Tag: Amazon

United States – Pacvue, a commerce acceleration platform that integrates retail media, commerce management and measurement, has announced expanded access to its full range of Amazon DSP capabilities beyond North America, bringing Pacvue’s intelligent automation, reporting and optimization solutions to 16 countries across APAC, as well as LATAM and EMEA.

Through Pacvue, brands in these regions now have self-serve access to a full suite of programmatic media solutions to elevate their growth strategies. Markets in APAC who can have access to these solutions include Australia, India, Japan, and Singapore.

Previously, Pacvue’s Amazon DSP customers outside North America only had access to reporting capabilities. Now, advertisers in these regions are able to leverage the Pacvue platform to reach Amazon Ads audiences via Amazon DSP. This expansion includes campaign creation and management, budget, bid and dayparting automation controls.

With this rollout, Pacvue has introduced several new features for customers in expanded regions. These include a combined dashboard for Amazon Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP, providing a unified view of campaign performance. 

Additionally, AMC audience creation enables seamless transitions from insights to action by directly integrating with Amazon DSP campaigns. To enhance automation, Pacvue offers tools like dayparting, which allows for precise optimisations throughout the day, as well as automated budget management to control monthly and daily spending without requiring manual oversight. 

Lastly, advanced reporting and analytics, powered by Amazon Ads performance data and Pacvue’s cutting-edge technology, provide deeper insights to drive better advertising outcomes.

Melissa Burdick, president and co-founder at Pacvue, said, “Our partners around the globe have been eagerly awaiting access to Amazon DSP tools, so we’re excited to be among the first platforms to unlock these new capabilities for them. Access to Amazon DSP tools brings greater capabilities and reach for advertisers in these regions, as well as opportunities for growth from a wider variety of ad types, channels and audiences.”

India – To captivate digital-savvy audiences, Flipkart has unveiled its latest ‘Android Advantage’ campaign, blending humour, relatability, and innovation with the whimsical charm of a Sad Panda, turning it into an internet sensation.

Flipkart’s campaign shares a  relatable story of modern connection, following a man who turns into a panda—a playful metaphor for feeling ignored by his phone-obsessed partner. The twist? He’s planning a heartfelt surprise using Android’s exclusive features like Google Gemini and Circle to Search.

The film showcases how technology fosters heartfelt connections, highlighting Android’s advanced features. Its engaging story has captivated audiences, amassing over 100 million Instagram views and sparking viral social media buzz within a week.

Before the ad film premiered, the Sad Panda had already made its mark in unexpected places. As part of the campaign, the forlorn character appeared in meme-worthy scenarios—sitting dejectedly on a park bench, holding signs at Marine Drive, or sulking outside a club—sparking curiosity and lively conversations online.

As Sad Panda trended on Twitter, influencers joined the buzz, sharing photos and videos with the melancholy mascot. Meme pages and pop culture accounts quickly amplified its charm, making Sad Panda a relatable symbol of humorous loneliness that struck a chord with Gen Z audiences.

The campaign combines pop culture and modern technology to craft a narrative that resonates with younger audiences. With its engaging storyline and showcase of Android’s cutting-edge innovations, the Sad Panda campaign aims to redefine digital storytelling with a fresh, innovative approach.

Flipkart’s Sad Panda will return for Flipkart’s Big Saving Days starting December 20, spotlighting the best deals on Android Advantage—an ideal opportunity for audiences to upgrade their devices.

Singapore – Amazon has announced that it has invested more than S$2 billion across its retail and cloud businesses in Singapore in 2023. This includes both capital expenditure such as improvements to existing infrastructures, including fulfilment centers, delivery stations, and data centers, and operating expenditure towards technology, safety, expansion of programs for customers, delivery partners, small and medium businesses and employee compensation.

The company’s investment in Singapore supported more than 4,000 indirect jobs in areas like construction, logistics, and other professional services according to third-party consultancy firm Keystone Strategy. 

In addition, according to a survey conducted by Amazon, Singapore businesses selling on Amazon have created more than 6,000 jobs to support their Amazon-related business activities. In total, Amazon supported more than 10,000 indirect jobs in Singapore in 2023 alone.

