Amazon is positioning Twitch as a defining asset in its CTV ambitions, folding the platform's hard-to-reach audience and live-video inventory into the same pitch it uses to sell Prime Video and Fire TV. That marks a clear break from not all that long ago. At Amazon's 2024 upfront, executives walked advertisers through an expanding video portfolio, but Twitch - despite having been in the fold for a decade - barely registered.
The integration, announced on Thursday, marks the first time a third-party ad solution has been able to serve ads to Amazon custom audiences. Through a direct server connection with a third-party platform like Clinch, Amazon can boost usage of its DSP and attract more advertiser spend without giving up control of its data. Clinch's clients, including Keurig Pepper, can now reach Amazon audiences not just on Amazon's own properties, but on any publisher who sells via Amazon DSP, including Disney, ESPN and NBC.
Netflix's Q3 revenues grew 17% to $11.51 billion in line with the Street's forecast. Its impressive content line-up helped drive viewership. According to reports, KPop Demon Hunters alone added " roughly 500 million viewing hours, with another about 400 million expected in the fourth quarter." EPS of $5.87 was significantly short of the market's forecast of $6.97. Netflix no longer reports a subscriber base, but analysts believe that it continues to add viewers in non-English speaking countries.
Over that time, advertisers across North America, Latin America, the European Union and Asia Pacific will have had the chance to move over to Amazon. Many likely will. When they do, they'll be onboarded via Amazon Ads reps or through the ad tech activation partner program, depending on their size, agency ties and service-level agreements. It's the equivalent of a concierge handoff into what's fast becoming one of the most powerful ways to buy ads on the open web.
The test is still in early stages, and Hearst's svp of ad product and data Jen Dorre, offered only limited detail last week at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Miami. Still, the early signs are promising. When advertisers buy Hearst ad inventory through the Amazon DSP, Dorre's team is seeing noticeably stronger completion and click-through rates compared to other buys.
Such alliances may help as Madison Avenue grapples with a glut of broadband-TV inventory on the market, much of the supply growing due to the entrance of both Amazon and Netflix into ad-supported streaming. This partnership will deal primarily with so-called "programmatic" advertising, or digital inventory that gets bought based on algorithms that define qualities of the specific consumers being sought by a marketer.
On Tuesday, Roqad, a company that now describes itself as "the LiveRamp of Europe," announced its acquisition of Zeotap-Data, the third-party data division of Zeotap, a startup that once wanted to be the LiveRamp of Europe. Both companies declined to share the financial terms. Roqad CEO Carsten Frien told AdExchanger the deal will help Roqad expand its identity resolution business through access to scaled third-party audience segments and Zeo tap Data's integrations with around 30 ad tech partners, including The Trade Desk, Adform, Google's DV360 and Amazon DSP.
