Amazon Upfront 2026 Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast, set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Shri Raja Gopelin and Peter V. S. Bond, explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to this very special upfront episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I am your humble co-host, PVSB, who also moonlights as head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the Commerce Acceleration Division of Omnicom. I am joined as always by my rider die BFF. He is the Butch Cassidy to my Sundance, the Batman to my Robin. He is also the Chief Revenue Officer at ThinkBlue Consulting, father of pop stars Lara Raj of Cat's Eye and Rhea Raj. And he is the man known as Shree. Shree, how are you doing, man? What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

What an exciting day. Got to see Amazon up front, the whole event live. It was just fabulous, Peter. But I gotta ask you something, right? Do you have to by calling us Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, why not go with the Magnificent Seven on McKenna's Gold?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

How about Thelma and Louise?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

How about Thelma and Louise?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Okay, we'll go with Thelma and Louise. But wait a minute, they drove off a cliff, Shree. That wasn't good.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

My parents in the 70s made us watch all these Hollywood blockbuster Oscar winning movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though I was like five years old. McKenna's Gold. I've seen it five times.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Good stuff. All good stuff. Well, Shree, uh, we're we're getting together. We're recording this fairly late at night because you and I had the uh distinct honor and privilege to participate in the 2026 Amazon Upfront event, which took place at the Beacon Theater on the west side of Manhattan. It was a star-studded event, and it was attended by advertisers, some agencies, and we got very, very special media attention as part of the press. We were very grateful to our friends at Amazon for granting us that status. Uh, as you'll see, we'll also put in the digital show notes of this episode a link to all the photos that I had an opportunity to take from my great vantage point. But uh it was a from beginning to end, it was a very tight two hours. Uh, we'll talk about how that transpired and who made great appearances. I was uh when one person walked on stage, I thought I was gonna win a car. May give you a little bit of a hint, but it didn't happen. It was it was phenomenal, and and it as always, the event, you know the event is about to close when our when our friend Alan Moss appears on stage and thanks everybody for coming. But they they ran it like clockwork. We were out even a couple of minutes early, Shri. But I thought what we do in this episode is you and I'll kind of break down what we saw. I will say this, Shri. It was an impressive evening. Amazon's the top of their game, just the top of their game.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Hey, Peter, I too would like to take a minute and thank Amazon communications team for inviting us as part of the press and media to actually watch Upfront Life. This event is obviously meant for those that are investing with Amazon ads, which are CMOs, agencies, and you know, the larger and those that are have larger investments on Amazon ads to come and see the entire suite of programming they have available via streaming TV, which is absolutely fabulous.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yeah. Allison, Allison and Eric, uh particular shout out to you guys for for making this happen. We talked about it at CES earlier this year, and you lived up to your uh to your offer. We could not be more appreciative of the fact that you welcomed us in as press.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Does that mean, Peter, we're now committed to going to accelerate?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, I think that pretty much says we're we're all in between that and of course, unboxed, which is in San Francisco this year.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Looking forward looking forward to both of those, Peter. So why don't uh why don't I kick this off, Peter, and get right into it and we'll just go through the whole programming, right? And Peter, before I do that, take a couple minutes, tell our audience, especially those investing on Amazon ads, what is this event? Give us some details. What is this event about? Who comes? How long does it last? Why is it consequential in the year given it's happening early May?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, so this is transpiring at a time of the year that all of the other traditional media publishers uh think the traditional network, CBS, ABC, NBC, they hold their upfront events. This is where historically what would happen is a network would gather together all of its affiliates and its ad big advertisers and a lot of ad agencies, and they would run them through what the fall schedule is going to be for all their big TV shows. So they'd trot out the stars, they'd talk about some of their tried and true shows that were returning, and they would introduce new shows. So it was a great way to get advertisers to do advanced buys. That was the real goal. Now, obviously, with Amazon Prime, Amazon is producing a tremendous amount of content. So not linear television, but still the goal here is to get advertisers and their agencies excited about investing in all of their media properties. So they walked us through a lot of their properties, be it sports, entertainment, music, mute movies, videos, and even Twitch. You know, we had uh Sarah Yost. Remember, we talked to her back at CES. She appeared in commercials that were intersparse between the conversations, and she was doing that with Summer House's Paige Sorbo, who made her her claim to fame on that Bravo show. But it was very much about getting people excited about the properties. And whereas Amazon Unboxed is very much about here are all the great tools we have, here are the ways you can advertise, much more the technical. This was more about get excited about our properties, and we'll tell you a little bit about our capabilities, but really come back to unboxed in the fall and we'll we'll wow you with all of our marketing, you know, our clean room, Amazon Marketing Cloud, our audience targeting, and all of that. So that's so that's what the event was all about. Lots of CMOs in the room, lots of brands, a bunch of agencies, and all the Amazon execs. As we walked over from the restaurant where Flywheel was hosting a uh a party, I passed five or six other restaurants, and they all were hosting Amazon pre-upfront event. So it they basically took over the whole neighborhood. It was a real shindig from beginning to end, straight.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

