Amazon's Star-Studded 2025 Upfront Charts Its Adland Takeover Strategy

Amazon pulled out all the stops for its second annual upfront week presentation today at The Beacon Theatre in New York City. Actors and sports stars, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Momoa, Travis Kelce, Candace Parker, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elizabeth Banks, Octavia Spencer, Michael B. Jordan, John Cena, and Walton Goggins, graced the stage, while Steve Aoki and Lizzo performed for guests upon arrival. Among many announcements made throughout the evening, post-apocalyptic series Fallout will get a third season, the Academy of Country Music Awards will be streamed on Prime Video for the next three years, and Marvel series Spider-Noir starring Nicolas Cage is coming in 2026. In the 90-minute-long sales pitch, Amazon argued that advertisers needn't spend money anywhere but through its variety of platforms. With over 220 million Amazon Prime users globally—around 180 million of which reside in the U.S.—the company's consumer data remains unmatched, and so far, the pitch is working. Amazon made $13.9 billion last quarter on advertising alone, an 18% increase from Q1 of 2024. Its ecommerce prowess, combined with an increasingly competitive slate of TV series and movies on Prime Video, a growing collection of popular podcasts produced and published by Wondery, adtech tools, web services, and gamer-focused streaming platform Twitch, all come together to make a compelling case. Amazon has an average monthly ad-supported audience of over 300 million across its platforms, Tanner Elton, vice president of U.S. ad sales at Amazon, said from the stage. "Our engagement increased nearly 40% in monthly ad-supported viewing hours [over the last year]," Elton said. "We know what they love to watch, which is very important, but we also know what they buy: 88% of these customers shop on Amazon, which means a product they saw on Cross, which is one of my favorite shows in the evening, can be in their home the very next day." Fallout gets a third season Actors Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins took the stage during Amazon's upfront presentation to announce that Fallout, a post-nuclear apocalypse series set in the fictional wasteland city of New Vegas, is renewed for a third season. The first season was released in April 2024, and the second season premieres in December. Kickline dancers, including some who appeared to have lived through a nuclear apocalypse, danced down the aisles and across the stage to promote Fallout. Existing franchises see new investment Spider-Noir, a series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir, will come in 2026, Prime Video and MGM+ announced. The streamer also released a first look at Nicolas Cage as the 1930s-era private investigator grappling with his past life as a superhero. The series will be released in both black-and-white and color. In addition to Cage, the cast includes Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson, Abraham Popoola, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, and Jack Huston. It's produced by Sony Pictures Television exclusively for MGM+ and Prime Video. Michael B. Jordan stepped onto the stage to announce a new series from the Creed franchise, Delphi. Jordan’s Outlier Society will executive produce, and Marco Ramirez will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Prime Video also ordered a series adaptation of film franchise Barbershop, starring Jermaine Fowler and written and executive produced by Marshall Todd. The series comes from global entertainment company Hartbeat, Prominent Productions, and State Street Pictures. It's produced by Amazon MGM Studios and will premiere exclusively on Prime Video. Jamie Lee Curtis, Elizabeth Banks, and Octavia Spencer spoke to the audience about Scarpetta, The Better Sister, and Ride or Die. More sports, more games Ahead of the NFL's full schedule release on May 14, Prime Sports' Thursday Night Football commentators Charissa Thompson, Andrew Whitworth, and Ryan Fitzpatrick announced that the Chicago Bears will travel to face the Philadelphia Eagles on Black Friday, and the football team from Kansas City will play the Denver Broncos on Christmas Day. Following the success of Kelce, the 2023 feature-length documentary about NFL player Travis Kelce, Prime Video Sports and Skydance Sports will produce two new documentary projects. The first, The Home Team: NY Jets, will be a six-part series about six New York Jets players and their partners, including Quinnen and Maranda Williams and Alijah and Jessie Vera-Tucker. The second will be a feature-length documentary about the life and career of NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens. WWE star Mike Mizanin, known as "The Miz," will host a reboot of American Gladiators for Prime Video. Old seasons of the series are also available to stream on the new American Gladiators’ free, ad-supported channel on Prime Video FAST. Prime Video renewed Beast Games for two more seasons following the success of its first. Created and produced by YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), the show is a reality competition series where contestants compete for a $10 million cash prize. Roughly 50 million people watched the show within its first 25 days, making it Prime Video's most-watched unscripted series. Ahead of the presentation, Prime Video announced that it ordered a new docuseries about multi-hyphenate female chief executive officers. The show will feature Serena Williams, Thalia, Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger, Loren Ridinger, Winnie Harlow, Hannah Bronfman, and Isabela Rangel Grutman. Blink49 Studios’ Tara Long and Nadine Rajabi will executive produce. The Academy of Country Music Awards, which just wrapped its 60th annual show on May 8, will continue to stream live on Prime Video through 2028 thanks to a multi-year deal, the two companies announced. The partnership has "expanded the reach and accessibility of our show and the Country Music genre," Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music, said in a statement. "The synergies between Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and the other divisions of Amazon bring exponential value to our artists, our genre, and our fans through an immersive 360 music experience they can’t get from any other platform." Arnold Schwarzenegger promoted his new holiday film, Man with the Bag. After a lengthy promo for his new holiday movie, Man with the Bag, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis reminisced about their 1994 action film True Lies. Curtis attempted a slick segue into the closing remarks from Alan Moss, vp of global ad sales. "This time, we don't need to go undercover to save the day," she said. "We just need to remind these hard-working people ... about the benefits of Amazon's full-funnel advertising strategy. I actually asked if that was a euphemism." Moss eventually did get his closer, again mentioning that full-funnel strategy to laughs from the audience before driving home the central message of the evening. "You can have it all in one place with one partner," Moss said. "That partner is Amazon, and we're just getting started."

TV Upfronts

Amazon's Star-Studded 2025 Upfront Charts Its Adland Takeover Strategy

The company touted ad opportunities across ecommerce, sports, podcasts, Prime Video, and Twitch

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Kathryn Lundstrom

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