On Strategy Showcase: The Team Behind Amazon's Ads Strategy

Podcast Name: On Strategy Showcase
Host: Fergus O’Carroll
Guests: Chris Marchegiani (Head of Brand Planning, Insights & Creative, Amazon Worldwide), Gareth Levy (Senior Global Brand Planner, XCM Group)
Air Date: December 22, 2025
Theme: Amazon’s approach to brand strategy, building holiday campaigns, leveraging research and creative consistency, and internal agency operations.

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the strategies behind Amazon's recent holiday campaigns and broader brand efforts. Chris Marchegiani and Gareth Levy from Amazon's global cross-channel marketing team discuss how the company has matured its brand storytelling capabilities, the uniqueness (and challenges) of managing branding for the "everything store," and the value of balancing consistency with novelty. They share behind-the-scenes insights into their process, creative inspirations, and research-based decision making.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Amazon's Internal Agency Structure

• Internal Model & Team Roles (04:55–06:59):

  • Amazon’s cross-channel marketing (XCM) operates like an internal agency with planners, creatives, designers, and strategists.
  • XCM is responsible for building brand strength for Amazon’s retail and Prime brands globally, consulting across multiple product categories.
  • Chris: “We’ve got creatives and designers and media strategists and buyers and producers…. Part of that is the brand planning and creative strategy team, which I lead…like an internal agency.”

• Brand Consistency vs. Autonomy:

  • The central team “gently guides or strongly suggests” brand expression to maintain coherence across rapidly spun-up products and services.
  • Brand identity is jointly managed by design and strategy arms to avoid fragmenting the brand.

Defining the Amazon Brand

• Mission & Personality (07:16–08:00):

  • Amazon’s "hard points" like the mission—“making every day better”—anchor their work.
  • The iconic smile logo is seen as a deliberate expression of friendliness and optimism.
  • Chris: “There are some definite hard points that we put in place. Doesn’t matter if you are a sub brand, if you’re a service, if you’re an aisle in the store.”

• History of the Smile Logo (08:00–09:03):

  • Anecdote: Originally, the arrow was meant to symbolize “A to Z,” but internally and publicly, it has evolved into a smile for brand interpretation.

Agency-to-Client Transitions and Internal Culture

• Moving In-House (09:24–12:00):
  • Both Chris and Gareth transitioned from agency life to Amazon, attracted by the ability to make and launch work at scale.
  • Chris: “I think I’ve made more work in Amazon in probably a year than I might have made in two or three years in other places.”
  • Gareth notes the similarity to agency workflow and the reward of consistently seeing ideas realized.

Core Strategic Challenges

• Brand-Building Mandate (12:08–15:03):

  • The team is tasked with creative campaigns to build brand equity, influence global brand architecture, and shape organizational mental models and frameworks.
  • Consistency and experimentation are encouraged: “If you make something that doesn’t work, it doesn’t spread and it dies and then you move on to the next thing.” (Chris, 13:40)

• Bridging Research, Insight, and Campaigns:

  • Close collaboration with research enables developing new measurement tools and filling gaps to generate actionable insights.

Rethinking Category Entry Points

• The Challenge of "Everything" (15:51–18:01):

  • Applying classic category entry points (from Ehrenberg-Bass) doesn’t fit Amazon—Amazon must look for “associations or perceptions” that transcend individual categories.
  • Chris: “We don’t need to build association with a singular category. What we do need to do is have our equivalent of that...I need to think of when I need to shop somewhere, I need it tomorrow.”

• Events and Shopping Moments (18:01–21:02):

  • Team conducted a three-month ethnography to uncover "trigger moments" for holiday shopping—moving beyond aspirations or post-hoc reflections to “in-the-moment” insights.
  • Gareth: “It can mean trunk or treat. November could be Thanksgiving holiday and it could be the aisle in your local grocery store changing from Halloween candy to thanks or Starbucks releasing the new cup.”

Research-Inspired Storytelling

• Creative Inspiration from Research (21:02–23:42):

  • Research uncovers emotional and functional triggers for holiday shopping; campaign stories are designed to be relatable, memorable, and rooted in everyday moments.
  • Chris: “Those are the moments where Amazon…has to be playing a role where the story couldn’t otherwise happen without it.”

• Idea Generation & “Imaginative Repetition” (25:07–26:14):

  • Balance between repeating strong brand assets (like the Amazon box) and continually offering novelty to engage audiences.
  • Chris: “We want to leave enough space for novelty as well. Novelty helps us stand out, helps get attention, helps drive talkability…We’re on the path...working out the right balance of consistency and novelty.”

