Inside Amazon’s New Creative Studio

Inside Amazon’s New Creative Studio Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the podcast. Today, we've got a really unique show. We're at Amazon Live Studios and having a conversation with Destaney and Jennyfer. I'm so excited for this. Speaker 1: I am so excited. I mean, one, the Amazon Live Studios are absolutely incredible, but not only do we get to hop back on and have a conversation, Joe, but we also get to have a conversation with a special guest. Jennifer, do you want to give us a quick intro on who you are and what you do? Speaker 2: Absolutely. Hi, everyone. I'm Jennifer Gune. Speaker 1: We have a really fun topic to dive into, and that is all of the fun announcements at Amazon Accelerate. Now, one of my favorite announcements and one of my favorite topics in general has obviously been Creative Studio. I put out a lot of content, I think, on the opportunities it allows for brands and all of the fun areas that I think creative brings to being a specialist at Amazon advertising. But we have a lot more enhancements that were announced today at Accelerate. Jennifer, do you want to tell us a little bit about what drove the decisions for one, Creative Studio, but also the new enhancements that we're seeing as well? Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. So for those who aren't familiar, Creative Studio was first announced last year at Unboxed. And what was super excited about it is it was our first universal creative experience for advertisers of any size to come in one place to experiment, ideate, and build creatives end-to-end. What's new this year is that Creative Studio is getting an agentic capability added to it, where now advertisers have a creative partner that they can work with to concept, storyboard, and create image and videos end-to-end in one place. Speaker 3: That's so awesome. Like Destaney said, this was a launch that I was super excited to see. Why do you think that now is the right time to launch? What's kind of driven that launch with this new tool? Speaker 2: Yeah, I really think it has to do with the transformation of the shopping experience. Today, we're really in a modern era where shopping isn't just about purposeful Specific visits to stores to find what you need but really shopping is part of everyday life. Whether you're browsing online and going to different e-commerce sites or you're on your mobile phone scrolling or maybe just walking and casually browsing into a store, shopping is all around us all the time and so it's more important than ever for businesses of all sizes to have quality creative that can help engage shoppers and help them find new products and solutions that can help them. Speaker 3: That's awesome. So for those who may be familiar with Creative Studio itself, maybe if you can walk through in a little bit more detail, like, you know, what's some of the new aspects of the launch? Like, how do people interact with it? How do they find it? Like, if you can give some more detail there, that'd be awesome. Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. So Creative Studio is available at aistudio.amazon. It's a standalone experience that you can easily access and log in using your Amazon ads account. But what's new and different is that now it's also available through your ad console. So as soon as you go into the console and you visit your creative tools area, you can find the creative studio and directly access the experience. Now to get into the new agentic creative partner, you can go into the chat section or you can go and scroll through and start interacting and learning about how to create a new video. Speaker 1: I think this is a huge opportunity for quite a few reasons. I think anyone who's been familiar with Amazon ads knows that, you know, sponsored brand ads are requiring lifestyle images. You need a custom image to run a new sponsored brand ad. Sellers and brands are familiar with that experience, but Amazon advertising has opened up a lot more opportunity with video. We've seen a lot of expansion with sponsored brands video in general. We see things like sponsored TV directly with an advertising console and being able to have this creative partner, I think opens up all of that inventory to people who maybe haven't had the ability or the creative capabilities. So historically, you could hop into Creative Studio and you could make a lifestyle image or you could make your image that you already have have a level of movement to it. But we're now able to lean into this agentic partner to do things like storyboarding. So maybe you haven't known how to even create a video or what kind of video is going to do well for your specific products. We can rely on this agentic partner to hop in and actually help us with that creative element. And then even if you have no idea how to create a video, in my opinion, I was that person, you can go through this workflow pretty seamlessly and have something that you're able to go live with really quickly. I mean, that's something that we lean into for micro seasons and it's been really advantageous having that opportunity because we are not video experts. I am an Amazon advertiser. I'm really good at math some days. But creation of videos was something that was always out of scope for us and it's something that's been unlocked and we've been able to lean into really heavily. Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree and what really inspired me was one of your examples from BTR Media where you partnered with an Amazon seller, BirdBuddy, to help them unlock a new seasonal opportunity. We also just announced today the BirdBuddy customer success story where They were able to take advantage of a seasonal Father's Day campaign, something that's not a big holiday, right? So they were able to create and iterate on a creative video ad to help them capture this moment and ended up improving click-through rates by over, I think, 3x. So it was really fascinating to see that. Speaker 1: It was incredible because it was such a quick turnaround. I mean, Joe, you probably run into this as well. A lot of our brands have assets. But they don't have assets for every micro season or every new product or every unique audience targeting opportunity. So for us, it was like we had assets for Q4 and Black Friday, Cyber Monday, but Father's Day, we did not have specific creative. So we were able to lean into it to turn around something really quickly and It was I think what the most incredible part about it, in my opinion, was we were able to incorporate the elements of what a micro season is. So we really lean into the Father's Day gifting element. We made sure fathers were represented in the video and the results, I would say, speak for themselves. And Joe, because you are in the same environment where you work with this frequently, what have you seen in terms of overcoming the creative hurdles? How have your brands chosen to do this in the past? Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's what gets me really excited about tools like this is just With the Amazon ecosystem as a whole, we have so much capability to find the right shoppers who are going to be interested in our products. But when you can combine it with other items like different events that are coming up, for many brands, they have solid creatives, but they can't create it for all these different areas or events. And so if we can find the right audience with the right creative that speaks directly to them, now all of a sudden we're going from an environment as advertisers where We're more constrained on the creatives. And then we had to build the audiences around that to another area where now we have unlimited possibilities on the creative side. And we can make sure that each of these ads is speaking directly to those people to really inform them about our products and drive more brand awareness all the way down to purchase. And so this just unlocks whole new capability that we have as advertisers to get even more specific and speak to the customers the way that they're looking for. Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. And I think another unique aspect of this is how it incorporates your retail insights to make sure that the creative is custom and tailored to your brand. I think there are a ton of AI generated solutions out there on the market today. But what's unique is that Amazon has access to a ton of unique insights that customers can use and take advantage of to unlock to ensure that creative is on brand, authentic, and really is relevant to their shoppers. Speaker 1: I want to lean into that a little bit because, you know, a story that we're frequently telling with AI is your output's only as good as your input. And prompting is a really big deal. You know, there's been jokes online about prompt engineers are going to be the next big career, things like that. That is an area where I think this solution is really solved because it is connected to retail insights. It could be as simple as Create a video for this ASIN. I don't know what I'm doing. Small panic. If you don't know how to prompt and give it the appropriate resources, it's going to help guide you along that journey. You can upload your ASIN. I think one of the first questions it asks you is, you know, what type of video are you wanting to create? What type of targeting within the funnel are you wanting to focus on? Is it awareness? Is it consideration? And it helps guide you throughout that process so you don't have to be incredible at setting the context from that first prompt. It's pulling in the relevant information. So for brands who are concerned with having a video that's aligned with their brand guidelines, a lot of those issues are solved utilizing this tool, which drives a lot of operational efficiency, but also a lot of trust within the output because it's bringing you along the process rather than just creating a video and you hope you're able to edit it at the end, which is something we talked a lot about. Speaker 3: Yeah, that was one key piece that I was really impressed with is just when you started the process, especially from the beginning, I didn't know exactly how to go through it. But the nice thing was that the tool just walked me directly through that. And I think Destiny hit on another key point is that when you're able to bring in these shopping insights, Now you don't have to specify as much or prompt as much. And so if there's more information that can be pulled in automatically, then we can focus more on the creative process and like, what is the key message that we're trying to get across? How do we really want to highlight our products? And so the more context that we can bring in, And with Amazon's Shopping Insights, there's a lot of context that you can bring in automatically. And then just being able to walk through the process and storyboard things. That's another issue I've had with other video tools is You get the output, but then you try to change something and it changes everything and you end up in this loop. And so being able to go through and storyboard the video itself and be able to change specific areas and not have it impact other areas, I think is another key value point that I've seen. Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm happy you mentioned that because When we set out to create this tool, we really wanted to put the control back into your hands. We wanted you to be able to have flexibility around editing. So even from various aspects of your storyboard, being able to edit and make sure you refine to get exactly the concept you're looking for. Before jumping in to develop the image or the video, now even as you're going through with your creative partner to develop and iterate, you can pause, you can see your video and then edit various elements within the video before moving forward into full production and then saving that and it automatically kind of converts into your creative asset library. Speaker 3: Sure. So as you're looking at this tool, maybe starting from small brands and then working our way up to larger brands or agencies as a whole, what are the key use cases or what's the vision from Amazon on how this tool will be used? Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll speak to the full vision first and then kind of dive into our different segments. At the end of the day, what we're trying to do is create more access to quality creatives so that any business, whether you're a new Amazon seller to a large enterprise brand or agency holding company, you have access to either scale your creatives, produce creatives from scratch, or iterate on existing concepts so that you can quickly get to market. And so if I'm putting myself in the shoes of a new seller on Amazon where I might not have the budget, the time, or the experience in creative at all, I can easily get into this new creative partner experience, start with, hey, help me make a video ad, and then immediately get suggestions on where to go, what to do, and concepts that I can start building on. If I'm a mid-market brand, maybe an agency, a creative agency where I might have an existing creative vision that I want to explore and launch, I can now have a partner to help me augment my ideas. So maybe there are things or concepts I hadn't explored yet or it hadn't even come to my mind. Now this partner helps ideate with me so that I can get an even better quality output. And then for the larger brands and holding companies that may have big budgets for creative, There's still going to be time-sensitive needs that you have, whether it's capturing a quick Prime video or Prime Day campaign. You can go into this tool, take an existing video, iterate quickly and capture that moment where you may not have otherwise been able to with long SLAs and timelines working with other creative partners. Speaker 1: I really want to hit on that speed to market aspect because I think we are living in a world where trends shift quicker than ever before. I mean, we have a celebrity hop on a podcast and announce something exciting and my whole feed changes colors for a few weeks. And I think this is an opportunity for brands to lean into that so much quicker outside of micro seasons, which allow you to plan ahead of time outside of, you know, the traditional audience targeting. We're now able to get something to market incredibly quick, which is a huge opportunity and a major competitive advantage for Anyone, I would say. And something that I think has been a key focus for me with AI is definitely progress over perfection. We know it's getting better all the time, but the ability to just get it started and to get something out has been really, really beneficial for the brands we're working with. Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it completely changes the workflow because we would usually start with the creative itself and then you build everything around that. Now you can start with an event or, hey, this just happened or this holiday is coming up. All right, I'm going to use tools like it's just being launched and I can now create the creatives and I can create multiple creatives. And now I can let the data, you know, we're data nerds and I can let the data tell me which way I want to go or what creative is really resonating. And so we're going from this constraint on the creative side and you build everything around that to now I have endless possibilities and then combine that with the different audience capabilities and all the different shopping insights that we have. It just unlocks whole new potentials and speed to market is another one because you can just test so much quicker. Speaker 1: I mean, we haven't even dug into AMC and the opportunity here, which I have no doubt Joe and I will do a follow up episode on, but Think about that. We have the ability to segment our core audience in a million different ways and understanding their purchase habits. Or, you know, you mentioned that a lot of people are leading with video first, just that's the shopper journey is starting with creative and video. We can see that path to purchase utilizing AMC Insights. And now we can really contact that customer within the journey at the right point in time with a video that was made for them. So I think we're driving so much more on the relevancy side, which is important. I think a lot of people have been constrained with budget limitations and just systematic limitations, but now you have no excuse not to create an asset that actually connects with your audience. Other than time, it's still, it still takes some time and work to actually dive in, but you're curating an experience, which is a hundred percent going to drive