Amazon Says It Exceeded Expectations With ‘Significant Growth’ in Upfront

Amazon has wrapped up its second-ever upfront talks.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the news to ADWEEK today, sharing that the company finalized agreements with “significant growth” across all major holding companies and had strong commitments from independent agencies. The company said it “exceeded” its expectations in upfront commitments year over year with new and existing advertisers.

According to the spokesperson, brands were “excited” by the company’s live sports offering, including the NBA, which provided incremental volume growth.

Sports have been a driving force during this upfront season, several media buyers recently told ADWEEK. Prime Video’s expanded live sports portfolio includes programming across Thursday Night Football, NBA on Prime, NASCAR Cup Series, WNBA, and NWSL.

Amazon is also seeing increased demand for brand partnerships across its entertainment offerings, connecting brands to Prime Video’s popular films and series, including Fallout, Oh. What. Fun, Beast Games, Merv, and Elle. It will also continue to push for innovative adtech capabilities, with a focus on making it easier for advertisers to plan, measure, and optimize their campaigns.

“Amazon DSP offers customers a seamless single point of access to the best inventory, providing a holistic programmatic buying and measurement solution across both Amazon-owned properties and premium publishers,” the Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue to serve as strategic partners to brands, working hard every day to innovate and invent on behalf of our advertising customers.”

Amazon is one of the last major publishers to announce its upfront closing, following NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, TelevisaUnivision, and Netflix. Like the others, the company did not disclose total volume or CPMs (cost per thousand viewers reached).

In its first upfront close last year, Amazon shook up the upfront with an influx of inventory, leading to lower prices across the board, multiple buyers previously told ADWEEK.