At Amazon's annual unBoxed conference in San Francisco this week, the company unveiled what could only be described as an aggressive quantity of artificial intelligence tools for advertisers, including an AI-powered buying platform, AI-generated creative, AI-selected audiences and AI-driven full-funnel campaigns.
The advertisers in the room were most excited about reviews.
This is not quite as odd as it sounds. Amazon's review system remains, after all these years, the closest thing the company has to an unassailable franchise. Shoppers standing in a Target aisle in 2015 would pull up Amazon on their phones to check two things: the price and the stars. Many still do. Yet until now, there was nothing a brand could put media budget behind to encourage customers to leave feedback. The new tool, Sponsored Review Prompts, changes that. (Legally, one agency executive noted, as if to distinguish it from some prior mechanisms that were rather less so.)
"Another lever, a legal lever for brands to pull to get more reviews, has been in need for so long," said Ross Walker, director of retail media at Acadia, who gave the feature a 10 out of 10.
The rest of the announcements were met with considerably less enthusiasm. Mr. Walker rated Amazon's new AI buying agent a five. The full-funnel campaign tool, which his team has tested, he described as "very mid to low."
Amazon is not alone in retreating toward its strengths. A recent survey by Bain & Company and eMarketer found that retail media network leaders now expect onsite search and sponsored product ads to drive more growth than any offsite format, a reversal from last year's ambitions toward social and connected television.
For most networks, that retreat stems from weakness. For Amazon, it stems from having 2.5 million marketplace sellers who already know how to use a sponsored product ad.
The reviews tool, it seems, was the one announcement that spoke directly to them.
Original story published in The Drum: "Amazon just unveiled an AI arsenal. Brands were more excited by new reviews | The Drum"