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Amazon thinks it can do more for TV advertisers than traditional TV.
The digital giant is preparing to meet with marketers during the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which gets underway on Tuesday. And when the company does, executives plan to tout not only its ability to help sell goods and services via its large e-commerce portal, but to gain significant reach among consumers, thanks to its streaming content and a growing spate of programmatic alliances it has struck with rivals including Disney, Roku and Netflix, among others.
“At some level, you want to be the ‘everything store’ for advertising,” says Alan Moss, vice president of global sales for Amazon Ads, during a recent interview.
Moss’ willingness to preview Amazon’s plans for CES suggests the company continues to have confidence in its ability to lure new support from Madison Avenue as most video companies move earlier into negotiations ahead of the “upfront,” the annual sales market during which the bulk of TV ad inventory is sold. “We will expand beyond traditional channels and bring more advertisers, especially non-endemics, into our fold,” he says.
Asked what categories of advertisers Amazon need to secure more dollars from, Moss replies: “The simple definition is: those that don’t sell on Amazon.”
Amazon seems poised to put a bigger spotlight on its ability to connect advertisers with bigger audiences. The company has created an enviable suite of DSP agreements that can help advertisers reach both video and audio users of content tied to other companies. The hope is that giving marketers the chance to buy a broader set of programmatic inventory from a single venue might reduce the number of commercials they show to the same consumer and improve the effectiveness of commercials by distributing them with more precision.
“We can now connect advertisers to 90% of all US households, giving us a broad, deterministic reach,” says Moss.
Amazon’s ability to extend reach beyond its own content led it to launch a new “live events optimizer” that enables programmatic advertisers to connect with audiences during heavily watched live moments. These are fast becoming like gold for Madison Avenue stalwarts, who are grappling with a growing number of TV viewers who watch programs at times of their own choosing — in a splintered mass that is harder to reach in an efficient manner. A good chunk of Amazon’s content is watched in such disaggregated fashion, but the company continues to sink millions into sports rights. After winning “Thursday Night Football,” Amazon has now moved on to the NBA, with a new rights deal.
Rivals have their own big-ticket events to sell. Disney is expected to use its scheduled telecast of the 2027 Super Bowl to tout a broader series of live events against which it hopes to sell advertising packages. NBCUniversal has a new rights pact with Major League Baseball that will help extend its Sunday-night sports franchise, as well as a bigger celebration tied to the 100th anniversary of its broadcast network.
Amazon has raised eyebrows in recent months among sales executives at many traditional advertisers after its use of sharp elbows in last year’s sales market. Amazon opted to hold a showcase last year on the first night of the industry’s mid-May “upfront week” — a slot that has been used for years by rivals NBCUniversal and Fox for events and meetings with advertisers and buyers.
The strategy didn’t appear to crimp Amazon’s sales efforts. “We exceeded our own expectations in upfront commitments year over year with new and existing advertisers,” Amazon said in a statement in August, nodding to interest in a new NBA rights pact and series including “Fallout” and “Beast Games.”
Amazon will also spotlight new capabilities powered via A.I. One analyzes a brand’s presence across Amazon’s properties, then “generates creative briefs and storyboards for campaigns,” says Moss.
There is also a new effort to combine ads that generate awareness and those that help lead to a sale, in a new “full funnel” product expected to debut in the first quarter of 2026. Such an effort might start with “premium streaming TV, audio, then reinforces brand message with display and online video across Amazon in the open internet and completes the conversion, whether it’s on a brand site or with sponsored ads,” Moss explains.
The economic outlook in recent months has been foggy, with concern about tariffs creating an overhang of sorts on optimistic sentiment. Recent forecasts have called for new reasons for hope in 2026. WPP Media has called for global ad spend in 2026 to increase 7.1%, compared with a previous estimate of 6.1%. One of the factors cited is a raft of new products and services created by A.I., leading to new firms that need to advertise.
“To some extent the uncertainty is a little bit of the new normal,” Moss says, adding: “No matter the economic climate, advertisers are focused on using advertising where it’s most likely to achieve their desired business goals, whether that’s awareness, consideration, or diversion.”
English (US) ·