All right, so let me get into programming if you're good with it.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah, by all means.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

So so here's how the program kicks off, which was close to my heart. I'm not so sure it was close to the audience's heart, at least the first part of the music programming. So it kicks off with a 30-second concert by Diplo. And I'm like, wow! Diplo live. Everyone gets to watch a 30-minute I'm sorry, 30-minute concert by Diplo, right? You gotta go to either Vegas and pay premium dollars to go to a nightclub to do it when he has a residency, or you gotta go to a big festival of some sort like Coachella on the EDM stage, right? This is the guy that charges half a million dollars for a 30-second set, he's got billions of streams, and what and and he played hit after hit remixed, and he could not get the audience in the room to get up and dance, cheer as loud, and go in. I'm thinking of myself.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

There were there were people don't that's not true. There were there were people dancing. I'm not it's not a net zero. I'll it was a small percent, but they're more gentlemen twenty percent.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

And I'm thinking of myself, corporate settings. Then we get to the second performer who only had three songs close to my heart as well. I listened to three country performers, one was Cottonajo back in the days, Shabuzi. I'm a big fan of Shabuzi, and then Casey Musgraves, and who comes on stage? Casey Musgraves. And I'm like, wow, I got a free 40-minute concert today of Diplo and Casey Musgraves, and she bought her a game, Peter.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Yeah, she wasn't. She sure did. Well, not to be outdone, but they brought out the big gun right from the beginning. Who steps out on stage? You win a car, you win a car, you win a car. It was Oprah. Oprah announced that her podcast is coming on to Amazon. She talked about all the content they're doing. The the crowd went wild for Oprah. I mean, she really, really delivered with her appearance on stage. It was quite the show. I mean, they didn't say that for the end. They just, right after the music, they decided they were gonna lean in and lean in hard with the queen herself. So phenomenal appearance by Oprah. Back to you, Shri. What happened now?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

But Peter, what's the consequence? Why was Oprah on stage? Her podcast, Oprah Podcast, is getting on Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. You know, she's been making a lot of press. She recently interviewed the woman made famous by the Coldplay incident in Boston. She she has got a huge audience, and she is bringing her platform to further amplify on Amazon. She's also doing a couple of other things with them as well. So Oprah is uh all in with Amazon. That was that was my takeaway.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I know it was so clear. And she kept talking about when she started in 1875 and bought a smile.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

She was very self-deprecating. She was very self-deprecating.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

People have to Google and see what the significance of 1875. But then we spent quite a bit of time listening to the importance of Twitch for advertising, which I gotta say, depending on the brand that you are, if you want to get a younger audience gaming, Twitch is a platform you gotta be on.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

It's and it's beyond just gaming now, Shri. It really is about streaming live. That is the Twitches.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

It's not just a but I have to encourage, you and I have to encourage CMOs, brands, advertisers, those running media, not just retail media. Yeah. Twitch needs to be in your strategy to get a below 30 audience. You know, we keep saying below 30, below 20. Twitch became popular when the today's 35s were 20.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

And they still are on Twitch. It's gotta be part of your strategy. And who did they bring out to have this whole conversation on Twitch? Sierra Across.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty impressive, Shri. Um, but Twitch is a legitimate platform. If you're not there, you're missing a core demographic that has buying power. And it's frankly where you need to go where your consumers are. If all you do is just wait in the places you've always been and hope they come to you. Hope is not a strategy when it comes to advertising.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