Since the launch of Amazon Prime Now in 2017 (now renamed Amazon Fresh) and Amazon.sg in 2019, Amazon has continued to invest in its operations to offer a faster and more convenient shopping experience for Singapore customers. Amazon’s investments have enabled the company to avail same-day and next-day delivery for eligible products to customers in Singapore.

Moreover, through Amazon Global Selling, Singapore selling partners can export their products to customers around the world on Amazon. Amazon continuously invests in tools, services and programs to improve its selling partners’ experience and help them grow their businesses with Amazon. 

Other endeavours Amazon had helped in include Amazon Web Services supporting Singapore’s digital transformation ambition, commitment to support the communities where it operates, as well as investing and innovating in sustainability across its businesses in Singapore.

Peter Li, director of China & Singapore and International Store at Amazon, said, “Since the start of our operations in Singapore in 2010 and the launch of Amazon.sg in 2019, we’ve been able to invest and grow our presence in the country with the support of our customers and selling partner.”

He added, “We’re humbled to see our investments unlock growth opportunities for businesses in Singapore and are proud to continue to support Singapore’s economy and digitisation.”

Singapore – Amazon Ads has unveiled new updates for its Amazon Demand-Side Platform (Amazon DSP) that drive precise full-funnel audience reach with streamlined campaign planning and optimisation, as well as introducing its AI creative studio and audio generator, two new generative AI tools designed to lower creative barriers and expand opportunities for advertisers to scale their reach.

To increase advertiser efficiency, Amazon DSP is launching a new user experience with simplified workflows to enable campaign creation in just a few clicks. In early tests, the new consolidated display line-item feature reduced campaign setup time. This feature brings together desktop, mobile, and app display inventory into a single line item, making it easier to launch and monitor reporting.

Moreover, Amazon DSP enhancements also include new frequency cap controls and reporting to simplify frequency management. Advertisers can now use the frequency groups feature to holistically manage their frequency caps across multiple campaigns, channels and devices—such as capping ad frequency at a household level. 

Lastly, Amazon Ads is also launching an ads data manager. This easy-to-use interface enables advertisers to securely upload their signals once, and then use them across Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) to engage relevant audiences, measure conversions, and optimise campaigns. It is integrated with providers like Treasure Data, Salesforce, and Tealium, so advertisers can import their first-party data from wherever they store it. With this, advertisers can use ads data manager to connect their first-party data with Amazon DSP audiences, and it will be fully integrated with the Amazon DSP and AMC in 2025.

Kelly MacLean, vice president of Amazon DSP, said, “The digital advertising landscape is rapidly evolving, with streaming TV becoming mainstream and full-funnel, cross-channel reach and measurement taking center stage. We’re inventing ad tech that makes it easier for all advertisers to navigate this evolution with precise reach, deeper insights, and direct measurement.”

She added, “Amazon DSP can uniquely drive top-to-bottom outcomes on Amazon’s properties, such as the store and Prime Video, as well as across leading streaming apps and premium publishers. We look forward to seeing advertisers leverage the capabilities announced today to fuel their business growth and engage more customers.”

Meanwhile, With audio generator, Amazon Ads expands its suite of AI-powered creative tools – including Image generator and Video generator – empowering brands to connect with customers across the shopping journey. These tools make it simple to build and activate new campaign creatives, helping brands experiment more freely and optimize based on performance – with little more than the information on their Amazon product page.

To further enhance a seamless ad building experience, Amazon Ads is releasing AI creative studio – which helps advertisers explore and create unique ads all in one place. AI creative studio brings Amazon Ads AI-powered creative generators into a single application, where brands can conceptualize, create, and refresh content regardless of format. Whether it’s turning a simple product shot into videos or, in the near future, converting a TV commercial into online sponsored ads, AI creative studio makes it easy to build and scale campaigns in innovative ways – helping brands reach customers.

Jay Richman, vice president of creative experiences for Amazon Ads, said, “We’re excited to introduce these new AI-powered creative tools, which have the potential to transform how brands connect with Amazon customers.By reducing the complexities of working across multiple formats and placements, these innovations empower advertisers to more easily reach their target audiences at every stage of the marketing funnel. They can also easily update creatives seasonally, generate fresh, trend-driven content, and tailor ads to different use cases. This leads to a more dynamic and engaging customer experience, ultimately helping to drive overall campaign performance.”

