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- [00:02]
A
Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast.
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Set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Sree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Bhan explore how brands and retailers.
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A
Engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm your affable co host, pbsb.
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B
When I'm not serving in that role.
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A
I act as the head of Client Industry engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. My co host, well, his daughter's fans refer to him as Papa Raj. He's the Chief Revenue Officer of Think Blue Consulting. He's also the former CCO of General Mills. He's the man known as Sri Sri. And I just got back from Las Vegas. We were at NRF and we're on our way off to fmi. Before I get to today's guest, I'll make mention to our audience, please do follow us on your favorite podcast platform, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, whatever. Please follow us. If you follow us, that means when new episodes debut, they go right into your stream and you can listen to them automatically. And while you're there, maybe give us a rating on Apple and Spotify. We like the number five. It's entirely up to you, but great ratings help ensure that our podcast is visible to industry contemporaries of yours who like to be educated and entertained. We hope we're doing exactly that. So today's guest we recorded the episode in Las Vegas during the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show CES. We were very grateful to the team at Omnicom for making their studio over at the Cosmopolitan available to us. We were able to record a number of different episodes. This is one such episode. Today's episode involves Sarah Yos. She is the director of Global Agency and Global Twitch for Amazon Ads. We have a far reaching conversation, most notably, and what's important to Sheree and me is I do believe we got Invit for both the Amazon upfronts this May and also for TwitchCon same month, which will be out on the West Coast. So we're looking very forward to participating in both those events. Sarah, we're holding you to that. Anyhow, without any further ado, let's get to our conversation with Sarah Yost, Director of Global Agency and Global Twitch at Amazon Ads.
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Sarah Yost, welcome to the CPGuys podcast.
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C
Thank you for having me.
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B
We're excited to get together with you. We're here in Las Vegas at CES 2026. I know you have a very busy schedule. Amazon's got quite a number of activations.
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A
That's right.
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B
And so for you to take time out of your schedule to speak with.
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Us, we're greatly appreciative.
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C
Well, I'm a fan, so I'm definitely happy to be here and it was a huge priority for me.
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B
Thank you very much to our audience. In the digital liner notes of this episode will include links to Sarah's LinkedIn profile, Amazon ads, LinkedIn page, and their corporate site so that you can multitask and learn a little bit more as you listen to the melodic tones of our conversation. All right, let's get right into it. Well, let's start with the meet cute. Our audience would love to know about your path from traditional media at Viacom to live streaming at Twitch to now leading agency partnerships at Amazon Ads. It's rather fascinating. What were kind of the key lessons or pivotal components of your experience that helped inform how you approach agency partnerships today?
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C
Well, I sort of subscribed to the idea that consumers always win. And so I think every chapter has taught me essentially the same lesson, which is you need to meet consumers, fans, viewers, the audience, where they are, and that a platform is not a strategy. You need to find a way to connect deeply to the roots of advertising, which is, you know, find a way to engage them in an authentic way. It's gotta be relevant and it needs to be cultural and emotional because we are trying to inspire an audience to take an action and that's where the performance comes in. But I think every chapter, whether it's television or, you know, even more cutting edge like Twitch, it's always, it always comes back to, you know, learning about what the audience is doing and meeting them where they are.
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D
Thank you. Because the entire advertising world in our industry works through agencies, not directly through brands. So given that you have that role, what does global agency development at Amazon Ads mean to you? And then I'd love to hear from you. Audience would love to hear from you. What is the definition of a great agency partnership for Amazon?
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C
Yeah. Well, I'll start by saying we have the most important thing in common with agencies, and that's our shared customers, and those are the brands. And so we have to find a way. I think a good, a good partnership takes the partnership beyond transactional. It's gotta be transparent, honest. We need to have shared accountability. And I think you'll. I don't know. One of the things I'm finding after this many years in the industry is just going back to the roots. I mean, I grew up initially on the TV side and then moved into digital. But I think those initial, those that first run in TV taught me a lot about the service model and how important service and relationships and trust are. So I want to bring that to my current role. And so I think when I think about the role of Amazon ads in the industry right now, it's just we have an incredible opportunity and I think every company right now is looking and charging ahead into simplicity. And so with the Amazon DSP and the ability to have Full Funnel campaigns in one command center, it's really exciting. And so I want to make sure that with our agency partners we're obsessing about our shared customers and we're actually really being honest with ourselves. I want to help their business because ultimately that helps us towards our goal of, you know, servicing those end customers.