I think we no doubt about it. Hope is never a strategy, but you know, man lives on hope. But that said, Peter, tell us next about who was a star they put on stage that talked about interacting live with fans on Twitch.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

All right. So not someone that I am horribly familiar with, Shri, but it was Ice Spice and talked at length about interacting from a chateau with fans. It was quite a live stream engagement. She said, listen, uh they get to see me not as the finished product, but as I'm doing it and producing it in real time. So she likes engaging.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

You know which family listens to Ice Spice a lot and also inspired, you know, when she was new in her career, early 2020s, 21, who admired her?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Rhea Raj and Lara Raj. Not surprising. Not surprising at all.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

So And so for me again, Peter, hold on, Peter. I gotta say this, man. As Papa Raj, we start with Diplo, then we get to Casey Musgraves, then I gotta see Tierra Wack from Twitch, then I get to see Ice Spice. By now, I'm like mega excited for how the rest of the event was gonna be, and it did not disappoint Peter.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

So what was next? I think they threw me Oprah just to keep you know an old codger like me.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Give you Casey Musgraves. Did you know Casey Musgraves?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

I did not. Honestly, I you listen, uh, you and I both know that I if if the artist came after John Mayer, other than like Taylor Swift, there's there's a high likelihood I don't know who they are. Fair enough, regardless of their genre. Anyway, what happened? So so next they shift from Twitch to sports, and they go heavy on sports. They start with Thursday night football. And who comes on yes, exactly. Who comes on to do the song? Okay, you just stole you stole my thunder, Sri. It's just I know, I know you do.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Peter, did you get to see one song, two songs? Like, what happened? What did he sing about? He just he just talked about football.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

And he talked and they and then after that, Carissa Thompson came out, the the sportscaster, talked about Thursday night football, brought out her colleagues Wit and Fitz, and talked about Black Friday. They said that the the opening football game for Thursday night football was gonna be the Buffalo Bills. And I'm trying to remember who they were playing, but it's a it's a big game. It'll be a big game. Big game. It's a big game.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

So Peter, I was here on this area for a little bit of time here, right? I've had the chance to meet then the entire Thursday night football crew. The fourth person missing was uh Richard Sherman, but they had him Richard Sherman Pingdom Live, and talk to him as well, if you remember why. I do remember that. But that so Peter, let's hang out here for a little bit, right? So you have Shabuzi come in singing Thursday Night Football, the actual team, I think, to Thursday Night Football. We'll see if that's the way it works out. Then you have host for Thursday Night Football, Cherissa Thompson, along with the other co-hosts, right? The LA Rams, defensive guy who you remember crying on the field after winning the Super Bowl, Chris Wentworth, none other than Mr. Fitz, Ryan Fitzpatrick themselves, and what did they announce? You know the CPG guys are doing the right thing by doing the CPG guys podcast when Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chris Wentworth stand over there and say, we're starting a podcast called Fitz and Wit. Fitz and Wit.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

You think you think we're of the same scale, Peter?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

I think that you and I were in real time texting each other about how do the CPG guys make it into the Amazon podcast family. And I don't think it's by doing what we're doing and just moving it over there. I think you and I have some really good ideas that we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

You say to me was important.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

I'm saying that I think you and I can help contribute to the conversation the way that more as a B2B. I think our audience would be more focused on the advertisers, large and small, that are that are selling through Amazon. But I think don't be surprised if the CPG guys start to appear in the Amazon universe around podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

That's gonna be halfway through now. About halfway through, Peter has clearly said don't be surprised if we begin to appear. Obviously, podcasting, while we started this to kill time, it's become almost a full-time job for Peter and me. We're talking to who's doing the industry, but at the halfway time, here's what dawns on me, right? They talk about this very important thing, AI-powered defensive alerts in football, how their partnership with NASCAR is growing, NBA, use of AI for demand signals across the board, correspondingly in their partnership for ads in sports and streaming TV. And something close to my heart, Peter, which you have promised me you're going to get me there some year. What is this golf tournament?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Uh, I think it's called the Gusta George. Yeah, they did, they did, yeah. I know. Thank you. But Peter Sri Sri, we've got a we've got a real tough schedule next year because we seem to have to need to work in the Masters, South by Southwest. We have to work in Possible, and we have to work in BravoCon. What happened to Derby? And the oh, the Kentucky. See, it's the one thing on that list.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I've never been bucket list.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Sree. I don't. We're gonna some things are gonna have to fall off the list, Shree. I think we're gonna have to do a rationalization of our schedule for next year. I think we've got to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

