It’s only days into the new year, and we’re already getting a peek behind the curtain at Amazon’s upfront pitch to advertisers.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is returning to Las Vegas this week, with publishers ready to showcase their latest adtech features and capabilities to media buyers. Speaking with ADWEEK ahead of the event, Alan Moss, vp, global ad sales, Amazon Ads, noted that CES is the kickoff point for upfront conversations, where Amazon does “more listening than pitching” to understand client needs, from big brand moments to live sports sponsorships.
“It’s the beginning of understanding customers, advertisers, and agencies’ goals for the year, to work backwards from them and prioritize them,” Moss said. “It’s the opportunity to start talking about how we can help them to realize those goals, and—as they’re thinking about them—building a path to the upfronts and what’s coming.”
Heading into the year, Moss outlined a few top-of-mind priorities for Amazon Ads, including focusing on partners such as agencies and tech providers as priority customers to “reinvent” how they collectively grow their businesses. Meanwhile, the company is also prioritizing how Amazon DSP and its adtech can help connect across the open internet, expanding AI capabilities, and moving beyond traditional channels to reach more non-endemic advertisers in 2026.
With that in mind, Moss gave ADWEEK a preview of what the company is talking about with clients in its closed-door meetings. Here’s an insider’s perspective on the topics and priorities being discussed in Amazon’s meeting rooms:
Showcasing the reach of Amazon’s Authenticated Graph
Moss explained that, in his conversations with media buyers, clients are looking for full-funnel solutions and mitigating guesswork. Given those priorities, the company’s Authenticated Graph has become “a big deal” for customers to expand reach across the open internet.
Amazon has previously touted that the offering enables advertisers to reach audiences across the internet through verified signals rather than probabilistic ones, and the company is making strategic moves to further strengthen that reach. For instance, last year Amazon partnered with Roku to reach 80 million authenticated households, and at the company’s most recent unBoxed event, Amazon said it could connect advertisers with 90% of U.S. households, bringing authentication across the open internet and through its first- and third-party supply.
