Amazon Prime Video’s new marketing exec Leo Macias talks gen Z, NFTs and impacting culture
Tasked with ‘evolving Prime Video into the most loved premium brand in the world,’ Leo Macias officially joined Amazon last month. Following a successful run as chief creative officer at Snap, he is now Prime Video’s vice-president of marketing in global activation. Now that Macias has unpacked his stapler and settled in, The Drum asked him about plans to build the brand via the metaverse, Thursday Night Football and, of course, his bread-and-butter social media. Here’s what he had to say.
Grab the popcorn – new Amazon Prime Video marketing is coming
What are some of the key principles that you can apply from Snap’s marketing to Prime Video?
We were always looking to impact culture and not just trying to follow trends. We know that the way to do so is by providing our audience with the tools for them to express themselves in a creative way. This is something we will incorporate in our marketing at Prime Video. We’re an entertainment company and have a multitude of assets that can be transformed into tools for creativity – fantasy, sports, drama, action, comedy, musical, horror, romance. All these genres need to become tools for creativity when connected with our audiences.
Is there anything more you look to in order to further engage gen Z?
Influencers and creators are important channels to communicate with this gen Z audience, and we are engaging them to be part of our communication plan and strategy in a really organic and impactful way.
Gen Z love to consume the influencer’s content and react, but they don’t want to just be the audience. They also love to co-create content and actively participate by creating something of their own too. We need to help feed their interest in content creation.
What about the metaverse, NFTs and the like?
These are new opportunities for communication. A lot of brands are looking for the best way to include them in campaigns, and everyone is learning how to make it happen. The great opportunity that the metaverse has is to not just be a fun territory, but a tool for brands to build awareness and generate online sales, from play to tool. The entertainment industry is a big playground for exploration in the NFT area, and we need to think about ways to use these new opportunities that can result in strong communication impact.
What ad opportunities should your readership be aware of that you have already and are coming online soon?
Most of the time industries have ‘the same’ tools to communicate products or services, so we need to continue to think of new ways to innovate and ask ourselves questions. What’s the new way to create a trailer or a poster? Do we even need a poster? Will partner brands be part of a trailer? Will the new trailer be a stunt in a museum or a performance on the street? Every movie or series comes with a different DNA. I’m learning a lot along the way and being humble about the fact that I’m the new guy at the party. At the same time, I’m trying to leverage some of the things I learned at the advertising agencies or at Snapchat and apply them while pushing myself to experiment.
What aspect of social media marketing will you dial up?
We want our customers to talk about our movies, series, characters and sports content organically, and social media provides an opportunity to expand the conversation. Not every social media initiative needs to start as a post or content – they can start as an incredible activation, a different type of out-of-home (OOH) [execution], a physical experience. We can start social media conversations with different triggers.
Who and what inspires you the most as a marketer?
As a marketer, I prefer to feed my inspiration by observing other industries. I also get inspired by great people doing really good work in the marketing industry. I love to look at the art, fashion, music and tech industries that are helping to shape culture every single day. A perfect example is the late Virgil Abloh, who was not just a fashion designer. He was an incredible inspiration and force who embodied how creativity can build or transform conversations, trends and new business possibilities.
Do you have a bold prediction for CTV for 2022?
Starting in September 2022, Prime Video is becoming the exclusive home to 15 regular-season Thursday Night Football games. This is extremely exciting because we have an opportunity to be really impactful and creative in the way we engage customers and influence culture.