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B
I think what you're helping to do is dispel some of the belief that Amazon just provides you with tools you can go on create and take care of it. What you're saying is. No, no, there's a human connection that you have to understand your customers, what they're, what they're doing and how the agencies support them and that's the only way you're going to really get the most out of working with Amazon.
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C
It's true. And you know, my team actually did a real deep dive. Like I been challenging them to think more critically about their agency partners and what really makes them tick in terms of what is their, what does it look like for them to become even more profitable? What are the most important aspects of their business from a financial perspective? Where do they need extra help? What is their learning agenda? How can we be a partner in that way? I was a huge school nerd. This is natural for me to want to do the research and the deep dive and my, my team's really delivering on that. It's exciting time.
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D
Just a quick follow up for you on the Full Funnel brands and I come from some of the largest ones that have existed. Right. Are traditionally not that savvy with Full Funnel. But retail media has changed the game where you can be Full funnel today if you choose to. Do you find that in your agency partnerships agencies are now working with brands to bring that aspect in as opposed to just traditional remote advertising, which is all about impressions.
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C
They absolutely are. And I would say they're doing a great job. And I aspect of the business that's fascinating is that they all have a little bit of a different flavor and a different way to achieve certain outcomes. But at the end of the day, our entire industry is going to absolutely be forced to think full funnel and think about, I mean, the Amazon marketing cloud is a great tool to allow you to see sort of what those, you know, upper funnel brand moments actually how they result into to the outcomes and so retail media. But I think just in general, you're seeing a move towards that kind of accountability across the board and no longer will it be. And I think a lot of people are debating whether the funnel is even the right metaphor anymore.
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D
I mean, we coined the term who cares at the end of.
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C
Who cares at the end of the.
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D
Day, the goal is get the conversions at the bottom.
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C
Yeah, get the conversions at the bottom. But I also believe never lose that. You know, what the brand needs to do to stand out and to get consideration really light up that mid funnel, which is they need to connect emotionally to a consumer in some way. It could be relevancy, it could be taking in, you know, I think about like the advances in AI and everything that we're enabling and the ability, you know, to have a national brand localize their messages, like that's where we're going. It's really exciting.
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B
So I want to ask you whether Shree should let me use his new ear piercing as a monetizable advertising space to put this.
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D
Only if you can get it to Lower funnel.
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B
Lower funnel.
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A
Okay.
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D
For the CPG guys. All right.
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B
But what, what I will ask.
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D
Been asking me to wear a CPG guys urine?
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A
I have.
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B
Don't you? I think. Okay, we'll talk about this later.
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C
I have an idea for you. Just, just saying because I, I. Some of the, some of the folks at Twitch have taken. So at TwitchCon, there are pins that are really, really.
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Do you see that?
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You guys need to go to TwitchCon.
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C
Oh, my gosh.
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A
We'll talk about you later, please.
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B
We go to Accelerate. We got unboxed.
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C
You're going to come to TwitchCon and you are going to. We're going to get some stuff.
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D
Newly did BravoCon.
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B
Oh, my God.
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A
Changed our minds.
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B
We're going to go to BravoCon. Last year it was in conflict with Unbox, and we're like, no, we got to go to Unbox.
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C
Thank you. Thank you.
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B
All right, so what I really want to talk to you about is you probably know in my other avatars, I work for Flywheel, the division of Omnicom. And so I have my own perspective, but I want to get yours. What are some of the most common misconceptions agencies may have about advertising on Amazon and How do you help them overcome these? What do you most often find yourself helping them reframe as they think about investing on their clients behalf at Amazon?