India – E-commerce players Amazon and Flipkart have been found to have breached antitrust laws over alleged process of giving preference to select sellers on their shopping websites, according to the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

In a recent report by Reuters, CCI released a 1027-page report on Amazon and a separate 1,696-page report on Flipkart, both dated Aug. 9–which stated that the two companies were found to have created an ecosystem where preferred sellers appeared higher in search results, elbowing out other sellers.

“Each of the anti-competitive practices alleged … were investigated and found to be true,” CCI told Reuters.

The government body also said that the Indian units of five smartphone companies – Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Realme and OnePlus – were ‘involved in the practice of exclusive’ phone launches in ‘collusion’ with Amazon and its affiliates, breaking competition law. Moreover, the Flipkart also mentioned that the Indian units of Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo, and Realme conducted similar practices.

“Exclusivity in business is anathema. Not only is it against free and fair competition but also against the interest of consumers,” CCI’s additional director general G.V. Siva Prasad wrote in the Amazon and Flipkart reports, in identical findings.

CCI also noted that during the investigation, both platforms had downplayed the allegations but government official stress the practices were rampant in the platform.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Amazon, through its Amazon Web Services (AWS) arm, has announced the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region. With this, various sectors in the country will have greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from AWS data centres located in Malaysia.

As part of the launch, Amazon has also stated that it is planning to invest an estimated US$6.2b (approximately MYR 29.2b) in Malaysia through 2038, as well as support an average of more than 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs annually in Malaysia.

The construction and operation of the new AWS Region is estimated to add approximately US$12.1b (MYR 57.3b) to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and will support an average of more than 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs at external businesses annually through 2038. 

These jobs, including construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and others within the country’s broader economy, will be part of the AWS supply chain in Malaysia.

Tengku Zafrul, Minister of Investment Trade & Industry (MITI), said, “The launch of an AWS infrastructure Region in Malaysia provides access to new and emerging technology for Malaysian entities and businesses of all sizes, boosting our country’s capabilities for digital innovation. “This milestone is a significant step towards fulfilling the vision of Malaysia’s New Industrial Master Plan 2030 to build a highly-skilled, innovative, prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable economy.”

He added, “We recognise the transformative power of digitalisation, cloud computing and AI as key drivers in Malaysia’s effort to become a manufacturing and services hub within Asia. As the largest investment made by an international technology company in Malaysia, the AWS infrastructure Region will help ensure Malaysia remains competitive on the global stage.”

Meanwhile, Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS, commented, “The new AWS Region in Malaysia enables organisations across Asia Pacific to unlock the full potential of the world’s most extensive and reliable cloud, helping customers deploy advanced applications with a broad set of AWS technologies like AI and ML.”

He added, “Malaysia’s rapidly growing digital economy requires access to secure, resilient, and sustainable cloud infrastructure. With today’s launch, AWS is proud to support Malaysia’s digital transformation and help accelerate its role as a regional hub for AI.”

Singapore – Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Amazon have launched a strategic partnership as part of Singapore’s Digital for Life initiative. The partnership aims to improve Singaporeans’ essential digital skills, focusing on areas such as safe online shopping and Gen AI. Community workshops will be organised to deliver these educational initiatives, led by corporate volunteers from Amazon.sg, Amazon Payments, and AWS, with support from IMDA. 

Amazon and IMDA have partnered to co-curate community workshops, building on IMDA’s Digital Skills for Life (DSL) competencies, which include “Transact Online” and “Be Safe, Smart, and Kind Online” content. The goal of these workshops is to teach Singaporeans of all ages—from young children to elderly people—safe and secure internet payment methods.

In addition to community workshops on secure online buying and transactions, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will conduct workshops as part of the Digital for Life campaign in conjunction with IMDA. These workshops seek to educate Singaporeans about generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and emerging technologies, emphasising their practical applications and advocating responsible use. 

