EPISODE 261: Marketer of the Month Podcast with Nina Walsh

Saksham Sharda: All right, that was the end of the rapid fire. Tell me about what you announced here at IBC this year. 

Nina Walsh: It’s been very exciting to be here at IBC this year. Earlier in the year, we announced AWS Elemental Inference, a new service from AWS. And now, here at IBC, we’ve announced a number of new features. The first one is AWS Elemental Dynamic Multiview, which enables a really personalized experience for the viewer, enables them to choose which angle they want to watch their game or their live concert from. And then a couple more ad tech features, which are enabling the context within the content to be more natural for the viewer. And then the third one, yield optimization, to enable you to fill any dead air that you might be experiencing. 

Saksham Sharda: And of everything you’ve announced, what are you personally most excited about? 

Nina Walsh: Definitely the Dynamic Multiview. 53% of our customers are asking for this capability and have been. We’ve got JioStar in India using it with their cricket coverage. I love cricket, so for me, being a fan, and also being able to see how the audience is receiving that has been really exciting. Now, keep in mind, from AWS perspective, we have over 1.6 billion people globally viewing their streaming that’s run on AWS. So, that’s a lot of people who can benefit from these types of features that we’ve been launching. 

Saksham Sharda: And when will customers actually start seeing the impact of all these announcements, you think? 

Nina Walsh: Well, if you’re a cricket fan, straight away. JioStar are already using that. And for the others, very soon. So, keep an eye out. It’s super exciting. I think if you think about being a fan and really wanting those personalized experiences, it enables you to tailor that exactly how you want it. 

Saksham Sharda: Why did AWS launch these new features now? 

Nina Walsh: Demand. So, we work backwards from our customers. Part of that is really understanding their end customers, and in a lot of cases, it’s the fans or the audiences. All of our customers we work with, we’ve got long-standing relationships with, like think Disney, Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony. We’re working with these companies over multi-year horizons, and so really understanding their end customers and what they’re wanting is key to our role. That also applies to Formula 1, the PGA Tour, the NFL, the NBA. Thinking about how do we really take those sporting, those live events, and extend that even further to reach fans in their lounge room, and then also in all corners of the globe. 

Saksham Sharda: How do these features fit into the broader landscape of work AWS is doing in media and entertainment? 

Nina Walsh: So, there’s a real drive from our customers to help them meet their audiences where they are. If you think about one of the stats, 53% of sports fans want to have a personalized viewing experience. That’s a lot of people globally that are wanting to get more out of their viewing experience. Earlier today, we were talking to one of our Bundesliga customers, and he mentioned that over 70% of fans of the Bundesliga are wanting to chat and interact during a live game. Thought that was a really interesting stat. Just thinking about the change in audience behavior, that fragmentation of audience behavior is opening up all these new opportunities that companies need to meet their audiences, their fans, where they are. And that is our day-to-day, is working with our customers to ultimately provide more delightful experiences for their customers.

Saksham Sharda: Talking of audience behavior then, what can you tell me about where the industry is right now and the key trends? 

Nina Walsh: So, for the past decade or so, we’ve been in this era of streaming, and now we’re really moving into this intelligence era, which means really understanding your audiences from a 360-degree view. Part of that is that audience behaviors are changing, going from more mobile and social engagement. For us, there’s over 1.6 billion people globally, nearing closer to two billion, that are consuming their streaming services run on AWS. Now, as part of that volume of people, there’s this fragmentation that’s happening, which is then leading into more and more personalized experiences being sought after. So, if you think about a fan watching a sporting event or watching a live concert, they really want to be able to receive that content in the exact way that suits them personally. So, for our customers, like the big media, big gaming accounts, it’s about having a 360-degree view of each one of those fans so that you can push out the content in the way that they want to consume it. 

Saksham Sharda: AWS runs its media and entertainment business across the whole planet at once. There’s sports here, movies there, games are somewhere else. How do you keep track of it all? 

