Amazon and GroupM Collaborate to Place Brands in Live Shopping Streams

For the past six months, Amazon and GroupM have entered into an exclusive partnership to place brands in shoppable livestreams, which premiered this week at the Cannes Lions Film Festival.

In April, Amazon launched a live, ad-supported free TV channel (FAST) on Prime Video and Freevee, featuring programming from brands, celebrities and creators.

Amazon Live content was previously only available on desktop computers, mobile devices and Fire TV, and in 2023, the content was streamed by more than one billion customers in the U.S. and India, the company said.

Viewers can purchase items featured on the live broadcasts by opening the Amazon Shopping app on their phone and typing “shop on the show” in the search bar, which will bring up a carousel of products shown on TV. This is made possible through account authorization and inaudible tone technology that syncs users’ devices with their live experience.

It was key for Amazon to offer shopping experiences that didn’t “disrupt or create friction in the experience,” similar to offers that require users to scan a QR code, Julie Haleluk, global director of development for Amazon Shoppable Video, told Campaign US.

She said shop-in-the-show open rates in May exceeded Sky Media’s average QR code open rate of 0.3% to 0.8% based on 2022 data.

Amazon has been working with GroupM since the beginning of the year to include brands in live shopping content, either by sponsoring a creator’s stream or developing a branded stream.

For example, cleaning brand Method sponsored an episode of Beauty Haul with Brandi Milloy, resulting in the host devoting part of the show to showcasing and discussing its hair care products. Virgin Voyages, a brand that does not sell on Amazon, hosted its own livestream from one of its cruise ships in May. The upcoming show with reality star Paige DeSorbo will be sponsored by Unilever’s Nexxus, and hair care products will be integrated into the broadcast.

Brands can use Amazon’s in-house content studio to create branded content or work with entertainment group GroupM to find an external production house. They own the rights to anything co-created with Amazon and GroupM and can repurpose content for their website or social channels.

Haleluk described it as “a new kind of branded content.”

“These are not commercials or standard advertising – it is about seamlessly integrating the brands’ products, messages and experiences with content tailored to the target audience,” she said.

The partnership between Amazon and GroupM was announced on stage at the Cannes Lions Festival on Monday, June 17. However, GroupM’s exclusive contract as an Amazon Live co-creation partner is now coming to an end.

“The reason we wanted to do an exclusive six-month deal was because we truly believe this is the next frontier in the marriage of content and commerce,” said Susan Schiekofer, chief digital investment officer at GroupM.

“This gave us a six-month period to present it to our clients and discuss various ideas, many of which we are about to make a reality.”

While consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics and grocery companies were the first to test the format with GroupM, Schiekofer said “the possibilities are truly endless.”