Amazon Says ‘Black Friday’ Football Ads Are Sold Out

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The Super Bowl isn’t the only big football property that will be crammed full of advertising. Amazon’s Prime Video has sold out all the commercial inventory attached to its new “Black Friday” game, the first event the NFL has earmarked for the day after Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday-shopping season, according to Danielle Carney, head of NFL ad-sales for the company. Amazon has also sold out of ad inventory in the “Thursday Night Football” games slated for November 16 and November 30, she says, in part because the company has tried to sell broader ad packages that connect an ad message across a broader swath of content.

One reason for the interest? Amazon will open the “Black Friday” game to anyone who wants to watch it, not just the company’s Prime members. The move is likely to broaden the audience for the event. “We are excited by this, by how we can event-ize Black Friday for advertisers, and we have been thinking about it that way,” Carney told Variety.

“We have been thinking of ways to reward fans that tune in through curated holiday deals and exclusive deals,” she adds, noting that some ads may carry interactive banners at the bottom of the screen or a QR code that may take viewers to shopping opportunities. Amazon is also encouraging sponsors to launch new campaigns and new creative concepts to get viewers excited about making purchases. The new Black Friday event represents an experiment not just for Amazon, but for the NFL itself.