an increase in click-through rate and increase in engagement because people are going to be seeing a video that they actually resonate with within that point of their journey. Speaker 2: A hundred percent. I think there's two things you touched on that are so important. One, The first thing is that AI isn't perfect. All of these tools out here, it takes some trial and error. You've got to refine and go back and forth, but that's what's great about this solution. It gives you the flexibility. It gives you the control to create, iterate, refine. It may not come out perfect on your first try, right, on your first output, especially if you're net new and maybe you're not like a creative director, but you're able to refine and get to where you want to be. And the second thing is the relevance. I talked about the modern shopper journey when we opened up Relevance is just so crucial at every aspect of that shopping journey. So whether you're starting in sponsored products or you're starting to build awareness in sponsored brands campaigns, you need to have a highly relevant creative so that your shoppers resonate with it and want to go to purchase. And so that's what this creative studio does for you. It helps you have this one seamless central experience to create a multiple formats of ads across the shopper journey. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. AI is the worst it's ever going to be today. And it's just going to continue to progress and move forward. I mean, so with that in mind, and being directly tied into development of a product like this, where do you see this going? Or how do you see tools like this changing the overall advertising landscape? Speaker 2: Yeah, I see two things. In terms of how it will change, it's all about access and information. I think This is now leveling the playing field for so many businesses by giving them access to tools that help them build the same level quality creative as very large brands who spend maybe millions a year and add dollars. So, access is really going to be critical to the future in helping businesses grow over time. And I think the second thing that's really unique and different about this tool is that it really enables brands to be authentic and share creatives that are in their authentic voice. And as I talked about this modern shopper area, there's also this need for authenticity where people want to buy from brands that are truly authentic and that align with their own values. And so, Having retail insights built in, pulling information from your product detail page helps you have more authentic creatives that you can then use to build engaging ads on Amazon. Speaker 1: I love that. I think in a world of AI, authenticity is sometimes lost. People start doing things just because they can. And being able to connect it, bring it back to home of who is your actual audience. The Retail Insights that is proving who that audience is, is really important because if you just try to create something because you now can use AI to create it, Your customers know. They read into that. And I think we're going to see just a shift in how the next generation does business as well. I mean, they want to follow curators and they want to follow brands that they relate to. So really leaning into that as an opportunity rather than kind of going the other way of trying to serve something to everyone is important. Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's an interesting take where I think that AI tools can now allow us to actually be more personalized. Now because we're speaking, instead of having to generate a more general ad creative. Speaker 1: We only have budget for one. Speaker 3: Exactly. Now I can look at different subsets and different core audiences and there's many different people who may purchase my products or be following my brand and now I can speak to each of them Individually as an audience. And so that gets me excited where as a brand, I feel like with these tools, you can now actually connect much more with the customers and people who are following you around. Speaker 1: Absolutely. Speaker 3: I really appreciate you sitting down to talk through this. We're super excited about it. Any final thoughts or takeaways or where should people start? What should they do to start getting involved or test it out? Speaker 2: I think one thing that's great about Accelerate is it brings all the sellers together in one place. It's really great to see so many together coming to visit us in the Pavilion Hub and learn how to use the tools. If you have an opportunity to attend one of our events, I think that's a great place to start to meet us in person, chat with us, and learn more about these tools. And if you don't and want to visit us online, go to aistudio.amazon. That's where you can access the Creative Studio. You don't even have to log in before you're able to start seeing a library of imagery and prompts that you can start to learn from, learn best practices, and then go on and get started. Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome. Speaker 1: I love it. And one thing I will reiterate is, as Joe said, AI is the worst it's ever going to be. So hop in, play around with it and just test and learn. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. And I will also add to that that just digging into this, it's just open possibilities and opportunities. So we're getting really excited about it. So I highly encourage everybody to go in and check it out. Jennifer, it's been so awesome. Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.