Amazon Ads unveils premium content, streaming partnerships and new ad formats at Australian Upfront
At its annual Upfront presentation, Amazon Ads ANZ unveiled expanded partnerships, premium content, and new advertising solutions designed to help Australian brands connect with audiences at scale. Amazon Ads also announced that Prime Video’s average monthly ad-supported reach in Australia has grown to more than 5.5 million viewers, up 10% year-on-year.
The event featured executives from Amazon Ads and Prime Video, who were joined by stars of Prime Video series, movies and live sport including Nina Oyama from global hit and Australian Prime Original series, Deadloch; Luke Hemsworth from Season Two of Prime Original series, The Terminal List; and Teresa Palmer from upcoming thriller, Subversion, along with Australian Women’s Cricket Captain, Sophie Molineux.
Prime Video Unveils Upcoming Slate
Prime Video executives took to the stage to talk about the service’s upcoming slate of original TV series and movies, and revealed how previous launches continue to generate cultural impact and attract record-breaking audiences on Prime Video globally. Titles including The Summer I Turned Pretty, which reached 70 million viewers globally in 70 days for Season 3, saw a 65% increase with the latest season compared to Season 2. Off Campus reached 36 million viewers globally in the first 12 days, with Season 2 now in production. Elle, the prequel to the iconic Legally Blonde franchise, debuted at #1 on Prime Video worldwide, and filming on Season 2 has wrapped.
Alexandra Gilbert, Head of Content for Prime Video, Australia and New Zealand unveiled a slate of new and returning titles including: Fourth Wing, based on Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling fantasy franchise; and Tomb Raider, starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft alongside Sigourney Weaver, from creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Gilbert also highlighted Amazon MGM Studios’ on-going investment in local storytelling through the commissioning of a growing number of Australian Original series, which are being enjoyed by customers in Australia and around the world. 34 Australian Originals have been produced since 2019, including the upcoming The Test Season 4 which follows the Australian men’s cricket team through the 2027 Ashes.
These local series sit alongside Prime Video’s global titles with Australian connections including Subversion, a high-stakes submarine thriller starring Chris Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer, which was filmed in Australia with local crews. Prime Video is also the exclusive home to all four ICC Cricket Events in 2027, including the first ever ICC Women’s Champions Trophy, ICC World Test Championship Final and the ICC Men’s World Cup. On the court, Prime Video delivers NBA coverage from October through June — including regular season games to exclusive NBA Cup finals and play-ins featuring several Australian players, from Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels to Johnny Furphy, Ben Simmons and Jock Landale.
Amazon Ads Unveils New Ad Formats on Prime Video
The opportunity for brands on Prime Video is accelerating. Ad-supported viewing hours grew 10% from 2024 to 2025, reinforcing Prime Video as a destination where engaged audiences and commerce converge. Today, Amazon Ads is taking that connection further with new advertising formats that combine AI-driven personalisation with interactivity to deliver even more relevant, measurable advertising on Prime Video.
Location-Based Interactive Video Ads enable brands to tailor streaming TV creative by geography within a single national campaign. Advertisers can customise regional offers, pricing, or local business information while interactive features such as “Send to Phone” and “Sign Up Today” make ads directly actionable from the TV screen. The format bridges the gap between national reach and local relevance, opening premium streaming advertising to brands across categories including automotive, financial services, and telecommunications.
Dynamic TV Creative automatically personalises Interactive Video Ads on Prime Video based on viewer shopping behaviour. Leveraging Amazon’s trillions of shopping, browsing, and streaming signals alongside AI-driven creative optimisation, the format dynamically adjusts ad elements, including product imagery, call-to-action, headline copy, and product detail. Advertisers upload a single creative asset, and personalisation is generated automatically, removing the need to produce multiple versions for a single campaign. Dynamic TV Creative adds to the existing interactive and shoppable ad formats on Prime Video, including AI-powered pause ads and location-based IVA. It will be available to Australian brands selling on the Amazon store in early 2027.
