Turning Retail Into Entertainment
In early 2015, Amazon’s retail experience was still largely functional, optimized for efficiency, not storytelling. Campaigns were limited by templated formats and ad placements that played second fiddle to transactional logic.
With the Minions release, we flipped the script.
We conceived and delivered Amazon’s first immersive, interactive homepage takeover, transforming static retail space into a playful, animated experience that celebrated the lovable chaos of the Minions.
For the first time, entertainment marketing was treated like product experience, and it changed what advertising meant on Amazon.
The Shift: From Retail Utility to Creative Ad-Tech
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This campaign marked a cultural and technical turning point. Until then, campaigns lived quietly in the “retail backyard.” This was our breakout moment.
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We pushed Amazon’s rigid layout engine to its limits—working with local engineers and designers to build a lightweight, animated “Minion stage” atop the homepage. It featured:
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Character animations, custom UI, and trailer embeds
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Shoppable product integration tied to Minion merchandise
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Mobile and Fire device extensions
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Compliant code that respected Amazon’s speed and structure standards
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What began as a rogue idea quickly became a new kind of creative ad-tech product—one built with local ingenuity, but scaled with global ambition.
Results
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📣 Awareness & Engagement
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36M+ total impressions
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4.4M+ onsite reach, plus mobile, Fire, and CTR: 0.11% – record-setting at the time
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€3.70 CPC, €4.16 eCPM
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14,028 ticket site visits, 7,255 full trailer views
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🛒 Commerce Impact
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340,000+ product detail page views
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4,585 add-to-lists14,867 add-to-carts
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Minions merchandise sold out across categories in Germany
📰 Cultural Impact
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Major press coverage including BILD.de, one of Germany’s largest newspapers
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Amazon Germany’s first creative award nomination
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Set a blueprint for future takeovers, including Star Wars: Episode VII
​This wasn’t just a campaign, it was a proof of possibility.
We showed that Amazon could be more than transactional: it could be emotional, immersive, and joyful. It redefined how brands could launch on the world’s largest retail platform.
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It became the blueprint for immersive entertainment marketing inside Amazon, inspiring a new wave of creative campaigns built not despite the system, but by shaping it.
