How Amazon will impact the entire advertising ecosystem

When Amazon launches in South Africa, they themselves will be spending a significant amount of money to launch and drive traffic to their SA Amazon marketplace platform. They will do this by owning the digital space, radio space, outdoor space (especially in the major metros). They are a global brand and come with dollar ($) launch budgets. Takealot (they are already upping their communication) and other large e-commerce sites will also need to counter the Amazon brand push, which means the marketing industry wins on all counts.

Amazon as a channel cannot be ignore for prominent brands (and those who have product brand ambitions in the future), even if only to ensure your brand integrity and consistency is out there for all those eyeballs that will inevitably visit the site (Global Amazon daily views can exceed 300 million in the USA). Bottom line is, with where e-commerce is going, the advertising market and/or full-service marketing agencies that service retail brands of any significance, must, or will have to eventually, include the Amazon channel as part of their channel strategy.

Branding and brand consistency (be it local brands or international brands) continues to be the highest priority for brand managers. Whether in the physical environment or virtual space, the experience needs to connect the consumer through recognition (or for smaller brands, expert presentation, and compelling storytelling) and of course easy of experience. Amazon prides itself on the customer experience and do everything in their design and algorithms to ensure the consumer is top of mind. It is then up to the brands and products to package themselves and optimise their listings to tweak the algorithm and obviously stand out against the competition.

In 2022 RT7 was nominated for a global Amazon branding award amongst giants like MediaCom. The owner of the business that we won the award for, Monty Bojangles – a UK courtier chocolate truffle maker, is so enthusiastic and immersed in their business. “We love collaborating with people and brands that are still enthusiastic and are willing to take risks” says Mike Walker, marketing director. “We were also lucky that Monty Bojangles had already developed a strong brand story which formed our foundation. That foundation and a client that was willing to let go and trust, resulted in our team pushing the boundaries of storytelling in the Amazon space.