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C
That's a great question. And I think both our shared end customers and agencies alike, I think when I first joined Amazon Ads there was almost like a protection around we own the Amazon relationship if we're the retail team or if we're the commerce team. And honestly Prime Video and Twitch have helped us sort of myth bust and sort of prove that we have that upper funnel brand cultural force within Amazon. And you know, there are very clear signals of that participating in the upfront the way that we do. I think that's, that's one of them and that's been really helpful. So we've, we've really gone into the content space very loudly bringing out the people behind the cameras, the stars of the shows to show that we're an entertainment powerhouse in addition to having unbelievable underlying tech and ad tech in particular to drive those lower funnel outcomes that we've, you know, that we're known for.
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B
I think we now have a contact to get us press credentials for upfront next year.
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D
Done deal. Okay, I'm following up.
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C
Sarah, you come to TwitchCon.
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D
Looking forward to it. So Amazon Ads obviously works with some of the largest holding companies in the world from an ad agency perspective. But you'll also work with small ones because brands use boutique agencies. Right, Independent ones is what I'm thinking. So as Amazon Ads capabilities evolve because y' all are cutting edge from a media standpoint and retail media and you guys are now full media now, how are those relationships evolving and how are those partnerships working out? Especially when I think of some of the smaller ones.
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C
So my team in particular has a real focus on the big six. But also we work.
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D
Tell us who the big six are.
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C
Well, I guess it's not six anymore. I gotta retrain myself. Yeah. Yes. So we have a dedicated team. I think one of the key things for me was making our org design completely customer centric. So we have a team for each of the big five and then we cover several independent agencies as well and we sort of frame it around. Are they doing an upfront, they want the same type of deal type. And then within Amazon Ads we have another entire team focused specifically on partners, so independent agencies and tool providers. And I think the profile of, you know, person that is working with them is, ranges from very technical to, you know, also the ability to know how to provide the right service, deal infrastructure, etc. But it's important to us because I think that's the future. We want to make sure that we're servicing customers of all sizes, and that applies to agencies as well.
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D
Does it mean you're constantly evolving yourself to be able to adjust down to the capabilities of agencies? Some of the large ones are going to be able to do anything and everything through full funnel.
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C
Yep.
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D
Some of the small ones are going to be lower funnel only.
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C
Yeah, there's definitely a tailored approach. I would say, you know, it always goes back to our leadership principle of customer obsession. So if we're obsessing about the business and their business in particular, we sort of know, you know, how to, how to. How to have the right conversation, the right learning agenda, the right support model in place.
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B
So we're seeing more pressure on agencies to deliver both brand impact as. Yeah, I was afraid Sri, you kind of moved your microphone. Okay, so we'll take that again. So we are seeing more pressure on agencies to deliver both brand impact in the wake of Linear Television waning in its influence and brands needing a place to be able to create the upper funnel discovery and awareness, but at the same time still very focused on a lot of what Amazon was the pioneers in, which was lower funnel performance marketing. How's Amazon ads really helping agencies connect those dots on a full funnel basis for its clients?
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C
Great. So I think, you know, when I think about the journey, part of it is when we launched ads in Prime Video, that was a big moment for that upper funnel to be solidified as well as our foray into live sports. I mean, those are two. They sort of own those hallmarks of what we've always known to be true, that there is power in broad simultaneous reach. There's power in being part of like the most important, you know, cultural conversations in entertainment and then honestly building the ad tech to support that, to support the idea of full funnel campaigns. Our announcements from Unboxed this last year are really taking us there. And then I think that next phase is like, how are we working across the open Internet? What are these partnerships that we're forming that are enabling us to have this 90% reach in the US around, you know, authenticated reach?
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D
You know, I stake claim to being the first CPG leader to advertise with Amazon ads on Thursday Night Football. I think neither Amazon or we knew at that point what a big deal it would be. But game one, the audience numbers were insanely good and General Mills and I were lucky that we were the first to do it. I'll put that as the backdrop. Go Ahead.
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C
Yeah, I will say that I heard this about you and I can say it's true.
