HQ2: Amazon's advertising activity will not be affected

Amazon's decision to put an end to its high-profile HQ2 project for New York will probably have no impact on any of the company's growth areas: advertising.

Last week, Amazon announced its intention to end its plans to build a new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, which would create an additional 25,000 jobs in the city, primarily in new roles. Engineering and techniques. While the Queens project is being scrapped, the rise of Amazon's advertising activity shows no sign of slowing down in Manhattan, according to the agencies.

An Amazon spokesperson pointed to his post on his blog, claiming the company employs 5,000 people in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island and plans to continue developing his team.

Amazon's plan to strengthen its advertising team in New York predates HQ2. In 2017, Amazon expanded its Manhattan office and promised to bring 2,000 roles to the city, primarily in advertising. Since then, the advertising team has grown beyond the offices of a building near the Empire State Building into a 360,000 square foot office in the Hudson Yards neighborhood.

Read more: Digital now represents the majority of advertising spend by marketers, and Amazon is poised to make big money by consuming Google's share.

According to Amazon's job offers on its website, the company is hiring 867 positions in New York, including 117 in sales and advertising positions.

While the Amazon advertising office in New York is in Manhattan, some employees could have worked in Long Island City, which would have been hard sell for advertisers who hold most of their meetings in Manhattan, said David Tucker, Head of Strategy at the SwellShark News Agency.

"Asking agencies and clients to visit a different district would probably have meant less opportunity to visit," he said. "There's a reason why Facebook and Google have all these showcases in Manhattan."

Amazon is showing ads internally through its own demand-driven programmatic platform (DSP), which targets New Yorkers to advertise its recruitment in the region, said Joshua Kreitzer, founder and CEO of Channel Bakers, an agency specialized in Amazon. advertising company.

"The mentality is" Of course, Queens did not work, "but in Manhattan, it's still very important for them to be present because of all the brand advertising teams present in the city." , did he declare.

Amazon's advertising team takes a page from Facebook's game book

Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Snap and Twitter use all Manhattan offices to communicate with agencies and brands and often use the spaces to present their new projects to advertisers. As Amazon expands its New York office, agencies say they hear more about the company and offer ad formats for successful marketers and, more and more , to marketers focused on the brand.

The agencies said that the proximity of the offices of Amazon does not influence the amount of their expenses in advertising.

"When you have more face-to-face meetings, it obviously helps to establish a relationship with the agency and the customer," said Jeff Malmad, executive director and Shop + manager at Mindshare North America. "But at the end of the day, we always ask the same questions, we always have the same requirements and key performance indicators for partners and budgets, whether you're in New York or Seattle."

Malmad added that Amazon is increasingly strengthening its sales teams to serve specific customers and markets, as Facebook has been doing for a long time with larger advertisers. The largest platform ad consumers have dedicated sales representatives who give them quick access to new products.

"I've really seen an increase in Amazon's share in customer-centric teams in New York," Malmad said. "The advantage of having an Amazon team dedicated to your customer is that the main goal is to generate business results for brands and partner agencies, which is obviously the end goal."