Amazon Kindle Fire to Begin Selling Ad Space

By Kerry Guard on May 18, 2012

The Kindle Fire is Amazon's best selling product

With that in mind, Amazon has decided to sell ads on the device’s welcome screen.

Here are some of the details:

  • Minimum of $600,000 commitment must be made to get in on a welcome screen ad package
  • For $1,000,000, brands would gain access to 'special offers' section inventory and also be included in Amazon's public relations push
  • Campaigns would run for 2 month time frames
Initially, agency executives expressed concern over a couple points, including the fact that Amazon cannot guarantee the number of users / devices that these welcome ads would appear on.
Another concern was whether these ads would be available on Kindle Fire's that are currently in users hands or only for the new generation of the Fire that Amazon is beginning to ship.
Which leads to another interesting question ..

How will Amazon differ this experience from Apple's iAds?

If you recall, Apple initially had a entry point of $1 million to run ads on their iAds platform.

This number decreased rapidly (to $500k, then $300k & now $100k) as Apple found it difficult to sell such expensive packages without being able to guarantee performance.

Amazon will need to do a good job of communicating the value of these advertising placements to avoid a similar pricing fire sale, which would begin by defining the number of users that actually see the ads.

For more information on Amazon's new advertising opportunity ...

Check out this Ad Age article that offers some additional details.

Mike Krass | CEO & All-Around Nice Guy </span>

Aside from being the CEO of MKG Marketing, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Feel free to contact him via Twitter & Email: mike@mkgmarketinginc.com </div>

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