Amazon Unboxed 2024: BBQ, Country, Amazon Ads & Awards

Texan BBQ + Live Country Music + Amazon Ad Product Announcements X Award Win = a formula for a very successful Unboxed 2024.

Paul Kotas, SVP of Amazon Ads, kicked off this years’ Unboxed by saying, ‘We can drive full funnel outcomes better than anyone else’. That set the tone. The rest of Unboxed aimed to show us all how, predominantly via multiple AMC and Amazon DSP focused sessions.

Overall it was clear that Amazon wants AMC to be pushed into mainstream use. It’s clearly viewed as a key part of the overall measurement and effectiveness strategy, in particular with regards to measuring conversion paths, audience insights and leveraging 1P data. I had a great meeting with the senior AMC team at Unboxed and am confident about the Tambo Compass roadmap providing real value to customers moving forward.

There were, of course, a number of new product announcements. Below I highlight a few of the most significant from a Tambo perspective:

1. Audience Bid Boosting for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands: One of my favourite announcements linked to the continued merging of AMC capabilities with the Ads suite. Will enable advertisers to boost bids for specific audience groups. Tambo Compass will build this into its AMC audience builder and insight features.

2. Ad Relevance: It was interesting to hear how openly the Amazon team talked about the death of the cookie. As we’ve commented on previously, Amazon understands how this plays well for them and are now clearly pushing the message that cookies (read Google products) simply aren’t good enough.

Introduce Ad Relevance, billed as the future of ad addressability and advertising technology. The AI technology driving this already powers many of Amazon Ads’ offerings, including Amazon audiences, contextual targeting and Performance+. It aims to broaden and simplify this across all aspects of the marketing funnel, from planning, activation and measurement. It’s clearly a big bet and we’ll be working closely with our friends in the Ad Tech team to test all new solutions across our client base as and when they roll out.

3. Multi Touch Attribution (MTA): Linked to this were a number of new measurement solutions. One of these is MTA, which promises to clarify the impact of each touchpoint across on & off Amazon solutions, from Prime Video Ads, Display and Sponsored Products. I’ll be interested to see the level of transparency behind the value attributed across each touchpoint but could be a huge step forward.

4. Long Term Sales Metrics: Following on from the same theme, Amazon will be releasing metrics that will help brands more accurately understand the impact of ad touch points for longer conversion windows. I like the thinking here with Long Term Sales Metrics so will be keen to see exactly how this manifests.

5. Ads Data Manager: Almost every session had AMC in the title. Ads data manager is designed to enable easier upload & activation of 1P data specifically, something we’ve been working very closely on with the AMC team for Tambo Compass.

Outside of the above there were announcements around a 90 Day New Product Launch solution (Managed Service only), 5 new markets for Prime Video Ads and a suite of new AI Content Products. Lots to get stuck into!

Overall it was hugely worthwhile to spend time with Amazon, clients and some new contacts. See you all in Nashville next year :)