Inside Amy Reinhard's 'Whirlwind' First Year at Netflix

Amy Reinhard's first year as Netflix's ad sales president has "definitely been a whirlwind," in her words. Reinhard stepped into Netflix's top advertising role in October 2023, following the departure of former ads president Jeremi Gorman, who surprisingly left one year into the streamer's ad-supported tier launch. Despite the leadership shake-up, the streamer that became part of the cultural zeitgeist with iconic series like Stranger Things and Bridgerton has been anything but shook. In Reinhard’s first year alone, Netflix added live Christmas Day NFL games to its roster, completely shaking up the TV industry; it's made moves to bring its adtech in-house, becoming technology and sales independent from launch partner Microsoft; and it's continued its quest for scale, with Reinhard telling ADWEEK the company now reaches 70 million monthly active users, up from around 15 million when she started. It's been a lot—and not just for the journalists covering the constant stream of news. "Sometimes I wake up and I think, 'I'm learning new things every day, so it feels like it's been only a month or two,'" Reinhard said of her tenure. "Then, there are some days that some of the issues we're working through are so complicated, it feels like I've been in this job for two years." The breakneck pace would be enough to make the most seasoned advertising executive shudder. But that's the thing: Reinhard isn't from the world of advertising. Meet Amy With a B.A. and MBA from Harvard University, Reinhard has held various finance, strategy, and operations roles on the production side of the film and TV industry over the past two decades—doing everything from figuring out the backend of movie star box office paydays to serving as Paramount's president of worldwide TV licensing and distribution. What she lacks in ad industry exposure, Reinhard makes up for in Netflix experience. Being at Netflix since 2016 in roles on the production side, including serving as vp of studio operations, the executive is skilled at navigating internal relationships and connections to integrate the ads team into the streamer's culture, bringing brands closer to the content as only a longtime insider could. "One of the things that I've been successful at internally is connecting the different businesses together," Reinhard said, noting she has the luxury of relationships across finance, marketing, strategy, and other groups within the company. "Those are really important for the success of the ad business, and the success for Netflix overall." That connection acumen also lends itself to Reinhard's ability to build the relationships within the ad industry that she was missing at the start of her tenure as advertising president. However, she admits building those external connections was the biggest hurdle in her first year at the helm. "I'm a person who likes to grow," Reinhard said. "And so with a job where I'm learning new things every day—I like being challenged." That's good news for Netflix, as today's TV industry has no shortage of challenges. And in making her priorities to build live events, grow scale and revenue, and become sales and tech independent, Reinhard and her team are taking several of them head-on. We'll do it live One of the biggest announcements of Reinhard's ads administration came in May, hours ahead of Netflix's upfront presentation, when the company announced its aforementioned NFL Christmas Day games, hosting two exclusive matchups in 2024. "This is the perfect illustration of how Netflix moves quickly," Reinhard said. "All of this literally came together within days of the upfront happening." With live sports being one of the last bastions keeping legacy linear broadcasters afloat, Netflix’s introduction into the market has the potential to turn the industry on its head. Of course, the announcement wasn't without detractors. Following Netflix's NFL news, buyers told ADWEEK that the Christmas Day games technically happen after the retail season, limiting the possible advertisers who'd want to jump on board. Additionally, some scoffed at the company's initial sponsorship package offerings, which buyers said were originally around $5 million each. But for Reinhard, that hasn’t been her experience. According to the ads president, the fact that the games are airing across all of Netflix’s streaming plans is a big draw, and the streamer “never really felt any pushback” from clients. "We're sold out in Game One," Reinhard revealed to ADWEEK, adding that Game Two also had "great interest" as the streamer sold all of its available Christmas Day NFL inventory. Among the sponsors joining this year's games, the ads president noted that BMW bought the halftime show, and FanDuel is another "big partner" as the exclusive pregame sportsbook, getting a sponsored in-show feature. Meanwhile, Verizon will be the Netflix Christmas kickoff sponsor. The company has also partnered with Nielsen for live ratings of its NFL Christmas Day games, and, in terms of upcoming events, it's partnered with VideoAmp in the U.S. to deliver advertisers cross-screen and live viewership measurement, both of which will start with the company's WWE launch in January. "We've really staked out Christmas Day, owning the whole day in terms of those two games, and then the entertainment we're going to pack around that," Reinhard said. That entertainment includes the Squid Game Season 2 premiere, which hits Netflix the day after Christmas, among other upcoming fare that’s attracting strong advertiser interest, including more live events like John Mulaney's talk show, which is coming in 2025, and more established IP like the upcoming Happy Gilmore 2. It’s opportunities like those—as well as Netflix’s massive audience of more than 282 million—that have had advertisers interested in its inventory since the ad tier's launch. Keeping things upfront 2024 was its second year in the upfront, and Netflix was once again facing a buyer's market, with an influx of inventory driving pricing down. Though the streamer reportedly came into the market in 2022 with CPMs in the $65 range, buyers told ADWEEK this year's deals saw CPMs at half that rate. However, other streamers also experienced similar pullbacks, depending on where their pricing started. Plus, Netflix's increased inventory led to pricing decreases through supply and demand. "We have to listen to what's going on in the market, so I think that's been natural, especially as we've seen our growth in our numbers" Reinhard said. "We always knew that those CPMs would likely come down." Adding to the complexity, ahead of the company closing its upfront, Peter Naylor, netflix’s vp of ad sales since its 2022 launch, shockingly parted ways with the company. Reinhard said the departure didn't change the company's strategy. "The thing that I love about Netflix is that we are open to understanding what's happening in the marketplace and where we need to pivot or adapt. We're very much a lean in, learn, test, iterate type of culture," Reinhard said. "So given the recent news around our sales independence and our evolving relationship with Microsoft and building out our adtech stack, I just felt like we needed a little bit more skill set in some of these other areas that were going to help us scale our business." Despite the leadership change, Netflix reported a 150% increase in upfront commitments this year, and Reinhard has already found a new vp of ad sales in Nicolle Pangis, who is set to oversee U.S. and Canada ad sales. Measuring up Netflix achieved sales independence from launch partner Microsoft in July, and over the next year, the company will achieve full sales and technology independence, allowing it to "control our own destiny," according to Reinhard. The streamer has already stepped up its programmatic offerings while allowing marketers to set up private one-to-one marketplace deals directly through The Trade Desk, Google’s Display & Video 360, or Microsoft’s Xandr, and Reinhard said Netflix started testing its in-house adtech in Canada in November, with the goal of rolling out globally in 2025. "When we say we are going to do something, we move all mountains to figure out how to make that happen," Reinhard said. Netflix's ads division has already grown around five times since Reinhard started, the ad executive said, with measurement teams, account management teams, and operations teams being built across the 12 countries that currently have Netflix's ad tier. And the company isn't planning on slowing down. Moving forward, Netflix is looking to expand its measurement capabilities, build new ad formats and programmatic offerings, and double its ads revenue in 2025, when the streamer promises to reach critical scale on its ads plans; however, Reinhard noted that will look different in every country. Regardless of the pace, Reinhard said the company recognizes that a successful ad business can't be built overnight and that "these things take time." Today, the company has a vision for its ads business that extends up to three years out, while staying nimble and adaptable to the market. "I don't believe in contingency plans," Reinhard said. "But I think the organization as a whole is good at tweaking and pivoting. You have to be able to do that if you're going to be an innovative company." Update: This story has been updated with Netflix's upcoming measurement partnerships.

TV Upfronts

Inside Amy Reinhard's 'Whirlwind' First Year as Netflix Advertising President

The executive reveals the first NFL sponsors and how its advertising plan continues to evolve

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