Intersport / College Slam
AO2 introduces Amazon DSP to Intersport's live event marketing mix, delivering 1M+ impressions and exceeding industry benchmarks for video completion across Streaming TV and Online Video.
Intersport partnered with AO2 to activate Amazon DSP for the first time as part of the marketing mix for the 2026 State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships. Over a 22-day flight, AO2 delivered 1,083,873 impressions, reached 709,772 unique viewers, and drove a 98% Streaming TV completion rate, meeting or exceeding industry benchmarks across every key metric.
Intersport needed a proven awareness channel for a time-sensitive live event, one that could reach basketball fans at scale and prove its value against an established streaming partner.
Key Obstacles Included:
- First-time Amazon activation: Amazon DSP was a brand-new channel for the team, replacing a prior streaming partner. The approach needed to prove its value quickly within a 22-day window.
- Tight timeline and budget: With only $6,500 and 22 days, every impression had to land before the April 3rd event. There is no conversion window after a live event.
- Limited audience targeting options: Previous streaming platforms could not reach specific fan bases. The team wanted to explore whether Amazon's purchase data signals could close that gap.
- Compressed optimization window: Late ticket buying behavior, with 50% of sales occurring in the final 48 hours, meant the campaign needed to sustain reach pressure throughout the entire flight.
AO2 built a two-channel Amazon DSP strategy pairing non-skippable Streaming TV with high-viewability Online Video to maximize awareness efficiency across the full 22-day window.
Streaming TV: Non-Skippable Brand Moments on Premium CTV
Roughly half the budget was placed into Streaming TV inventory across The Roku Channel, Paramount EyeQ, TubiTV (Fire TV, Roku, and Android), Amazon Fire TV Channels, and Prime Video FAST. These are lean-back environments where audiences watch ads to completion. The result was a 98% video completion rate, ensuring the College Slam message was seen in full by connected TV audiences.
Online Video: Scale and Reach Across Sports and Gaming Audiences
The OLV line item delivered 923,772 impressions across environments that naturally index toward the College Slam audience, including gaming and esports platforms like Overwolf and Mobalytics, entertainment portals like Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Fandom, and casual gaming apps. Viewability held at 88%, well above the 70% industry benchmark, ensuring impressions reached real, engaged users.
Audience-First Placement Strategy
Rather than relying on broad reach, AO2 prioritized supply sources likely to engage sports and gaming fans, including Amazon Alexa Devices, Twitch, and gaming apps. This drove an efficient 1.61x average frequency with minimal wasted impressions across the 22-day flight.
Reporting Transparency via the Amazon Ecosystem
A key advantage over the team's previous streaming partner was the depth of Amazon's reporting. Because Amazon's inventory spans devices, apps, and streaming platforms, the campaign data showed exactly where ads were served and on which channels, a level of detail prior partners could not match. This transparency directly informed post-campaign analysis and future planning.
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