The main takeaway:
At its IAB NewFronts 2026 event, Samsung revealed a new partnership with Amazon Ads to bring interactive video and shoppable content to a user’s remote control. According to the company, Samsung TV Plus is the first external CTV device partner to offer this capability thanks to its integration with Amazon DSP.
In addition to new content and live events, Samsung is looking to make the viewer experience easier with interactivity and new AI tools to engage consumers.
The biggest announcements:
Among the most significant announcements at its NewFronts event on Tuesday, Samsung revealed a partnership with Amazon Ads to bring remote-enabled interactive video technology to Samsung TV Plus, letting users take action on their screens.
“The Amazon partnership allows us to show that we have that full funnel audience that’s able to not only just be exposed to an ad, but actually take action against that ad,” Jimmy White, managing director, head of large customer sales, Samsung Ads, told ADWEEK. “Even more so, we have our machine learning on the back end that allows us to understand who we should be targeting, how we should be targeting someone, and what creative we should be delivering.”
Launching in July, the integration will let advertisers access and activate Samsung TV Plus inventory through the company’s partnership with Amazon DSP. They can also tap into Amazon’s browsing, streaming, and shopping signals—brought together in Amazon Marketing Cloud.
Brands selling on Amazon can have “add to cart” functionality, and brands outside of Amazon can utilize outcomes-based actions like “send to phone” or “sign up.”
“Our shoppable ad formats are proven to drive measurable performance on and off Amazon through our differentiated combination of broad reach and authenticated signals,” Kelly MacLean, vp of engineering, science, and product, Amazon DSP, said in a statement. “By bringing Amazon’s interactive ad technology to Samsung through Amazon DSP, together we’re providing an experience for advertisers to deliver on any full-funnel marketing objective—whether it’s awareness, consideration, or conversion.”
In additional updates, Samsung Ads is expanding its Creative Canvas ad formats, which allow advertisers to create interactive ad creative. The new capabilities include product galleries, vertical video, and click-to-email.
The company is also introducing Vision AI Companion, which will make the viewing experience smarter, using AI to tailor the experience to the viewer. AI-Powered Contextual Targeting will create continuous interpretation of action on-screen to influence things like timing and relevance. Meanwhile, AI-Powered Audience Collectives will use Samsung insights to identify those most likely to engage, convert, or respond to content.
Following a successful rollout of its interactive polls during its 2025 live Jonas Brothers concert, which drove 26x engagement compared to QR-based interactions, the company is also stepping up its interactive content.
