After several years of growing its YA slate with hits like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and more recently, “Off Campus,” Prime Video is doubling down on its goal to become the “streaming destination for young women.”
The streamer has been touting its YA content lineup under the marketing campaign “Obsession is in Session” over the past couple months, but the reach of that fandom will be in full display during Amazon’s inaugural Obsessed Fest in Los Angeles Saturday, which will feature panels, meet-and-greets, screenings, book clubs and more celebrating its TV shows and films. These include hits like “Off Campus,” “Your Fault: London” and “Overcompensating,” and the upcoming “Legally Blonde” prequel series “Elle” and “The Love Hypothesis,” to name a few.
“What you’re going to experience tomorrow is not new, it’s actually a culmination of years of deliberate, thoughtful investment in an audience that we believe represents the future of entertainment and fandom,” VP of International Kelly Day said during an Obsessed Fest kickoff event on Friday, adding that the push wasn’t created in response to the “growing popularity of BookTok.”
“We’ve crafted a bold and broad vision to become the most beloved streaming destination for young women, creating an essential space for them to feel seen, heard and celebrated,” Day continued.
In fact, the female demo is “not a niche audience” anymore per Amazon VP of international originals Nicole Clemens, with Global TV president Peter Friedlander adding that the “YA programming strategy sits inside a much bigger global strategy” to cater to Prime Video’s audience of over 200 million subscribers across the world.
“I’ve always said that women, LGBTQ audiences … they are ready to love things,” said moderator and “Red, White & Royal Wedding” producer Sarah Schechter, adding that some companies — including places the panelists have previously worked at — have not embraced those audiences.
It’s that enthusiasm to engage in fandom that makes the audience so valuable, according to VP of film Courtenay Valenti, who noted YA viewers are “an audience that cares deeply and talks and recommends to friends and creates cultural conversation, and that leads to a huge obsessive fandom.” “Our responsibility is to bring these stories to life authentically in a way that lives and comports with their vision of why they care so much,” Valenti said.
“What I think is also really fascinating is then they want to know what’s next … We love this, we watch this, then there’s a real energy and excitement about discovering the next thing too,” Friedlander added. “It’s a really virtuous cycle with this audience, and we have to pay real attention to that.”
Friedlander noted the laser focus on what was next happened with both “Off Campus,” which is currently in production on Season 2, as well as “Every Year After,” which Friedlander hinted at potential renewal news coming soon.
And the train isn’t slowing down: Clemens announced during the event that Prime Video signed a first-look deal with author Mercedes Ron, whose Culpables Saga, first written on Wattpad, has led to 11 book-to-screen adaptations that are either in production or produced, most recently, “Your Fault: London.”
“We want many, many more for years and years to come,” Clemens said. “I think she’s the secret sauce in this case.”
The success of Ron’s adaptations prove the global audience Prime Video has rallied from its YA titles, with 90% of the 100 million views the Spanish trilogy has racked up coming from outside of Spain. “This audience doesn’t really care about geographical boundaries at all,” Clemens said. “They really just want to see a great story.”
Ron’s books are just one of the many adaptations on Prime Video’s YA slate, with other adaptations including “Off Campus,” “Every Year After,” “The Love Hypothesis” and “Boys of Tommen,” to name a few, all of which come with a fan-based already in tow.
“These are fandoms … they are obsessed, and they’ve been thinking about these stories, and they’re imagining how they’re going to be brought to life, and frankly, we have to then stress about how to do it in a way that lives up to … what they love about the story,” Valenti said.
More importantly, the adaptations — along with the other YA titles — make their viewers feel something — an emotion-driven experience Marketing Head Sue Kroll hopes fans get IRL at Obsessed Fest.
“Everything about ‘Obsession is in Session’ is driven by emotion — it’s not about intellectual or being cerebral, it’s about feeling everything,” Kroll said. “So when you go into Obsessed Fest tomorrow, hopefully you’ll feel like a raw nerve where you feel everything, because … I think is the way that things have to be sold … that’s what breaks through, and that’s what makes things memorable.”