Examples: Recent Amazon Holiday Spots

• Reusing Successful Work: ‘Joyride’ (26:54–28:02):

  • For the first time, Amazon re-ran a holiday ad ('Joyride') due to its strong performance and emotional storytelling.
  • Gareth: “I think to Chris’s point, when you kind of make one of the best ads you’ve ever made, there’s no reason that you can’t rerun it.”

• Blending Brand and Retail Messaging:

  • The comms framework aims to “build mental availability and reinforce purchase availability.”
  • Example: ‘Kids Table’ and other spots balance emotion and functional reminders about hosting supplies during the holidays.

• Research to Reality: ‘Kids Table’ (30:14–31:41):

  • The spot emerged from ethnographic research on family traditions and the relatable experience of being stuck at the kids’ table during holiday gatherings.
  • Gareth: “People have their own traditions and they start thinking about what makes the holidays feel like the holiday to them...I actually was put in the kids table and I was so happy because you don’t want to hear the adult talk.”

• Easter Egg Consistency:

  • Subtle recurring characters and settings connect otherwise independent ads, seeding future brand storytelling fabric.

Operating at the Intersection of Consistency and Novelty

• The ‘Five Star Theater’ Series (Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Driver) (32:25–35:04):

  • Novelty-driven approach where actors dramatize real Amazon customer reviews.
  • The “consistent” element is the five-star review format; “novelty” is the rotating celebrity cast.
  • Chris: “The consistency part is the five star theater and the novelty part is it’s not Adam anymore. Now it’s Benedict and he’s going to do a bunch of different reviews.”

• Aiming for Talkability and Fame:

  • Gareth: “I’m a big fan of fame…the achievement to have someone talk about your brand for you…That’s exactly what your work kind of aims to do.”

Future Directions for Amazon Brand Strategy

• Looking Ahead to 2026 (36:16–37:52):
  • Greater integration of AI into processes, discerning where human judgment remains essential.
  • Ongoing pursuit of the optimal blend of consistency (repeatability) and novelty (fresh storytelling).
  • Expanding beyond traditional ads: exploring experiential, social, and partner creator programs.
  • Chris: “We continue to explore the balance between brand building and performance marketing and getting that balance right.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Brand Identity & Consistency
  • “We kind of work on this hard point, soft point sort of philosophy… The shorthand for the mission of making every day better.” — Chris (07:16)
• On Creative Fulfillment
  • “I think I’ve made more work in Amazon in probably a year than I might have made in two or three years in other places.” — Chris (10:24)
  • “That level of...not guarantee, but the consistency of producing work and seeing your work out there, it’s just been really rewarding.” — Gareth (11:32)
• On Brand Storytelling
  • “We believe in emotion very much so. We believe in high degrees of emotions... You can’t describe that story to someone without mentioning the brand.” — Chris (23:42)
• On Imaginative Repetition
  • “Balancing consistency in novelty… We’re on the path...working out the right balance.” — Chris (25:10)
• On Fame and Talkability
  • “A brand is when people are talking about your brand when you’re not in the room...Five Star Theater is our approach to doing that.” — Gareth (35:08)
• On Future Brand Building
  • “It’s an ongoing process and it needs to be...continue to explore the balance between brand building and performance marketing.” — Chris (36:16)

Timestamps for Essential Segments

• Amazon’s Internal Agency Model: 04:55–06:59
• Defining the Amazon Brand: 07:16–08:00
• Transitioning from Agency to Amazon: 09:24–12:00
• Core Strategic Challenges & Research: 12:08–21:02
• Research-Driven Creative Process: 21:02–26:14
• Consistent Brand Assets & Imaginative Repetition: 25:07–26:14
• Holiday Ad Examples ('Joyride', 'Kids Table'): 26:54–31:41
• Novelty in Storytelling (Five Star Theater): 32:25–35:35
• Looking Forward: 2026 and Beyond: 36:16–38:30

Tone & Language

The conversation is candid, often humorous, and full of mutual respect between strategists and creatives. The team prides itself on open dialogue, strong strategic grounding, and a willingness to experiment while anchoring campaigns in robust emotional storytelling.

This summary captures the depth and nuance of how Amazon builds its brand, the creative and research rigor behind its campaigns, and the vision driving its advertising into the future. This episode is a masterclass in big-brand thinking for marketers, strategists, and creatives alike.