The interview

Amazon Ads, the Italian game of artificial intelligence, sports and measurement

Milana Glisic, country manager of Amazon Ads Italia, outlines the growth drivers in the Italia market: the centrality of artificial intelligence, the strategic role of Prime Video and live sports

by Andrea Biondi

6 May 2026

Milana Glisic, country manager di Amazon Ads Italy

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

From the centrality of artificial intelligence to the challenge of cross-media measurement, and the increasingly strategic role of Prime Video and live content, starting with sports. It is on these axes that Amazon Ads' game is being played in Italia, a market considered key in the group's European development. In a fragmented advertising environment, where audiences move between streaming, social and shopping, the platform aims to simplify campaign planning and measurement, leveraging data, interoperability and new AI-based solutions. In this interview with Il Sole 24 Ore Milana Glisic, Country Manager Amazon Ads Italy, outlines the group's growth guidelines and competitive positioning, including collaboration with agencies, openness to shared standards and integration between content and performance. She does so on the sidelines of the "Amazon Ads unBoxed Milano 2026": the annual Amazon Ads event dedicated to the news, trends and solutions that are redesigning the future of advertising.

How much weight does Italia have today in Amazon Ads' European strategy and what growth targets do you set for the next 2-3 years?

Italia is an important country for Amazon Ads and unBoxed is our flagship event to announce what's new for advertisers in the country and how we help brands grow their business. This is an important event for us, where we meet our customers, listen to their feedback and discuss how we can best support them in this rapidly changing landscape. Today, every second TV set is a Connected TV, consumers move fluidly between streaming TV, social, search and shopping, and audiences are more fragmented than ever before. This presents challenges, but also huge opportunities for brands. What excites us most is that today AI allows us to offer tools with a level of simplicity and immediacy that was not even imaginable before.

AI is taking an increasingly central role in advertising. How is the dynamic with agencies changing? Is a process of disintermediation taking place?

Amazon is innovating strongly in AI to simplify all aspects of the advertising process and generate more effective results. Advanced AI runs through the entire Amazon Ads offering: from supporting insight development in reaching the right audiences, to creating engaging and scalable creative content, to automatically optimising campaign performance. It works in harmony with human expertise, not as a substitute for it.

On the operational side, for example, we have tools that simplify the planning, management and optimisation of campaigns. What used to take hours of manual configuration now takes minutes. Advertisers retain full control and transparency throughout the process, reviewing and approving every step. On the creative side, various tools aim to democratise access: even SMEs can now produce professional quality video content that was previously the preserve of large brands with significant resources.

With Prime Video Insights linking viewing and purchasing: how transparent is this attribution model for advertisers and users?

Amazon Ads has spent ten years building the necessary infrastructure to make our measurement base reliable, transparent and actionable. Everything in measurement starts with signals. If an advertiser does not know who saw his ad, he cannot measure what happened next. Amazon uniquely combines billions of signals from shopping, browsing and streaming activities. We link ad exposure to outcomes across channels, both on and off Amazon, giving advertisers a complete view of performance.

By combining Prime Video's viewing insights with other Amazon Marketing Cloud signals - including advertisers' proprietary signals - you can develop better campaign strategies to reach the right audience, measure the relationship between viewing behaviour and buying patterns, and create more relevant audience segments. Naturally, this allows you to invest with greater confidence in what really works.

Wouldn't it be better to adhere to shared standards with JIC?

We have an open and flexible approach to measurement, able to adapt to the needs of each brand. Interoperability is key because advertisers do not operate within a single system. Our goal is to allow them to bring their own insights, work with existing partners and apply their own methodologies. We work with over 50 third-party measurement providers in areas such as brand lift, reach, offline sales and attention, through a privacy-safe infrastructure designed for collaboration, not lock-in. Measurement must integrate into the way advertisers already operate, not force them to adopt a single approach.

This is another reason why we are strongly committed to the collaboration with the JICs. At unBoxed Milan we brought together Agf, Barb, Médiamétrie and Audicom on one stage for the first time. We believe that transparent and technologically neutral standards are essential: this is why we welcomed Agcom's recognition of server-to-server as a methodology for measuring digital services. Through Anitec-Assinform, we are actively working to join Audicom as soon as possible and contribute as a constructive player in its governance.

Sports rights such as Champions League and Nba are becoming an important part of the offer. How central is sport in your Ads strategy?

Live sport is a natural extension of what we do: it brings together passionate and highly engaged audiences around moments of genuine collective attention. The Champions League has been part of Prime Video in Italia since 2021 and we have just renewed the rights until 2031. Since last October and for 11 years, we have been broadcasting a selection of top NBA matches exclusively in Italia and in 200 countries worldwide, all with commentary in Italian and all included in the Prime subscription at no additional cost. After the playoffs still in progress, from 4 June, Prime Video will also broadcast the NBA Finals exclusively live. For advertisers, what makes live sport so valuable is the combination of scale, attention and emotion.

The advertising landscape is evolving rapidly. Where do you see the biggest challenge and with whom do you really compete? With companies like Google and Meta or with broadcasters and streaming players?

The advertising landscape is evolving rapidly: streaming TV is now widespread, audiences are more fragmented than ever, and advertisers need to reach consumers across an increasing number of touchpoints. Our goal is to develop products and solutions that address concrete challenges for advertisers and help companies grow. We start with their needs and work backwards from there.