uk 11/4

Video Asset Policy & Content Compliance Guidelines

  • Profanity and Bleeping Policy:
    • Video assets featuring profanity that is bleeped out are strictly prohibited under Global Security and Advertising (GSA) policy standards.
    • Bleeps are not permitted unless a specific, vetted artistic angle is demonstrated, though from a standard compliance standpoint, the answer remains an absolute negative.
    • Implied profanity (such as audio bleeps) is treated identically to implied nudity (such as blurred or pixelated images); both categories are prohibited under corporate advertising guidelines.

Prime Video Share of Voice (SOV) and Market Inconsistencies

  • Regional Inconsistencies:

    • Substantial disparities exist in inventory availability and rule enforcement across international Prime Video markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, and Canada.
    • In Canada, exceptions were granted for weekend takeovers and high-value dates (such as November 18th), driven by stronger working relationships with local Prime Video leadership.
    • The operational policy is not ubiquitous or applied as a hard-and-fast rule globally, leading to execution challenges when attempting to secure share-of-voice (SOV) or share-of-placement (SOP) packages across EMEA and LATAM.

  • Internal Escalations and Communication:

    • Formal Voice of Customer (VOC) documentation was submitted to address ongoing inventory and scheduling blocks.
    • Escalations and briefing emails were forwarded to senior stakeholders, including:
    • Vince and Melissa Cook (covering the UK and Germany accounts; Mexico was omitted due to the local situation not being dire).
    • The Head of Account Management (Jess's manager in the United Kingdom).
    • The Head of Sales for Entertainment.
    • The strategic objective is to exert pressure on Prime Video leadership to loosen calendar restrictions for Q4 or fundamentally correct inventory availability ahead of 2027.

  • Sales versus Inventory Disconnect:

    • A direct internal conflict exists between sales mandates and inventory availability: sales leadership pushes to grow Paramount Plus investment, yet the Prime Video inventory management team blocks access to requested Prime Video SOPs/SOVs.
    • Inventory requests from the client do not demand full-day takeovers or even a 50%50\% share; the primary request is a modest 25%25\% slice on critical dates, leaving 75%75\% of traffic to the primary placement.
    • Prime Video has implemented extensive blackout windows, such as a 3.5-week3.5\text{-week} block in late December and two-week blackout windows tied to flagship releases (e.g., MrBeast content), which handcuffs marketing during critical subscriber push windows.
    • There is skepticism regarding whether these content-specific blockouts (MrBeast) are legally mandated by talent contracts or represent arbitrary inventory hoarding.

  • Strategic Leverage of Incremental Budgets:

    • Late-year incremental funds are expected once confirmed by leadership (awaiting sign-off from Mike).
    • The tactical plan involves positioning these incremental funds directly against Prime Video SOVs: repeatedly requesting to purchase two, three, or four takeovers, forcing Prime Video to formally decline incremental revenue and documenting this lost revenue as internal leverage.

Contingency Planning: Fire TV Alternatives versus Prime Video Placements

  • Fire TV and Auction Bundle Limitations:

    • A worst-case scenario model was developed by Jess to evaluate shifting incremental budgets entirely to Fire TV SOV if Prime Video SOV remains completely blocked.
    • The proposed package included Fire TV SOVs supplemented by complimentary added-value inventory within the Auction Bundle to reduce the blended Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) / Cost Per Sale (CPS).
    • The Auction Bundle is currently exhibiting inflated CPA/CPS figures due to ongoing landing page tests on Fire TV.
    • Shifting to Fire TV does not solve the Prime Video shortfall: Prime Video represents a significantly larger, higher-efficiency ecosystem, whereas Fire TV targets a smaller audience with a lower propensity to convert.

  • Rotational Delivery and Total Blackout Risks:

    • Relying on baseline Business As Usual (BAU) Prime Video Feature Rotator (rotational) budget carries risk during December.
    • If Prime Video enforces a 100%100\% advertiser blackout across the Feature Rotator for two weeks, delivery will drop to absolute zero (00 impressions).
    • Reallocating remaining budget into alternative placements such as Prime Video Sponsored Tile carries the danger of driving CPAs up by 50%50\% due to saturation.
    • Early adoption of the new Catalog Tile placement provides a possible alternative inventory avenue.
    • Team members must request specific blackout dates (from "Date A to Date B") from the Prime Video GTM/inventory team to accurately reset internal impression projections.

Campaign Execution Schedule and Creative Roadmap

  • Creative Execution Dates and Asset Allocations:
    • November 15:
    • Placement: Fire TV.
    • Allocation: A 50/5050/50 split featuring Big Boss Family (Season 1) and Dexter.
    • November 16:
    • Placement: Fire TV only.
    • Allocation: South Park and Mobland (selected because South Park has strong current engagement, Mobland has its finale approaching on November 20, and recent first-screen performance for Tulsa King showed weak performance).
    • November 19:
    • Placement: Prime Video SOV.
    • Allocation: Big Boss Family (Season 1) and Dexter (mirroring the November 15 slate).
    • November 19 – November 30 (Promo Period):
    • Universal creative swap: All evergreen and title-specific messaging across all SOVs and placements will be turned off and switched entirely to promotional assets.
    • Scheduled titles include single-title creatives for Mobland, Tulsa King, and Dexter, alongside multi-title promotional creative.
    • Yellowjackets (Season 4) originally held an SOV reservation for November 20 (its release date), but will be overridden entirely by promo messaging.
    • Creative contingency requirement: If a single-title ASIN does not premiere until 7:00 AM7:00\,\text{AM}, a backup multi-title promo asset must be scheduled to prevent broken link destinations, similar to an earlier technical issue encountered during the Dexter campaign.

