Marketers are keeping a close eye on Amazon’s shoppable Prime ads this Thanksgiving

“Shoppable ads are an interesting prospect, but they really need prove themselves out as a use case or a behavior that consumers are actually going to follow through on,” said Steven Frey, planning director at independent media agency Noble People. The long holiday weekend could provide marketers with a chance to do just that.

Amazon introduced three “interactive” formats for its streaming inventory back in May. They include video ads that let customers add products directly to their cart with a remote click; interactive pause ads that drive brand engagement whenever viewers take a break; and shoppable carousel ads that allow customers to browse and buy multiple products right from ad breaks on Prime Video.

130.4 million subscribers use Amazon’s ad-supported Prime tier, some 80% of its overall customer base, according to eMarketer. With consumers primed to take advantage of the annual discounting event — and a large audience expected to stream Prime’s Black Friday coverage of the Kansas Chiefs versus the Las Vegas Raiders — it’s a chance to take those formats for a spin.

“It makes sense to test it in an environment where likely there’s going to be a promotion attached to it, like there often is around Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” said Brett Fischer, performance media supervisor at media agency Collective Measures.

He said that two of the agencies’ clients, toy brands VTech and LeapFrog, were set to use the formats in their media mix over the Thanksgiving weekend, but didn’t provide terms of the brands’ respective agreements. Fischer added: “We don’t want to bet the house on these shoppable units. I think it’ll certainly be more of a testing approach at first.”

Brian Fitzharris, svp and general manager, Fisher-Price told Digiday that the Mattel brand had already “dabbled” with the formats. “A lot of this is test-and-learn to kind of see whether or not we’re getting [a] breakthrough. We’ve definitely been checking it out… but it’s pretty nascent in this respect,” he said, adding that Amazon was “critically important” to its holiday strategy. Fitzharris didn’t share the results of those early tests.

Given the importance of the holiday weekend and Christmas runway period for toy brands such as VTech, LeapFrog and Fisher-Price, Thanksgiving should provide a bellwether moment for their shoppable ad usage.

“Seamless, interactive experiences are essential to drive engagement and conversion,” said Alex Walker, managing director at Havas Market U.K. Walker said the agency’s U.S. arm was testing the shoppable formats with one client over Thanksgiving, but didn’t name them.

Fitzharris and Fischer didn’t say what percentage of monthly media budgets would be put aside for shoppable formats. 

Thresholds for “experimental” budgets range higher or lower, depending on a client’s target audience and broader media mix. Havas’ Walker estimated clients might devote “a single digit percentage of media budget investment in beta formats,” for example. 

At Juice Media, a media agency that works with several DTC brands such as Dollar Shave Club and Goldbelly, president Mark Zamuner said the shoppable formats could consume up to 20% of their spend. He said that “three or four” of the agency’s clients planned to use the formats, declining to name any or provide exact spend.

“Folks are still experimenting, A-B, testing what’s going to drive a better response. While people are forward-facing, nobody’s willing to come in 100%,” he said.

Amazon’s Thanksgiving weekend includes its second year of NFL coverage on Prime. Advertiser demand around the Black Friday game is high, and the platform hung up a “sold out” sign back in October. Google Pixel, Solo Stove, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Microsoft, and Uber Eats are among the brands that made the cut, according to an Amazon spokesperson. Furthermore, 40% of the brands advertising against the matchup are new to its football offering, according to head of U.S. live sports and video sales, Danielle Carney.

The spokesperson declined to confirm what proportion of the ads sold against the game or on Prime across the entire holiday period, included a shoppable capability, or to provide pricing figures for the shoppable formats. “Shoppable ad experiences significantly improves the opportunity for advertisers to engage with live audiences,” they said.

While not every brand will be booking ads against the game, Walker suggested the double whammy of shoppable formats with live sports would be tempting for advertisers. “The combination of having a great format and then ultimately having great inventory in terms of top tier sporting events to run it against… I think that’s a smart move,” he said.

Marketers outside the U.S. will be keeping an eye on how these experiments play out. Amazon’s shoppable formats are set to be available in Britain next year, for example. “From a U.K. perspective this will be a really nice test,” said Walker.

In particular, they’ll be thinking about what creative assets might best perform with the formats. 

For now, Fischer said ad creative would likely be “product forward rather than brand forward,” placing the format in the canon of direct advertising despite its TV setting. 

But further down the line, Walker said he expected brands and agencies to work toward a more fitted approach. “From a consumer point of view, it’s more engaging if the format is relevant, rather than feeling like it’s been lifted and shifted from somewhere else,” he said.