🔖Chapters:

[00:01:12] - Kelly's Background: From Soccer to Ad Tech

[00:03:22] - Making the Move from Meta to Amazon

[00:04:44] - Amazon DSP's Evolution from Single to Multi-Purpose

[00:06:10] - Adapting to the Streaming TV Revolution

[00:07:31] - Technical Differentiators and Competitive Positioning

[00:13:30] - AI Integration and the "Crystal Box" Approach

[00:16:54] - The Future of Automated Advertising Agents

[00:18:03] - Impact of Changing Consumer Search Behavior

[00:19:56] - What's Next and Amazon Unboxed Preview

💡Takeaways:

🏆 Kelly MacLean's competitive background as a professional soccer player shaped her approach to building fast-moving, high-performing ad tech teams.

🔧 Amazon completely re-architected their DSP backend and frontend, moving from single-purpose to fully functioning multi-purpose platform, improving overall performance by over 40%.

📺 Amazon DSP is now the only platform offering authenticated reach to over 80 million CTV households in the US through partnerships with Roku and other premium publishers.

🤖 Amazon's "crystal box" approach to AI provides transparency and control while leveraging automation, contrasting with traditional "black box" systems.

💰 Amazon offers industry-leading low fees: 0% for programmatic guaranteed deals on Amazon properties and 1% across premium streaming publishers.

🎯 Performance Plus campaigns have driven over 51% improvement in customer acquisition costs through AI-powered optimization.

📱 Amazon launched Complete TV ahead of upfronts, using AI to help marketers plan, manage, and measure holistic streaming TV buys across platforms.

🔮 The future will likely combine simplified AI-driven products with complex expert features, as different campaigns and brands will require varying degrees of automation.

🏈 Live sports remains one of the "last best places" where consumers are truly engaged for long durations, making it increasingly valuable for advertisers.

📊 Amazon's approach focuses on deterministic identity and frequency capping to provide more efficient spend and clearer impact measurement.

Amazon DSP: https://advertising.amazon.com/solutions/products/amazon-dsp

Amazon's Kelly MacLean on How the eCommerce Giant Built a Killer DSP

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