Mercedes-Benz USA worked with Amazon Ads on a series of custom creative spots that aired in January and February around Prime Video’s NBA broadcasts, per details shared with Marketing Dive. The automaker is the presenting sponsor of the NBA on Prime Saturday games for the season, which began in October, and was an early partner with Prime Video around its move into sports.
“The luxury market in the U.S. has changed dramatically in recent years. Audiences are rapidly diversifying, luxury buyers are skewing younger, and the traditional spaces where consumers engage with brands are shrinking,” said Mercedes-Benz USA CMO Melody Lee in emailed comments. “Prime Video brings a superior viewing experience that perfectly aligns with our brand’s desire to expand advertising audiences while continuing to stay true to our iconic heritage.”
The continuing partnership also demonstrates how the tech giant is working to evolve its advertising offerings, especially in the growing realm of live sports, which has played a large role in helping Amazon engage large scale audiences at the top of the funnel.
“Mercedes can come in and experiment with us and create branded content and have this big ownership position, and then as they move down the funnel, they can think about how they're leveraging some of our other ad-tech to do things like remarketing and continuing conversations with viewers across other Amazon surfaces,” said Amy McDevitt, head of sports brand partnerships at Amazon Ads.
Amazon enlisted Merkley+Partners on strategy and PHD on media investment for the campaign. The four vignettes follow the chaos that ensues when “NBA on Prime Video” analyst Dirk Nowitzki is missing from the broadcast studio. In each spot, the basketball legend is found in the parking garage, enjoying a range of features — exterior styling, massage seating, sound system and ambient lighting — offered on the Mercedes-Benz GLS.
“Purchasing a luxury item, especially a vehicle, is undoubtedly an emotional experience,” Lee said. “Knowing this, we at Mercedes-Benz strive to connect to viewers on this emotional level; through our products, experiences and even marketing materials, we want to evoke a feeling of comfort and home, and for short-form content like these spots, it’s especially important to integrate the customer benefit into the story, in a natural way.”
The partnership with Amazon around “NBA on Prime Video” helps the automaker connect with passionate audiences during moments of high attention. Developing contextually relevant creative with partners like Amazon is essential for breaking through with consumers who are inundated with ads.
“The concept for integrating Dirk Nowitzki into our campaign felt authentic,” Lee said. “This gave us an opportunity to entertain while highlighting our product, as opposed to interrupting the viewing experience.”
Prime time for sports
Amazon’s advertising push around the NBA builds on the company’s success with its “Thursday Night Football” programming, which began broadcasting exclusively on Prime beginning in the 2022 season.
Brands with “Thursday Night Football” sponsorships and integrations on Prime Video saw boosts to opinion and consideration in the 2024-25 season: 80% of viewers said they had a more favorable opinion of a brand because of such integrations, which are two-times more effective in improving brand consideration compared to linear NFL sponsorships, per Latitude Research data shared by Amazon.
“Spots that feature our talent and that we are producing on behalf of brands are really resonating in terms of most preferred, most attention grabbing, great fits within the programming,” McDevitt said. “That’s informing our recommendation to our partners, like Mercedes-Benz, that it would be a great move for them to leverage talent that's already part of our programming to help deliver their brand message.”
In addition to the spots with Nowitzki, Amazon worked with Mercedes-Benz to promote the automaker’s integration in the Sony Pictures film “GOAT” by amplifying messaging on digital screens in its Culver City, California studio during “NBA on Prime Video” broadcasts. Plus, Amazon is working on a studio takeover with Mercedes-Benz that will air later in March that will highlight an additional video.
“When you come in and you partner with us in this kind of larger-scale marketing initiative, we're always thinking about leaning in on how we can do a little bit more, and how we can help them drill down to accomplish other incremental objectives,” McDevitt said of Amazon’s approach, which now extends beyond the NFL and NBA into WNBA broadcasts.
“This will be the first time that we're bringing our own unique Prime Video sports perspective to the WNBA,” McDevitt said. “Now that our full global NBA partnership is underway, we'll have our own shoulder programming tied to the WNBA as well, and we’re super excited to reveal more about that very soon.”