One other thing I want to I want to mention a few other things on sports, Peter. W N Bate Games.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Eight and a partnership with the Blue Devils. Duke is going to be a focus for their NCAA men's basketball coverage.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

If you're an advertiser now, Peter, let's recap the halfway mark. You get Oprah exclusively on Amazon streaming. You have Twitch, the gaming platform, where you can interact. Sports is a focus, and what are we talking about? Masters W, NASCAR, Caitlin Carkin, WNBA, and of course Thursday Night Football. How are you feeling right now about streaming TV advertising, Peter?

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Three, the there was a stat that came out at one point during the conversation. I think it was at the end, Alan Moss said that 90%, 90% of the U.S. audience is reachable through Amazon. And when they put up all of their ecosystem partners, uh Tubi, Paramount, Netflix, all of them, they just have a powerhouse of the I want to take a second, Peter mentioned right there.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Four weeks ago, we had had an episode with somebody you just mentioned. Who was it? It was Tubi. Tubi.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, yeah. We had we talked to Chris Grillo and PepsiCo's uh Caitlin Windsor, and it was very clear that they had built a powerful audience. They're plugged into the Amazon ecosystem. That means Amazon Marketing Cloud, the ability to build and measure audiences. There is no question in my mind, Sherry. Absolutely no question.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I have a simple question for you, Billy.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

The place to advertise, to reach audiences, it's Amazon. It just Amazon. We talk about it as retail media, but is Amazon ads retail media anymore? It's it's commerce media. It's it's not just retail media.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

So if you thought about media in general, doesn't Amazon now, at least in your own my eyes, Amazon ads become one of the most powerful or the most powerful across the board media vehicle available to a brand, period.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Of course. Because they and it's not just the size of the audience they bring, it's truly the full funnel aspect of that street. It's owned and operated properties, but it's programmatic, it's streaming TV, it's all there, and they can measure it. They can measure it. It's enormous.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

They talk quite a bit about the measurement angle, which we're not going to cover in deep detail here because we do that all year in conversations as it is. Then to close out the sports section, there's somebody sitting in the audience, somebody very special from where I live, Super Bowl winner 2021, Mr. Matthew Stafford himself. I thought I thought Ryan Fitzpatrick was hilarious when he called him Matt. Does not like to be called Matt.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

He does not.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

He's Matthew Stafford.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

But it was they traded a couple of what I think were well-scripted barbs, but it was all all in good fun. Matthew Stafford jumped up on stage and joined them and talked a lot about what they were doing.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

So who's who, Peter? Who's who? What an exciting event to be at. But again, it shows the power of Amazon ads if you're a brand advertiser. This is now an ecosystem that's delivering 24-7 for you. And then, Peter, kick us off. We moved to shows. Who do we start off with? A show called Off Campus?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yeah, that they went through a whole litany of shows. They talked about some of the great success of shows like uh The Summer I Turned Pretty and other ones. They made it very clear. We are the place where young teens and romantic women go to consume content. They were very, very clear about that women looking for romantic content, Amazon Prime is the place to do it. There was that was so abundantly clear as they went through show by show by show of everything they've got set up.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

And so I want to talk about some of those shows, right? So it kicks off with a discussion about off-campus, which is a big show. Chris comes on board, but the one that touched my heart was um Michael Jordan, not Michael Jordan, the WARS.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Michael B. Jordan. Michael B. Jordan of Thomas Friday. You know where I do you remember what he started with? Not a lot of people know this. He started on Friday Night Lights. I actually know that. Yep, yeah. He was in the last two seasons of the show, but he's he has Been in so many phenomenal movies from big blockbusters like Black Panther to obviously all of the Creed movies. And he came on stage to basically say, I am here with Amazon. And I and it was like one after another. You thought he'd just come up and talk about I'm doing this project. He goes, but I got another. But Shri, I think you want to talk about the one that is probably most anticipated and made the biggest sensation on stage.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