Reporting, Measurement, and Agency Operations (Spark)

  • Campaign Tracking and Tagging Conventions:

    • Dexter awareness initiatives were omitted from weekly reporting cadences due to absent naming conventions.
    • Internal Above The Line (ATL) dashboards filter strictly between acquisition and awareness channels; all awareness placements must be tagged with the prefix AWA rather than ACQ.
    • Awareness initiatives operate under distinct Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and do not evaluate success via CPS; thus, weekly performance reports do not require this data, though mid-campaign and wrap-up summaries are necessary for the awareness team.

  • Agency Alignment with Spark:

    • Agency partners at Spark reached out directly to Amazon representatives requesting top-line media recommendations for Tulsa King / Frisco King (proposing Pause Ads, Prime Video, and UEFA Champions League [UCL] placements for December 8).
    • Procedural protocol states:
    • Programmatic and online video briefings must run through Youssef's team.
    • Fire TV and Prime Video native inventory briefings must run directly through the internal team (Pascal and counterparts).
    • Spark regularly requests plans under tight time frames without upfront coordination, occasionally duplicating requests.
    • Central teams require the full proposed schedule to ensure Twitch creative assets are formally briefed in advance.

Landing Page Optimization and A/B Testing Analysis

  • Custom Landing Unit versus Standard App Conversion Page:

    • An ongoing test has been running for over a month on Fire TV (funded via Auction Bundle added value) comparing a custom interactive experience against the standard multi-title conversion landing page.
    • Preliminary performance data reveals:
    • Click-Through Rate (CTR): The custom landing unit demonstrated a minor lift over the control.
    • Efficiency / CPS: The custom unit yielded a 1.4%1.4\% efficiency improvement.
    • Historical Context: Previous elaborate landing page tests produced stark declines in CPS relative to direct subscribe flows; achieving a 1.4%1.4\% improvement while increasing user interaction is considered an operational success.

  • Test Cutoff and Evaluation Framework:

    • The custom landing page test will officially conclude on November 15.
    • All placements will revert to standard app conversion landing pages on Monday, November 17, ensuring no multi-step engagement pages dilute conversion rates during the high-urgency promotional period.
    • Comprehensive post-test analysis will evaluate:
    • Blended CPS.
    • Dwell time on page.
    • Time spent per tile and total clicks per tile.
    • Title breakdown engagement (evaluating performance following last week's optimization in the UK and Germany, where the first display tile was repositioned).

Alternative Prime Video Placements and Format Constraints

  • Pause Ads:

    • Evaluated as a potential fallback mechanism when Prime Video SOV/Feature Rotator is unavailable.
    • High inventory constraints exist: the Dexter campaign exhausted all available pause inventory on Prime Video, confirming pause ads cannot be relied upon as an uncapped fallback.

  • Inline Banners:

    • Considered as a complementary format alongside the Feature Rotator.
    • Inline banners are currently unavailable on the Prime Video interface, limiting their application exclusively to other Amazon surfaces.

Questions & Discussion

  • Question: If there is a bad word in a video asset and it is bleeped out, is that acceptable?

    • Response: Bleeps are strictly prohibited by policy, aligning with the prohibition on blurred imagery (implied nudity and implied profanity are both banned). While exceptions might theoretically be researched for artistic merit, policy strictly defaults to an outright rejection.

  • Question: Can Fire TV shared voice combined with complementary added value on the Auction Bundle serve as an acceptable substitute for Prime Video SOVs?

    • Response: It can be considered mathematically, but it does not resolve the core strategic issue. The Auction Bundle does not run on Prime Video, and its CPA is currently elevated. Prime Video offers a larger, more efficient conversion audience, whereas Fire TV reaches a smaller audience that converts at a lower rate.

  • Question: What is the plan if Prime Video enforces a complete 100%100\% advertiser blackout on the Feature Rotator in December?

    • Response: The team must obtain exact calendar dates from the Prime Video team to inform internal leadership that zero impressions will be delivered between those specific dates, allowing budgets and delivery expectations to be adjusted accordingly.

  • Question: What happens to scheduled title-specific campaigns (such as Yellowjackets Season 4 on November 20) during the late November promotional period?

    • Response: Title-specific campaigns will not run. From November 19 to November 30, all placements transition exclusively to promo creative, utilizing single-title assets (Mobland, Tulsa King, Dexter) or multi-title assets. Backup multi-title promo creative must be prepared in case title ASINs fail to launch early in the morning.

  • Question: Does Dexter awareness performance data need to appear in standard weekly performance reports?

    • Response: No. Weekly inclusion is unnecessary and could distort baseline CPS metrics. Tagging must be updated to AWA (awareness) instead of ACQ (acquisition) so it populates internal dashboards, with mid-campaign and post-campaign wraps delivered directly to the awareness team.

  • Question: Should the agency (Spark) be issuing direct media briefs to Amazon without client sign-off?

    • Response: Technically no. All Fire TV and Prime Video execution briefs must route through the central team to prevent duplicate work, secure budget sign-off, and brief supporting channel assets (such as Twitch creative) in a timely manner.

  • Question: When should the custom landing page test on Fire TV be terminated?

    • Response: November 15 will serve as the official cutoff date. The campaign will revert to standard direct-to-subscribe conversion pathways ahead of the November 19 promotional launch to eliminate conversion friction.

  • Question: Can alternative formats like pause ads or inline banners substitute for missed Prime Video SOVs?

    • Response: Pause ads on Prime Video suffer from severe inventory shortages (as seen when inventory ran out for Dexter), and inline banners are not supported on the Prime Video surface, leaving few direct placement contingencies within the app.