Amazon made its pitch to advertisers Wednesday at its annual Upfront presentation in New York, with the e-commerce giant’s television arm once again bringing together star power.
Similar to last year’s great Steve Aoki, Diplo warmed up the crowd with a frenetic DJ set that actually brought advertisers to their feet. Certainly, this is no small feat.
Diplo was followed by Kacey Musgraves, who performed her new song “Dry Spell” before performing her hit “Butterflies.”
But this was just a prelude after all, and all that music was followed by a pitch from Tanner Elton, Amazon’s vice president of advertising sales. It’s a difficult act to follow, but it turns out the next presenter, Oprah Winfrey, was up for the challenge.
“I came to television…and somewhere around 1989, I realized that I could not only be used by television, but I could use television because I believed that by honestly showing who I am, who I am, I would make the people at home feel important,” Winfrey said.
Paige DeSorbo appeared in a number of videos about customizing ad delivery, and Tierra Whack talked about the power of Twitch streaming. Joining Whack on stage was none other than Ice Spice, who spoke about her experience on Twitch during Paris Fashion Week. “The fans aren’t just watching; they’re part of it,” she said. “You only get that kind of reaction on Twitch.”
In keeping with the musical theme, Shabuji took to the stage and sang about Amazon Sports to the assembled advertisers. “Thursday Night Football’s” Carissa Thompson then arrived to tout Amazon’s NFL Wild Card Game, which reached more than 31 million viewers. During the segment where Thompson, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth were “answering questions from the audience,” NFL star Matthew Stafford took to the stage from the crowd to talk sports.
Next up were the cast and creators of the new YA series “Off Campus,” which will be released on Prime Video on May 13th. Amazon’s head of film, Courtney Valenti, and head of television, Peter Friedlander, joined them on stage.
Amazon has also made it an annual tradition of making some splashy announcements on its front desk. This year, Prime Video announced the season 5 renewal of the romantic drama “Rose Hill” series pickup “Reacher,” Aaron Paul’s addition to “Fallout,” the acclaimed director Nia DaCosta’s appearance in “Sex Criminals,” the premiere date for “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” Season 3, the spy drama “Ride or Die” starring Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer, and unscripted series pickups. “Reality retreat”.
But that’s not all.
“Terminal List” star Chris Pratt appeared and revealed that season 2 of the military drama will begin on October 21, more than four years after season 1.
The long-gestating TV series “Fourth Wings” has officially been given the green light, announced by none other than recent Oscar winner and series executive producer Michael B. Jordan. He was joined by Lisa Joy, writer Rebecca Yaross, and showrunner Meredith Averill.
But Fourth Wing isn’t Jordan’s only project at Amazon. He also worked on Prime Video’s upcoming Muhammad Ali series “The Greatest,” “Creed” spin-off “Delphi,” and is set to star in the upcoming remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
Amazon’s head of advertising sales, Alan Moss, had the difficult task of wrapping up the show, and with the help of last year’s Amazon star Arnold Schwarzenegger, he expertly pulled it off. Schwarzenegger appeared again to promote his upcoming Amazon film, The Man with the Bag, in which he plays Santa Claus. Director Adam Shankman helped sell the film by promising Ernie an action-comedy portrayal of St. Nick.
