Amazon’s Black Friday NFL game was “a hot commodity for advertisers” heading into Thanksgiving weekend, but rather than “the anticipated bang, Amazon’s ‘Black Friday Football’ ratings landed like a sputtering parade balloon,” according to Herren & Sloane of AD AGE. According to Nielsen, the game averaged 9.61 million viewers, peaking at 11.18 million viewers from 5:00-5:15pm ET. Incorporating Amazon’s own data, “the average jumped” to 10.83 million. Media buyers and ad tech execs “described the numbers as 'disappointing,' 'not good' and 'jarring.'” But each reaction “came with an addendum.” Compared to expectations, or to the Thanksgiving Day games on broadcast networks, the numbers “failed to impress,” but factors including viewer awareness, game fatigue and the team matchup itself “likely put Prime Video at a disadvantage.” Because of the heightened commerce and data capabilities for “Black Friday Football,” audience numbers “weren’t necessarily top priority” for participating advertisers. Black Friday viewers were 78% more likely to search for brands or products advertised than viewers of ads on competitive NFL Thanksgiving games and 40% more likely to search for brands/products advertised than viewers of ads on competitive NFL networks, according to EDO data. A source said that the Black Friday audience numbers were “on par with the NFL’s expectations." There is a sense that the game “could grow in coming years,” just like audience numbers on “Thursday Night Football” grew in the second season. Advertisers "don’t seem to be deterred by this year’s ratings" (AD AGE, 12/1).