So who walks out on stage? The wife of Muhammad Ali.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Lonnie Ali. Yeah. She's a big thing. Lania Ali.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

And what does she talk about? A show about her husband and goes, this is the past. It's called I think, I believe it's called the Mohammed Ali affair.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

No, it's it's called the Greatest. The greatest. The greatest. Why are we debating who's the greatest? And Michael, it there's no debate on that. Michael G.B. Jordan said, listen, there have been a lot of documentaries on Muhammad Ali, none of which had the full blessing of the family. And that's when he brought out Lottie and said, This is this is under her uh blessing. I am so grateful that she trusts me to help bring this to life. And so he went through that. He went through some other shows. He's launching a new show called Delphi, which is from the Apollo and Adonis Creed multiverse, and talked about creating some new boxing personalities coming through the famous Delphi boxing studio. And he made a really interesting comment, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Like a community, like almost like somebody coming from the community becoming a big boxer.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

He said something that resonated with a lot of the talent and some of the people that are in production. He said, This show is purposely being produced in Los Angeles. We're not doing it in Toronto. We're not doing it in Vancouver. We're doing it in LA where it belongs. He says this is a show about LA. It will be produced in LA. And that got a lot of applause from the audience. So a lot of you, you know, LA has, if you go to LA these days, you see that production is all but dried up there. They're getting, they're getting their clocks cleaned by other regions, particularly north of the border in Vancouver and Toronto, sucked up a lot of a lot of TV shows. And he said, no, no, we're we're doing this in LA. And he was very, very proud to say that. So some interesting conversations.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

I'm grateful for that, Peter. It's the city I live in. I'm grateful that trying to bring back production. I do think it's a big deal. You're 100% right. A lot of production and everyday jobs have already left due to the high cost of operating in California. But it's great to see him talk that between the Muhammad Ali, the greatest, and the new Delphi boxing series. I'm just going to recap again, Peter. So we start up top with none other than Oprah declaring I'm going to be exclusive on Amazon. I mean, what a big deal. Then we get into Twitch and Gaming. I'm thinking advertiser here for a second. From there, we get into sports as a focus, and they have TNF and all these other tournaments, including things close to my heart, like the Masters that I want to go. You get Matthew Stafford to wrap up the sports segment. Then you start the whole shows. You talk about how the romantic era, romantic genre of shows are going to be on Amazon now. And then you have these two unboxing, which are like legendary touch your heart.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Let's not forget Chris Pratt, because that was important. Chris Pratt produces The Terminalist, and that is a very, very popular book series that's been turned into uh a TV show. And and Chris was he was out on stage for quite a while talking about uh his partnership with Amazon. So, you know, you've got that genre, but you're right, Michael B. Jordan came out, dazzled us with everything, and just when you think you've seen it all, you've had they brought out the big guns, Chris Pratt, Matthew Stafford, Oprah Winfrey, Casey Musgraves. Nope, they're not done, Shree.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Oh, hold on, Peter. Before you get to that, I think we forgot somebody right up front. They were only two people from Amazon who spoke at this event. Who kicked it off, Peter? We forgot to mention that.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Oh, well, what Tanner, our dear friend Tanner Elton, who is from episode 500, was the first one out on stage. Oh, what does he do for him? Uh, he is the head of U.S. advertising sales. He's the one who kicked it up.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

He came out event. Now tell us what happened to close it out.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Yeah, uh, so usually the sign that Amazon upfront is coming to a close is when our friend Alan Moss shows up on stage. And he kind of gives his summary. And he started doing the summary, and I started packing up my bag. I put my camera away. I figured I'd gotten everything I needed. But I was wrong. Who comes out on stage to basically bump Alan off and say, no, no, no, no, no, I I've got something to talk about. He said he terminated, he terminated Alan's speech, said, no, no. I'm going to talk about the man with the man with the bag. It was Arnold, the governor. He came out on stage. So yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

How did they get Arnold to come on stage and talk about 2.8 billion impressions playing Santa Claus?

