Dive Brief:
- Amazon has hired a former Disney executive to spearhead its efforts to introduce ads to Prime Video, according to media reports.
- Jeremy Helfand is joining the company as vice president and head of advertising for Prime Video ahead of the ad tier’s planned rollout later this month. The executive previously helped develop Hulu’s ad business before taking on broader duties at parent Disney that touched on properties including Disney+ and ESPN.
- Helfand, who posted about the move on his LinkedIn page, will guide strategy for a business segment that is expected to generate billions more in revenue for Amazon’s media juggernaut and serves as a key piece of the streaming category’s shift toward implementing more conventional commercials.
Dive Insight:
Amazon has snapped up a media veteran with established know-how in designing an ad business for the streaming age. Helfand played an important role in building out Hulu’s offerings, later translating that experience to other corners of Disney’s empire like Disney+ and ESPN. Helfand most recently was in charge of Disney’s global advertising platform strategy, product, engineering, operations and partnership ecosystem across linear, digital and streaming channels, per his LinkedIn page.
Helfand has a tall order to fill leading Prime Video’s wider charge into advertising, which will hit markets including North America on Jan. 29. Prime Video has steadily added programming that acts as a magnet for brand dollars, securing the rights to the NFL’s prime-time “Thursday Night Football” in 2021. But it’s a comparative latecomer in launching a distinct ad-supported streaming option where commercials appear around most TV and film content, following in the footsteps of rivals like Netflix, Max and Disney+ that have come under pressure to prove streaming can be profitable. Amazon additionally owns ad-supported streaming brand Freevee.
Prime Video is included as part of the popular Prime subscription package, giving it a wide reach. Amazon has promised that ad loads will initially be limited, and users can pay an additional $2.99 per month to avoid commercials entirely.
Prime Video’s advertising expansion is expected to generate as much as $5 billion in annual revenue for Amazon, according to Bank of America forecasts cited by Bloomberg. That will further bolster an advertising segment that has risen to become one of Amazon’s fastest-growing areas of business thanks to the company’s ability to wed campaigns closer to the point of transaction on its sprawling e-commerce marketplace. For example, Amazon ran the NFL’s first Black Friday game in November, linking a closely watched game to a blockbuster shopping holiday.
