Advertisement

Amazon’s NFL Thursday Nights Offer Target-Rich Ad Environment

Anthony Crupi
·5 min read

Although the cadence is similar, that drip drip drip you hear isn’t the sound of Boston fans sweating over a potential Bruins/Celtics double flop—if it’s the second week in May, that noise is the harbinger of the NFL’s slow and studied takeover of the sports-media news cycle. As a sort of amuse-bouche that’s been dolloped out ahead of the official 2023 schedule drop on Thursday night, the league has sprinkled a few elements of the fall football slate into general circulation.

While the early reveals include the dates and matchups for the five-game international series and a pair of holiday grudge matches, arguably the most monocle-popping development has to do with the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday game, which will feature the Aaron Rodgers-enhanced New York Jets hosting AFC East rivals Miami Dolphins. The game is set to stream Nov. 24 on Amazon Prime Video in front of the paywall at 3 p.m. ET.

More from Sportico.com

“We’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL and build a new holiday tradition for our customers with the first Black Friday NFL game,” Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video and global head of Amazon’s sports division, said when announcing the Jets-Dolphins clash. “As families look to spend time together over the holiday weekend, we are excited to provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy this new day of NFL action.”

Per Nielsen, Amazon’s first season under its $13 billion Thursday Night Football deal averaged 9.58 million viewers and delivered an audience with a median age of 47 years. That’s seven years younger than the NFL’s overall TV performance in 2022. While Amazon’s internal metrics boosted the TNF numbers to some 11.3 million viewers per game, the streaming-only package still came up well short of the 16.2 million viewers Fox and NFL Network averaged over the course of their shared 11-game Thursday night run in 2021.

In lifting the paywall restrictions for Black Friday, Amazon hopes to draw a more representative sampling of deal-hunting football fanatics, and while no one expects the Jets and Dolphins will put up peak Turkey Day numbers—Fox’s broadcast of the Giants-Cowboys holiday feast last year scared up a record 42.1 million viewers—the no-strings-attached promotion should go a long way toward helping the service smash through the 20 million barrier. (Amazon’s inaugural TNF slate topped out at 13 million viewers—or 15.3 million, per the company’s in-house measurements—during its Week 2 Chargers-Chiefs debut.)

Amazon’s ad-supported properties reach an average monthly audience of 155 million consumers. Of these, approximately 72% are not regular viewers of linear TV.

While advertising opportunities were limited during Amazon’s first bite at the TNF apple, with a good chunk of the in-game inventory being used to promote the streamer’s original series, this season will see brands buying into a far more robust marketing environment. During Amazon’s May 1 NewFronts presentation, the company announced that it now has the capability to run targeted ads during its live NFL streams.

In keeping with the customized marketing approach, TNF sponsors will be able to push ads designed for specific demographics within a single 30-second commercial slot. In other words, an automaker looking to get younger viewers fired up about a sporty, less-expensive starter model will have the wherewithal to target the 18-34 crowd with a relevant commercial, while simultaneously serving up, say, an SUV spot to outdoorsy types. And while the niche audiences are having their Pavlovian bells rung, the bulk of TNF viewers will a more general brand-oriented spot.

The audience-based creative executions will run in all segments of TNF, including in-game, pregame, halftime and postgame. The targeted-ads feature will also be made available throughout the “Amazon Music Live” concert series, which streams each week following the TNF postgame show. Among the artists who performed during last season’s AML events were A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne and Megan Thee Stallion. In addition to the new segment-targeting option, Amazon is also launching an interactive ad feature for fans watching TNF via their Fire TV devices.

Amazon’s Black Friday coverage will feature its regular TNF booth and sideline crew, including Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and reporter Kaylee Hartung. Charissa Thompson will serve as host for pregame, halftime and postgame coverage, leading a chorus that includes former NFL greats Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth.

In addition to the Black Friday matchup, the NFL on Wednesday announced a Christmas Day Giants-Eagles showdown, which will kick off on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET, and a New Year’s Eve AFC Championship Game rematch between the Chiefs and Bengals set to air on CBS in the same time slot. As the College Football Playoff Semifinals (Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl) are set to air on Monday, Jan. 1, the NFL will face no competition from the junior circuit’s play-in games.

Also in the mix are five international games, including three London outings and a pair of Frankfurt matchups. The Jacksonville Jaguars will be spending a fortnight in the U.K. capital, playing two consecutive games against the Falcons on Oct. 1 (Wembley) and the Bills on Oct. 8 (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium). London is more or less the Jags’ home away from home, as Shahid Khan is also the owner of the Premier League club Fulham.

While the bulk of the overseas games will air on NFL Network, the Falcons-Jags game will stream exclusively on ESPN+. Historically, the 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff times and the somewhat constricted reach of NFL Net (the channel reaches 52.2 million subs, or just 42% of all U.S. TV homes) have limited the impact of the stateside TV audience; per Nielsen, last year’s trio of European games averaged 5.13 million viewers on the NFL’s in-house cable channel. By comparison, the Nov. 21 Mexico City game that aired in ESPN’s regular Monday Night Football slot averaged 11.2 million viewers.

The NFL will unveil the entire 2023 schedule Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.

Best of Sportico.com

Click here to read the full article.