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Here's what I'll tell you about Al about Arnold Schwarzenegger. When he comes out on stage, he's got his four, three or four points that he is going to cover. And he's not just going to say it once. He's not going to say it twice. He's going to say it six times. He is not going to let you leave that room without having indelibly burned in your memory the fact that the man with the bag will premiere on Amazon Prime on December 2nd. Everybody knows.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

December 2nd, I've wrote that down a little bit. December 2nd.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

A date which will live in infamy.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Absolutely. And then Alan talked about one more stat, Peter, that I want to quote out for advertisers, right? Alan Moss talked about the 17% more prime watching ours year over year this time compared to last year, which means they are gaining more audience when you have this sort of a star cast across the board on streaming TV. Of course, you're going to gain the audience. So Peter, take us through. You're an advertiser, Peter. You just came out, you're going to have a board meeting.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Yeah, here's what here's what if I'm an advertiser, I'm a singing through. It is really hitting me. The powerhouse content that Amazon Prime has on its platform, coupled with the fact that all of the other platforms of consequence are making their content available through Amazon, notably Amazon Marketing Cloud for building audiences, and being able to measure performance. So you can advertise on Tubi, you can advertise on Twitch, you can advertise on Paramount. And guess what? Amazon can tell you whether any of that led to conversion. It is absolutely impressive. If I'm an advertiser, my first place to go for scale, for performance, full funnel, it's Amazon Shree. I mean, it's that simple.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

It's Amazon. So if you're a brand, I have to conclude, Peter, being full funnel, having that lower funnel, closing the deal, ability at a general merchandise. Now imagine, Peter. Of course, they have ambient food package goods, but when they get into Fresh and Frozen, imagine the power this is going to be as an advertiser for fresh grocery.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

So let's talk a little bit about that because I think we all know that they they retreated from their Amazon Fresh platform. They said, okay, we're not going to do that. They still are in Whole Foods, but they've also decided that they're going to craft regional partnerships with existing brick and mortar grocery retailers, saying, listen, we have the distribution channel for last mile delivery. You have very deep personal relationships on a local level with consumers. That's their strategy. They don't have to sell fresh groceries themselves. They have to make fresh groceries available from local retailers through their platform. That is how they are going to tackle the people down in northwest Arkansas. So I think they are very close to having solved the problem on how they take on the nation's largest grocery retailer, Walmart.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

All right, Peter. That was awesome. So my quick summary is going to literally last a minute over here. But I'm just going to leave it with a mic drop moment. Streaming TV, you get Oprah, you get Ryan Fitzpatrick and Whitnaw with a new podcast, but you have tons of sport. And Thursday Night Football, you got show after show, which we've just acquired. You got two blockbuster shows in boxing coming up, followed by The Man with the Bug, I'll be back on December 2nd. And you got Twitch. Win win win win win streaming TV. I'm not so sure our audience gets it. Streaming TV now on Amazon needs to be part of your media mix. End of story, Peter. Close us out, please.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Yeah. Yeah, to our to our friends at Amazon. As I mentioned earlier, Allison and Eric for making sure that we we were given press credentials to attend this event. And of course, to our friends uh Paul Codis, who didn't appear on stage, but he's always there in spirit. Alan Moss, Tanner Elton, and so many others. We are incredibly grateful for uh your friendship and your availability to work with us on so many things. You know, we talked about Sarah Yost. She didn't see her on stage, but she was on the screen in all of her little vignette commercials with Paid Sorbo. It was an event to be reckoned with. Uh, I think anyone else who's doing their upfronts this week, as most of them are, uh, they're they're up against something pretty impressive right out of the gate on Monday. Big event, Sri. Big event. Shri, as always, thank you for taking time to do this with me. This is one of those seminal events in our industry where we knew we just had to not only just be there and participate, but actually provide a recap to our audience. This is a very big event in our industry and Amazon delivered against everything that we thought it would. Thanks as always for joining us to our audience. Uh, thank you for the likes, the follows. We now have over almost 45,000 followers on LinkedIn. We're so grateful that you turn to us to be educated and entertained about the industry. If you are so inclined and you're on Apple or Spotify in particular, leave us a rating. Getting a five rating really helps make our podcast more findable by industry contemporary. So we really do appreciate you doing that. Thanks for taking time out of your week uh to listen to this very special episode. We look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the CPG Guys podcast.