Next Up Ads enables advertisers to place a brand message the moment a viewer finishes one episode and queues the next. Next Up Ads allow a single brand to tell a cohesive story woven through the entire viewing session. Brands with Prime Video sponsorships will receive first access to this sequential ad experience, available in beta later this year.
Brands are already seeing the business impact. L’Oréal Paris demonstrated the power of connecting premium entertainment with commerce through its sponsorship of Elle. By pairing in-episode product integration of L’Oréal Paris products with shoppable Prime Video ad formats, the campaign reached 1 million unique viewers on Prime Video in Australia, achieved video completion rates of nearly 95%, and drove more than 5000 branded searches.
“L’Oréal Paris exists to empower women through beauty, and Elle was the perfect stage for that,” said Georgia Hack, CMO, L’Oréal ANZ, who took to the stage to reveal the work between L’Oréal Paris and Amazon Ads. “Amazon Ads let us go beyond the screen, turning cultural moments into commerce and making it easy for viewers to discover and shop the products that inspired them.”
Now, Amazon Ads is taking that connection further with new advertising formats that combine AI-driven personalisation with interactivity to deliver even more relevant, measurable advertising on Prime Video.
Brands Gain New Ways to Reach Audiences Across Audio, Streaming, and Premium Publishers
Advertisers can now reach Australian audiences across an expanding list of premium publishers and the open internet, all planned, bought, and measured through Amazon DSP. To this end, Amazon Ads announced a major expansion of its programmatic capabilities through Amazon DSP, across premium audio and streaming publishers.
Amazon Ads launched cross-format audio advertising via Amazon DSP, partnering with premium local publishers SCA, ARN and Nova Entertainment amongst others, to give advertisers access to streaming audio, podcasts, and radio in one place. Amazon Ads also announced a direct integration with the Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX), deepening its existing partnership with Spotify. Together, these partnerships mean brands can now reach Australian audiences across the full audio spectrum — connecting with listeners wherever they’re spending their time and across channels.
Amazon Ads is also extending Amazon Audiences to Netflix in Australia — the local rollout of a partnership first announced in March 2026 — building on the existing programmatic partnership between the two companies. Powered by trillions of proprietary Amazon shopping, streaming, and browsing signals, Amazon Audiences enables advertisers to reach Netflix’s highly engaged viewers based on real interests and shopping behaviour, connecting commerce intelligence with premium entertainment.
These announcements underscore Amazon Ads commitment to simplifying the buying experience for advertisers, driving deeper partnerships with premium publishers, and building full-funnel advertising across the open internet.
Turning Signals into Relevance, with AI-Powered AdTech
Agentic AI is here and Amazon Ads is putting it to work for advertisers.
The event also showcased Ads Agent, which combines agentic AI with Amazon’s first-party insights to help Australian DSP self-service advertisers build, optimise, and analyse campaigns using natural language. Amazon Ads also announced the Amazon Ads MCP Server, now available to Australian advertisers in open beta. Built on an open standard, the MCP server gives technology partners, agencies, and advertisers the flexibility to connect AI tools directly into their advertising solutions for campaign creation, reporting, and account management.
From streamlining campaign management to powering full-funnel outcomes for brands inside and outside the Amazon store, Amazon’s AI and signal-driven capabilities are redefining what advertisers can achieve.
Says Willie Pang, Managing Director, Amazon Ads ANZ: “Last year we made a promise to Australian advertisers: full-funnel advertising, for everyone. Today we’re continuing to deliver on that promise, with deeper partnerships alongside the premium publishers Australians love, new interactive and personalised ad formats on Prime Video, and AI-powered innovation that puts advertisers in control. Whether a brand sells on Amazon or not, they can now reach audiences across Amazon and the open internet — with the complexity stripped away and everything planned, bought, and measured from one place.”
For more information, please visit https://advertising.amazon.com/
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