Nina Walsh: Great question. So, we have over 30,000 media, entertainment, games, and sports accounts globally. I manage a team that are in 24 different countries. There’s a lot of different cultures. There’s a lot of innovation happening in different parts of the world. So, that’s one of the things that we love most about being in this industry and being at AWS, is that we get to work backwards from our customers in each of those markets. We are long-term focused, so for us, it’s about looking at what can we achieve in the short term, but then what does the next couple of years look like from an innovation perspective, and how can we help our customers get there? My team are specialists, so everyone comes from the industry, including myself, 22 years in media before I joined AWS. What that means is we’ve been customers ourselves, so we’ve already got to walk a mile. So, ideally, we can really hone in on what the challenges are that customers are going through and then help work backwards with the cloud and AI solutions that AWS does best. 

Saksham Sharda: Having been in the industry for 20 years, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the broadcasting and streaming industries? 

Nina Walsh: Oh, I mean, thinking about the stats around mobile usage, I think it’s 5.8 billion mobile users globally. That’s opening up a ton of opportunities in markets like India, as an example. Now, speaking of India, cricket is huge. Millions and millions of viewers for each and every game. That’s been an amazing use case for us because it’s all about scalability and having a resilient infrastructure, which AWS provides. Speaking of our new feature, Dynamic Multiview, we’ve got that in production now with JioStar, who broadcasts the cricket locally. So, that means that there’s hundreds of millions of people in India that are getting to use that multiview capability to experience cricket from the angle that they want to, be it bird’s-eye view, be it sideline, be it in close, up close to the action. So, those personalized experiences are what’s really moving the industry forward as a whole. 

Saksham Sharda: Would you say then Dynamic Multiview is a way to catch the user’s attention, which feels like attention feels like the most valuable currency on Earth right now? What does it actually take for your customers to win viewers’ attentions these days? 

Nina Walsh: The attention economy is very, very important. I can’t remember the stat, but there’s something like if you don’t capture their attention within the first 72 hours, they may never come back to you. So, it’s important that our customers, being media companies, are providing the best possible viewing experience to their audiences. That goes to our sporting leagues that we work with as well, the Bundesliga, the NFL, the NBA, PGA. So, ensuring that those leagues are innovating again and again to really ensure that they’ve captured the attention and that they’re also growing those audience spaces. So, reducing churn, but also attracting new audiences in different corners of the globe. 

Saksham Sharda: And you’ve mentioned that AWS works with major entertainment companies and sports organizations. How are your customers using agentic AI to monetize and personalize their offerings and boost viewer engagement? 

Nina Walsh: Agentic AI has evolved so much. This time last year at IBC, we were showing some early-stage workflows with agentic AI. However, this year, only 12 months later, agentic AI is incorporated in almost every one of our demonstrations. So, we’ve really moved from that proof of concept experimentation stage to a full-scale production stage. Many of our customers have incorporated agentic AI into their workflows already, and that is just helping them retain that human creativity piece while taking care of the broad-scale operations that their teams are responsible for. Using our services, Amazon Bedrock, AgentCore, Kiro, Amazon Quick, we’re developing new services and new features to keep up with the pace of innovation that’s happening globally with our customers. 

Saksham Sharda: And this pace of innovation in streaming and broadcasting industries is insanely fast. How do you personally stay ahead of it? 

Nina Walsh: It’s a lot to stay ahead of it, but I think that’s why working in a company that you’re really passionate about is important. For me, I’m passionate about the industry. I always have been. So, I love being at an organization where we’re invested in the industry. We’re here at conferences like IBC in Europe, NAB in North America, and we’re providing thought leadership, but most importantly, we’re hearing from our customers about their challenges that they’re having in each of their markets. That’s the reason we have such a global team as well, is so that we have people in country working back from those customers in their native language that understand the dynamics of each of those markets. It is a lot to keep up with, but I absolutely love it. I find it really energizing. 

Saksham Sharda: Well, related to that then, the last question for you is of a personal kind. What would you be doing in your life if not this? 

Nina Walsh: Ooh. Honestly, I think I’d be a football coach. I love sport, and for me… Or maybe I can aspire to be an owner of a team at some point. Might be a little out of reach, but I’d absolutely be a football coach. 

Let’s Conclude!

Saksham Sharda: Thanks, everyone for joining us for this month’s episode of Outgrow’s Marketer of the Month. That was Nina Walsh, who is the Global Director of Business Development for Media, Entertainment, Games, and Sports at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Nina Walsh: Great to be here. Thank you.

Saksham Sharda: Check out the website for more details and we’ll see you once again next month with another marketer of the month.