The first AWS community workshop on generative AI was held in June 2024 with Singapore’s National Library Board, teaching attendees spanning from primary school students to seniors how to apply AI models to construct an application. These efforts support the AWS AI Spring Communities program, which focuses on AI-powered community development and is part of AWS’s recently announced flagship program, AWS AI Spring Singapore. AWS AI Spring will teach 5,000 people in AI capabilities annually from 2024 to 2026. 

Amazon has donated S$100,000 to the Digital for Life Fund to pursue the movement’s goals. The Singapore Government will match this donation dollar for dollar to promote digital literacy and wellbeing, as well as digital technology and inclusion efforts for vulnerable populations.

In line with the Amazon and IMDA partnership, Amazon and IMDA’s engagement comes after Amazon.sg received the highest possible grade for the third consecutive year in April 2024 in Singapore’s E-Commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings (TSR). Amazon Singapore has just joined the newly created Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s Singapore chapter as Vice-Chair, collaborating across industries to safeguard Singaporean consumers from criminal actors. 

Amazon aims for a world where people can live confidently and without worrying about becoming victims of scams that may be created by working with governments and businesses from all around the world. Amazon is keen to collaborate with others in order to map out a path to accomplish this goal. 

According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), frauds and cybercrime remain a big threat. In their 2023 brief, SPF noted that the number of scam and cybercrime cases climbed by 49.6% from the previous year. The survey also found that 73.0% of scam victims were teenagers, young people, and adults under the age of 50, emphasising the significance of teaching these demographics on how to protect themselves from bad actors and learn about safe online purchasing and new technologies. 

Speaking about the partnership, Doreen Tan, assistant chief executive (strategic planning and digital readiness) of IMDA, said, “As the digital space evolves, we recognise the importance of equipping Singaporeans with the tools and skills to stay safe online. Our collaboration with Amazon builds on IMDA’s Digital Skills for Life competencies, which cover learning to transact securely and being savvy and kind online. We welcome more partners to join us in the Digital for Life movement, to build a more inclusive society where no one is left behind and everyone can enjoy the benefits of the digital age.” 

Meanwhile, Josen George, general manager, Amazon APAC, stated, “Widespread education and collective action are critical armors in our fight against scams. As technology advances, bad actors will continue to find new ways to take advantage of communities. We must strive to be a few steps ahead of them by working together, sharing our knowledge, and creating a safe environment for day-to-day activities online. Amazon – including teams from Amazon.sg, Amazon Payments and AWS, is proud to work closely with IMDA to further educate Singaporeans about safe online shopping and safe transactions using digital payment methods such as PayNow, as well as sharing the benefits and responsible use of new technologies such as Gen AI. Safety is the top priority in everything we do at Amazon.” 

Singapore – Integral Ad Science, a global media measurement and optimization platform, has announced that it has expanded its reporting and insights to Amazon. Through a server-to-server (S2S) interaction on Amazon’s DSP, advertisers now have access to measurement coverage for campaigns across Amazon custom audiences and Twitch inventory.

Advertisers in Amazon DSP from IAS have access to viewability, invalid traffic (IVT), brand safety, and appropriateness as solutions. 

IAS now offers Amazon DSP media buyers brand safety and suitability, viewability, and IVT measurement for custom audiences, as well as viewability and IVT measurement for Twitch. Cross-device measurement is available on the web and via apps for CTV, mobile, desktop, and tablet. 

Viewability, invalid traffic assessment with Amazon Ads, and brand safety and suitability expansions from IAS will be accessible in IAS Signal. The purpose of this platform is to give marketers a more uniform view of their global campaigns and more access to campaign data. 

In the third quarter of 2023, IAS also improved its integration with Amazon Ads by adding Context Control pre-bid segments. In addition to IAS’s regular pre-bid categories in Amazon DSP, customers can now simply select where their advertisements appear and reach contextually relevant content. 

Speaking about the partnership, Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS, said, “IAS and Amazon Ads share the value of customer obsession, and our global collaboration demonstrates how our companies continue to maximise return on investment for advertisers and are committed to providing independent measurement. This is yet another way IAS is empowering marketers with actionable data to drive superior results, giving them more confidence that their spend is being optimised towards performance.”