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D
And you know, we actually made that partnership happen at CES three years ago. I think it was 23 when we kicked that off. And I remember meeting the TNF crew actually at the Penthouse. But I put that as a backdrop because my very next question is streaming and video are central to full funnel strategies. As you just opened that up, do you think agencies get the plot that Prime Video and Thursday night football and Twitch 2 should be part of holistic campaigns these days? Because that's where consumers are. That's a lot of attention. Audience attention are on those platforms.
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C
And we've seen such tremendous demand. And especially I think, you know, the thing about the upfront is that it's, you know, I think there is a debate of whether or not is it the past or is it the future. At the end of the day right now, it remains this very well lit buying cycle in the US and incredibly. Yeah. And incredibly important. So we've seen tremendous demand in the upfront. We've seen independent agencies sort of raise their hands to do the same type of deal. And that's exciting. That tells us that, you know, not only do they understand, it's sort of what I said at the beginning is that we gotta remember that whatever chapter you're in in your career and where we are watching all of the technology advance us as an industry, you have to understand what the consumer and the audience is doing. We know that they're watching streaming. We know that they still love live sports.
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D
You put the consumer as the center of it. The consumer is our boss at the end of the day, whether you're a brand retailer or a service provider now, like what Peter and I do, you put them at the center, you will always win.
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C
That's right. When I think about Twitch, it's sort of on. It's sort of the real manifestation of a word I think is being, being overused in marketing. Community. I don't think that everything is a.
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D
Community but Twitch, certainly you guys are not a community.
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C
No, I think the CPG guys are.
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B
300 people at our party last night.
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We're a community speaking.
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D
Charming.
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C
He's not using it as. We're not using as a buzzword. It's real.
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A
It's real.
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D
I understand what you're saying though. Clear.
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C
When I think about the true community that is Twitch because at the end of the day, what is the behavior? It's long form streaming because they're streaming for hours. They are Streaming on a schedule, and they are notifying their community when they're streaming. It's community watching.
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B
It's like appointment TV in the new generation.
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D
It's actually annoying for me when brands tell me they're a community because Twitch is a platform. It's a community and they can engage with each other and they can share common interests. That's what a platform does. That's not true of a brand under any circumstance. Brands sell product.
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C
Yeah. Yeah. I think some brands maybe can become communities. But when I think about what I've witnessed at Twitch, how important the influence of those streamers are on purchase decisions, that's what makes it a great. That's what makes it an advertising platform. You have the opportunity to sort of find your way into that community and give your message there, where they're emotionally connected. They're not just watching, they're actually chatting to the streamer and chatting to each other.
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D
I think you're giving Peter and me a very good reminder. We need to do better on Twitch. Yeah, we got to figure that one out and we haven't so far.
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B
We got the itch.
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C
TwitchCon.
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B
TwitchCon. This is big. So Twitch, speaking of which, is often cited as a way to reach younger, highly engaged audiences, what are agencies getting right or still learning when it comes to working with Twitch communities?
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C
Well, what they're getting right is the creativity. I think this is the most fun part of my role at Amazon is watching agency partners and our shared customers at brands do the most creative things on Twitch. And when I first came to Twitch, I thought, okay, this is gaming, but it's so much more. And I felt we were underrepresenting the humanity that happens on Twitch. It's literally a mirror of culture. And I thought there was a story for marketers that hadn't been told about how people are finding their people on Twitch and how long form and highly engaged it was. So getting to see agencies and brands just do the most amazingly creative programs on Twitch, it's been really cool. And that, I mean, at the end of the year, Alienware actually took over a space in Grand Central Station. So it was physical irl, but it was all. There were also all of this activity happening within the Twitch communities. They were making decisions that are then impacting the Real Life exhibition. It's just like that gets us all going when it comes to advertising, is seeing those really innovative.
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D
You won't get any debates on that one. Yeah, it's just a reminder again, we need to be at TwitchCon, but I have a Very important question for you. Lara Raj and Rhea Raj have emotes on Fortnite. They need to be on Twitch.
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C
Yes, absolutely love this.
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B
That's so strange.
