US giant exploring ways to work more closely with brands across scripted and unscripted shows
Amazon MGM Studios plans to deepen its partnerships with brands and the advertising world as it looks for new ways to fund its content.
Interest in brand-funded programming has surged among producers over the past two years, amid rising costs and largely stagnant budgets.
While product placement has been a relatively common occurrence for years – depending on individual country’s advertising regulations – Amazon MGM Studios is now looking for much deeper relationships with brands to “build original content…together”.
“We’re looking to build up muscle around having ads inside of content and we’re happy with product placement,” Lauren Anderson, head of brand and content innovation at Amazon MGM Studios, told delegates at Content London today (5 December).
Creative conundrum
Anderson pointed out that each ad experience needed to be localised but said the strategy is intent on “going deeper on the partnerships we have”.
Though integrating brands into scripted shows has proven challenging, Anderson said that Amazon MGM’s approach is about exploration with creatives and “getting in front of them earlier”, though she stressed that showrunners remain central to the creative process.
“Perhaps you want real life products to exist inside of their shows,” she continued, adding that there were limitations with tentpoles such as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring but suggesting that while product placement isn’t appropriate for that title, the company would look at other ways to build brand integrations around the show.
The Amazon MGM Studios exec added that the focus is on “integration” and ensuring products can “be a story point”.
“There’s more interest in this, you have to get really ahead of timelines. You won’t see as many integrations from us right now because it takes time, but you will see more. There are plenty of ways to marry your brand with content.”
Anderson said she wants programming that “put the content and the brand in front of a new audience in an organic way” and “extend the show’s audience”.
She pointed to the Winning Wednesdays programming ‘block’ as an example of how the company is working with brands.
The programming line-up includes Pop Culture Jeopardy!, Wish List Games, Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity? and Buy It Now, and Anderson said it provided broader collaborations with clients.
“You can sponsor individual titles but we like sponsoring packages, bringing it together in a bigger way,” she continued, adding that all the shows comprising Winning Wednesdays “have a deep brand component or integration. We love this model.”
The increased interest in brands follows news that Amazon is shutting down its free ad-supported streamer Freevee, as the e-commerce giant consolidates its services.
Freevee’s shows are being moved into Prime Video, with Amazon MGM Studios content teams who had worked on the streamer’s originals remaining in the company to work on shows for Prime Video
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