Singapore – Vonage, a worldwide cloud communications company that helps organisations accelerate their digital transformation and a subsidiary of Ericsson, announced today a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This collaboration seeks to speed up the availability of innovative solutions to millions of developers on AWS Marketplace.

In this partnership, Ericsson’s 5G network capabilities and AWS services will combine with Vonage’s platform, which offers communications APIs and network APIs that interact with CSP networks. Customers will be able to use the network for innovation and improve their overall customer experience thanks to this connection, which will enable AWS and Vonage to develop a variety of solutions. 

Vonage Fraud Protection will soon be available on the AWS Marketplace and will consist of multiple parts. These include the Fraud Defender solution powered by AWS generative artificial intelligence (AI) services, the Vonage CAMARA-based API SIM Swap (which will be in alpha upon release), and the Verify and Number Insights APIs paired with Amazon Rekognition. Vonage hopes to accelerate the market rollout of network API capabilities by continuing to build solutions such to this one with this improvement. 

The SIM Swap network API is intended to allow developers to determine, among other things, whether fraudulent behaviour was engaged in the recent SIM card transfers of a phone number. Vonage’s new Fraud Defender API is designed to identify fraud signals in advance, and its Verify API makes secure, silent authentication easier. The Vonage Number Insights API also has the ability to score fraud.

With the use of AWS generative AI services, our solution’s fraud detection skills will be further improved. Businesses will be able to improve customer satisfaction while strengthening their defences against mobile fraud thanks to this connection. 

Speaking about the partnership, Kathrin Renz, vice president of AWS Industries, said, “AWS and Vonage have a shared passion for helping customers deliver innovation and value. Working together with Vonage, we aim to drive new industrial and enterprise applications across industries that combine 5G networks and technologies like generative artificial intelligence to fuel new products and enhance the overall customer experience.” 

Meanwhile, Niklas Heuveldop, Vonage CEO and head of business area global communications platform for Ericsson, stated, “By working with AWS, we will accelerate our ability to embed communications and network APIs in applications and deliver new product offerings for AWS and Vonage customers. With network APIs, we are exposing new capabilities from within the 5G network that have never been available before, allowing existing applications to be enhanced with network information and enabling the development of a new class of applications.” 

Speaking about the fraud detection, Nick Laidlaw, chief technology officer at Voicify, said, “Voicify already integrates Vonage’s communications APIs into our conversational AI experiences tailored for the restaurant industry. With the new Fraud Protection Solution that includes AWS and the addition of network APIs, such as SIM Swap, we can enhance the level of security we offer for SMS and telephony, ensuring transactions are secure and valid and reinforcing our commitment to providing a trusted conversational AI service.”

Seattle, USA – Amazon Ads has launched image generation in beta—a generative AI solution designed to remove creative barriers and enable brands to produce lifestyle imagery that helps improve their ads’ performance. 

For example, an advertiser may have standalone images of their product against a white background, like a toaster. When that same toaster is placed in a lifestyle context—on a kitchen counter, next to a croissant—in a mobile Sponsored Brands ad, click-through rates can be 40% higher compared to ads with standard product images.

According to the company, the solution is helpful for advertisers of all sizes—enabling those that do not have in-house capabilities or agency support to more easily create brand-themed imagery, while also supporting bigger brands, who are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient around creative development. 

In the Amazon Ad Console, advertisers simply select their product and click Generate, with the tool leveraging generative AI to deliver a set of lifestyle and brand-themed images, based on product details, in a matter of seconds. The image can then be refined by entering short text prompts, while multiple versions can be quickly created and tested to optimize performance.

According to Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president at Amazon Ads Products and Technology, with the launch of their image generation capability, any advertiser can now use a simple tool to create unique, lifestyle creative assets that make their campaigns more compelling, and at no additional cost.

“Producing engaging and differentiated creatives can increase cost and often requires introducing additional expertise into the advertising process. At Amazon Ads, we are always thinking about ways we can reduce friction for our advertisers, provide them with tools that deliver more impact while minimizing effort, and ultimately, deliver a better advertising experience for our customers,” she said.

Aubrey added, “Providing tools to make image generation simple and easy is another way for us to support advertisers while also making the ads our customers see more engaging and visually rich. It’s a perfect use for generative AI—less effort and better outcomes.”