An interactive Gold Peak Tea ad that popped up while auditing Amazon’s IMDb TV service in December piqued our interest. Questions surrounding IMDb’s identity have been circulating of late, with The Information reporting a name change for the AVOD was under consideration in November 2021. But this ad, which invites the viewer to ask Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, to add goods to his shopping list, illustrates the synergies at play in Amazon’s universe and suggests that the identity crisis at IMDb TV is only name deep.
Over 13% of the total ad time seen on IMDb TV in December was allotted to advertising that in some way ties to Amazon’s goods and services. This figure includes anything from a simple invitation to watch Netflix using a Fire TV device to listening to Amazon Music Unlimited to purchasing goods from Amazon to promotional advertising for an IMDb TV Original. And at over 13% the figure suggests that, aside from hoping to amass a growing active user base, training viewers to conduct their lives within the Amazon universe is among IMDb TV’s top priorities. Apple is taking a similar approach with its Apple TV+ service, though the lack of advertising necessarily hinders it in comparison.
IMDb TV itself is bundled within the Amazon Prime Video ecosystem thanks to its packaging as a free-to-view Amazon Prime Video channel and regularly surfaces within the Prime Video interface accompanied by “free to view” branding. But since its scope extends beyond subscription-bound Prime Video users, IMDb TV is better positioned to entice the uninitiated Amazon user while reinforcing the value proposition that Amazon’s bundle offers.
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