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D
There we go.
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C
That's huge.
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D
I'm going to go into semi buzzword but it's the reality of our times and I think the buzzword was yesterday but it's the reality today which is AI Amazon is. We were there sit unboxed watching the introduction of the new AI powered tools to simplify planning, creative and measurement. How are agencies taking advantage of these AI powered tools and the shift to more automated integrated workflows?
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C
Yeah, well, I think what I, I'm so encouraged by is seeing agencies of every size adopt these tools and put their own flavor on them. And I think that's what's really important. We're seeing the largest advertisers and then we're also seeing small advertisers do incredibly interesting work. And it could be anything from you know, I think when, when AI even a year ago we're talking about AI being about efficiency, productivity, savings. That's definitely all true. But what we're entering into is I think a much more exciting time of, of seeing, you know, the, the brain power behind the prompts, the creativity behind the prompts, the opportunity to AI into a more creative space. And so that, yeah, that's what we're seeing. And then obviously for Amazon you want to drive performance and that's, that's definitely happening as well.
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D
It's great to hear that agencies actually embracing.
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C
They are, they are.
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B
So as budgets are facing more scrutiny, what's resonating most with agencies when they talk to clients about efficiency, measurement and proving impact on Amazon ads?
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C
Yeah, it's, it's full funnel. It's being able to connect those upper funnel brand building moments to outcomes and that's, let's listen. We've all been chasing that our entire careers and so that's where that's, you know, like I think that's the, that's where we're headed and it's very appropriate and it's vital that we get there.
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D
That's good to hear. So I'll close it out with a very important question about looking forward. So as you look to the beginning of the year 2026 and the years ahead of us, what do you think agencies and CPBG brands need to be do doing to prepare for technology changes? AI of course we started talking about streaming is going to advance leaps and bounds even further and going to see a lot more programming. Thursday Night Football is now expanded into this beast, like, large thing, and commerce is going to converge on all of these. Do you think we're ready the industry? And then how do you think people will respond?
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C
So I don't know if we're ready because I think our history would tell us that we may repeat ourselves and do the thing where we silo AI over here, because there are a certain number of people who are starting to see that, yeah, raise their hands and they're ready to dive in. But the truth is everybody needs to, everybody needs to upskill. And I would love to see us start from a more integrated model because we're still breaking those silos down from television, digital, audio. Like, we need to be thinking more integrated.
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D
One campaign.
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C
It's one campaign.
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D
We can actually do this in 2026.
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C
I agree, I agree. And we've got to raise the bar on measurement. That's, that's my other big push for 2026.
- [23:32]
D
So the, the follow up I'd ask you is, how's Amazon Ads helping with education? Because a lot of this is just awareness and understanding that campaigns can indeed take advantage of, of all these platforms and be leveraged holistically.
- [23:46]
C
Yeah. Well, my team at Amazon Ads, we are one of our top three initiatives for 20 to look at our learning agenda and our education programs with our agency partners. We're just at that moment in time where we got to reimagine it, we got to move fast, and we got to help upskill not only ourselves, but our partners as well, because our, our ad tech has advanced so much. And so it's an exciting moment, but we gotta, we gotta really do the work so that we bring people along.
- [24:20]
B
So, speaking of agencies, I want to take a moment for SRI and me to thank Omnicom for generously providing this PODC casting studio space at CES to do this. And lastly, I want to thank Serios for taking time out of CES to speak with us. Thank you, Sarah.
- [24:33]
C
Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
- [24:41]
A
Terrific conversation. We really enjoyed having Sarah join us in the Omnicom studio. It was, as you can tell, a great conversation about how advertising fits into all these platforms. Thanks for listening to us. Make sure you're following us on your favorite podcast platform, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, whatever. And we look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the CPG Guys podcast. Goodbye.
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B
The content in this podcast episode is.
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A
Provided for general informational purposes only.
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B
By listening to our episode, you understand.
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A
That no information contained in this episode should be construed. As advice from CPGuys, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGuys, LLC. The views expressed by Guests are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPTGuys, LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPTGuys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.