Pause ads look like the new table stakes in streaming

If you’re addicted to retail therapy, maybe stay off of Amazon. Prime Video will soon start showing shoppable ads when viewers press pause on the shows they are watching, Amazon announced ahead of its upfront event this week.

The new ad formats, called interactive pause ads, will look similar to the pause ads that have become ubiquitous across the streaming landscape for the past five years. When viewers press pause on their remotes when watching Prime Video programming, ad creative will appear, and in Amazon’s case, there will also be “Add to Cart” and “Learn More” options if customers want to start purchases or get more information about the products for sale.

The shoppable format “is something that Amazon is uniquely in a position to do,” Mickey Goldstein, DDB North American comms strategy head, told Marketing Brew. “Hulu and Netflix don’t directly own marketplaces.”

Amazon’s new ad option for advertisers is the latest twist on the format that’s become increasingly commonplace across the streaming landscape since Hulu began testing it in late 2018. Pause ads, which also involve showing contextually relevant messaging—like “Enjoy the go!” from Charmin’ toilet paper, in Hulu’s case—have swiftly been embraced by other streamers like Peacock, which incorporated pause ads when it debuted in 2020, and Max (previously known as HBO Max), which introduced pause ads in 2022. Netflix is one of the last major streamers to hop on the bandwagon: it’s expected to debut pause ads sometime this year.

New ad formats like pause ads will likely continue to trend as streamers look to attract viewers with their less expensive ad-supported tiers, Goldstein said.

It’s a fine line to walk: Streamers are under pressure to provide subscribers with valuable content, and they have increasingly opted to center advertising in their plans to reach profitability. The more they advertise, though, “the danger there is that they then dilute and weaken the products, which increases churn as people leave because they're not happy with what they’re getting,” Goldstein said.

That’s one reason why streamers have focused on keeping their ad loads low to attract viewers, and have invested in ad formats like pause ads that are perceived as being less intrusive to the viewing experience than a traditional ad break. Peacock, as one example, unveiled Power Breaks last year during the NewFronts, ad breaks that allows advertisers to customize pause ads through additional imagery, color, and wording that begins to run if programming has been paused for over five seconds.

Shop talk: Pause ads aren’t the only new shoppable ad units coming to Prime Video. The platform is also planning carousel ads, where consumers can browse different items for sale during ad breaks, along with brand trivia ads.