A few months ago, Amazon announced that it had consolidated its global media planning and buying duties to one of the largest media agencies around the world, IPG Mediabrands. The news sent shockwaves through the industry, as it was largely speculated that Mindshare were the front runners to win the account. The implications of being able to promote Amazon’s ecommerce hub, assorted tech products and Prime subscription services around the world means huge business for IPG, and looks set to change the digital media landscape both here and abroad.

In digital media and advertising, the vast majority of digital marketing revenue flowed through two large scale channels, Facebook and Google. Huge industries have been built off the back of these two companies, and it was only a matter of time before a shakeup was to happen.

Enter Amazon. Though Amazon was never directly in competition with Google and Facebook in the digital media space, the single biggest signal that Amazon was about to jump in the deep end came in the form of Alexa, a small black cylinder capable of taking on the might of Google and Facebook. Though Amazon derives only (only being relative) $1.12 billion of revenue from paid advertising, which is only a fraction of the $24 billion Google’s parent company Alphabet can make, it is in fact far more likely that Amazon’s play with IPG is not just a ploy to advertise it’s own products (Alexa, Prime etc), but a play to sell advertising within those products.

Amazon has entered this match as player 3. It doesn’t have all the tools in the media buying space, but it definitely has the ability to make big things happen.

IPG winning Amazon’s digital media buying business was so big that it has spun off another company as a direct result. This would seem quite strange behaviour considering that to the casual observer, the Amazon account would be a big one, but not big enough to spin a whole new company out of. But let’s look a little bit deeper into this.

The reason for this simple but profound. The actual revenue streams that Amazon is aiming for is not from the direct sale of Alexa or Prime subscription service, but from the “rivers of gold” that will come from advertising revenue within those products. Voice Search, and subsequently voice SEO will become such a valuable tool in the not too distant future that it wouldn’t be surprising if voice overtook “visual search” (or search as we know it). As such, the ability to analyse and dominate key phrasing in voice search will be incredibly valuable, and who would be the best positioned player to advise on voice media buying, or buying space on Amazon Prime?

IPG. IPG needs a whole new company for this exact reason. It’s almost like return to the good old days of classified ads, which old school media buyers used to describe as “rivers of gold”. This is the El Dorado that Amazon was looking for.

The reason for this metaphor is quite simple. Amazon is all powerful, with the ability to move almost anywhere on the chess board like the Queen. But a Queen can’t take other Queens in chess, without putting itself in danger. That’s why Amazon has used IPG. It needs a piece that can take Queens without putting itself in danger.

That’s why IPG winning Amazon is such a big deal.