Toucan Talks: Why Brand Building Matters

Why branding matters today and into the future

Megan's talk opened on the problem that only a third of customers trust the brands they buy from, and that trust ranks second only to quality in a purchase decision. On Amazon you are competing with more than two million other brands, so every touchpoint, main image, sponsored ad, DSP display, Brand Store, is a chance to create a reaction rather than just a click. The session mapped Amazon's brand building solutions across the funnel, DSP display and video for awareness, Sponsored Display and DSP for consideration, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Brands Video to own the aisle, Sponsored Products at the point of purchase, and remarketing for loyalty. The case study was a confectionery Q4 activation run under HFSS rules, where the creative could not show the product at all: brand assets and seasonal cues carried the whole campaign, DSP click-through rate ran 14 percent above benchmark, new-to-brand share 65 percent above, detail page view rate 120 percent above, and Sponsored Brands ROAS 538 percent above.

Amazon Ads: Streaming TV

AJ's talk was about the living room as a brand building channel. Professional content, watched on a big screen, with other people, is the strongest driver of ad recall, roughly 60 percent higher on a TV than on a personal device. Prime Video has the largest ad-supported monthly reach of the UK premium streamers, and in one campaign delivered around 10 percent incremental reach on top of linear TV among 25 to 44 year olds, with two thirds of its impacts unique to the platform. The commercial link back to Amazon is direct: 82 percent of Prime Video households shopped on Amazon in the previous month, and Prime Video viewers spend around 14 percent more per month than non-viewers. Advertisers running across multiple Amazon Streaming TV channels rather than one saw a 40 percent lift in detail page view rate and a 26 percent lift in purchase rate.

Elevating your brand on Amazon: Premium A+ Content and Brand Stores

Gaby's session was the practical half of the brand argument: what Premium A+ Content and a well-built Brand Store let you say that a standard listing never can. It walked the modules that carry the most weight, the difference between a store designed as a shelf and one designed as a journey, and how to keep a single creative idea consistent from the DSP display ad through to the store landing page, so a shopper who arrives from an ad recognises where they have landed.

Discover, engage, convert: turning awareness into sales

Dania covered the four pillars of TikTok Shop, content, affiliates, advertising and LIVEs, and made the case that most of a brand's success on the platform comes from affiliates. The session walked the affiliate process end to end, from outreach and content brief through to conversion, and the three phase approach Toucan uses: mass outreach, then targeted outreach to creators who genuinely fit the category, then loyalty built through higher commissions, WhatsApp communities and creator competitions. Worked examples included a haircare creator competition that produced 553 videos in a month and a viral winner at nearly 100,000 views, and a cleaning brand launch where affiliates drove 72 percent of sales from a first batch of samples and February performance beat forecast by 88 percent. It closed on TikTok's halo effect on Amazon, TikTok is discovery-led and impulse-driven, Amazon is search-led and intent-driven, and the synergy is using one to create demand and the other to capture it.

The future of commerce

Amanda gave the platform's own view of community commerce. TikTok has over a billion global monthly users and the highest average daily time spent of any UK app, 93 percent of its users take some shopping-related action in the app, 88 percent have discovered a brand there they wanted to buy from, and the UK social commerce opportunity is forecast at 16 billion pounds by 2028. The talk walked the four native ways to shop, shoppable video, LIVE, Showcase and the Shop tab, and the platform's own case studies, including a sportswear deal week that lifted GMV by 737 percent against the previous week and a pre-owned luxury seller taking 94 percent of its sales through LIVEs. The last section was the halo effect: TikTok-native beauty brands that went from app-only to Boots, Superdrug, Sephora and Beauty Bay off the back of demand built on the platform.

In the room