Shuttlerock at unBoxed 2024: Our 5 Key Takeaways

Last week, Shuttlerock had our cowboy boots on the ground in Austin, TX for Amazon’s annual unBoxed event. Over three days, we were immersed in the world of Amazon Ads, getting the lowdown on all the latest product updates, insights, and best practices. 

There was plenty to get excited about, especially being the largest unBoxed yet. So if you didn’t make it or tune in online, here’s a quick ‌recap of our key takeaways. 

Giddy-up! 

1. Prime Video expands reach & goes shoppable

One of the major product announcements from unBoxed was the further global expansion of Prime Video advertising into five new countries: Brazil, India, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Brands can now tap into an average monthly ad-supported reach of more than 200 million+ global customers, with 115 million+ in the U.S alone. This news holds a lot of potential, especially when combined with ‌improved solutions to accounts, campaigns, and performance reports when launching campaigns in multiple countries. 

It was also announced that Prime Video will offer Shoppable Ads. These will allow viewers to seamlessly add products to their Amazon cart without having to leave the show or movie they are watching. This is exciting when you consider how effective Amazon is at reaching high-intent audiences, with campaigns ‌informed by billions of signals coming from shopping and streaming activity.

2. New product campaigns to support successful product launches

Amazon is a leading destination for product discovery, which makes it a key focus area for many brands when they launch new products. 

To help brands make the biggest possible splash with their new product launches, Amazon has announced a specialized new product campaign solution. Only available for U.S advertisers, new product campaigns are a full-funnel solution that enables brands to efficiently introduce their latest products to customers within the first 90 days of launch. As a managed service, the solution provides data-driven media plans with curated ad inventory across Amazon placements.

3. Generative AI helps to overcome creative roadblocks & unlock scale

A common thread throughout a number of the sessions at unBoxed, was that advertisers are citing creative as a roadblock preventing them from launching ad campaigns. This is being caused by production processes struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for higher volumes of creative. Generative AI – when used correctly – is proving to be an effective tool helping marketers ‌overcome this roadblock and produce creative more efficiently. In line with this demand, Amazon launched a range of new AI tools such as AI creative studio and audio generator. 

While generative AI was a hot topic, it came with a warning to not be too reliant on it for your creative. The consensus was to use generative AI as a tool; it shouldn’t be the be-all and end all of your creative strategy. Use it to automate processes, test variations, and refresh content regularly. But ensure that your overarching strategy is ‌driven by your team’s unique creative vision. Like any tool, the value of AI lies in how you use it, and most importantly, the intent behind its use. This aligns with our AI ethos at Shuttlerock. Our designers use AI to enhance their capabilities, but at the end of the day, the designer’s vision is the driving force. 

4. Brands can earn trust through representation in their creative

While improvements have been made, advertisers are still not accurately representing the reality of the American audience in their advertising strategies. U.S audiences are extremely multicultural, and are the most linguistically diverse country in the western hemisphere. In fact, it’s predicted that in the coming decades, the “minorities” will become the majority. This presents an opportunity for brands to speak to these audiences in a more representative way. 

For example, Spanish is the fastest growing language in the U.S. And 9/10 Spanish-speaking households engage with one or more Amazon touchpoints. If you’re not already, consider a Spanish language strategy when building your Amazon ad creative.

5. Make the most of major tentpole events

Last but not least, there was a big push to urge advertisers to align their Amazon Ads strategy with “major tentpole events”. Tentpoles are periods throughout the year where brands can cash in on peak engagement. Specific tentpole events vary by vertical, but common ones include Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Back-to-School, and the Superbowl. 

With Amazon being a major shopping destination during these events, it makes a whole lot of sense to build robust advertising strategies around these key dates leveraging ‌the diverse range of Amazon Ad products/placements available. To have maximum effectiveness, these strategies then need to be backed up by the right creative. Creative that’s not only optimized for Amazon Ad placements, but also designed to fit the specific tentpole event. As an Amazon Ads partner, this is something Shuttlerock can help with (get in touch to learn more).

So, that’s about all, folks. We leave the Lone Star State with ‌plenty of insights that we’re eager to put into practice when building Amazon creative for our clients. 

A big shoutout to Amazon Ads for putting on such a fun and informative event. We’re excited for Nashville next year!