The Faithful based on the Bible’s stories of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, plus Sarah’s former slave Hagar from the Book of Genesis.
Ken Jeong and Erin Andrew will be hosting a new competition game show, 99 to Beat.
Fox will also be bringing back some blasts from the past including Weakest Link, Fear Factor: The Next Chapter and American Dad!.
“Building on our winning position in both key demos and co-viewing this season, Fox delivers a 2025-26 schedule that’s filled with irreverence, fun and much-needed laughter,” said Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade. “Next year more than ever, we’re bringing that promise to life with a terrific slate to delight our audiences across linear, Hulu and beyond.”
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Fox’s Tubi streaming service, which announced its new ad tech and interactive commercial formats last week, will also be talking about its programming during the Fox upfront.
Tubi is featuring an original animated series Breaking Bear starring Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Annie Murphy, Elizabeth Hurley and Josh Gad.
‘Breaking Bear’ (Image courtesy of Tubi
It also has three new young adult films for Gen Z in the works, with Hive starring Xochitl Gomez, How to Lose a Popularity Contest, starring Chase Hudson and Kissing Is The Easy Part with Asher Angel.
With Fox broadcasting the World Cup, Tubi will stream a sports docuseries Destination World Cup 2026.
“With fandom-focused new projects featuring incredible talent, from the star-studded cast of Breaking Bear to the meteoric rising stars of our YA titles, Tubi Originals are having a moment,” said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi. “We are committed to listening to our viewers and giving them more of what they love, like a sequel to our viral megahit Sidelined, a second season of the very relevant comedy Big Mood, and more content built around cultural moments such as Destination World Cup 2026. We will continue to amplify our original stories that resonate with our young and diverse viewers.”
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Before its Monday bash at Radio City Music Hall, NBCUniversal released a new study that shows how advertisers that worked with marketing agency Tinuiti and bought premium streaming programming from NBCU generated strong results from the top to the bottom of the legendary marketing funnel, compared to spending those ad dollars on search and social media.
On the heels of the report NBCUniversal and Tinuiti have expanded their relationship with a new data collaboration to refine Tinuiti advertising clients’ first-party data strategies. Tinuiti brands will be able to leverage authenticated identifiers across NBCUniversal’s digital properties – effectively unlocking best-in-class measurement and optimization capabilities, the companies said.
The study found that footwear brand NoBull, after shifting ad spending from search and social to streaming, saw a 19.8% increase in site visits, a 5.5% increase in purchase and a 3.7% gain in total revenue.
The companies also said the sneaker category overall saw an 18% lift in non-branded shipping clicks through purchases.
“Since its inception, television has proven to foster deep connections amongst audiences, while also fueling brand love and awareness. The data that we’ve unveiled today further illustrates that premium TV is a powerful performance marketing engine across the entire purchase funnel,” said Alison Levin, president, advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal. “By shifting spend into upper funnel channels, marketers can both enhance brand metrics and drive strong lower funnel KPIs. This collaboration reinforces premium TV advertising, delivers a dual-purpose and is the key to maximizing brand growth.”