Amazon Prime Video’s New Head for Australia, NZ Touts ‘The Office,’ Local Originals
Last month Hwei Loke was upped as the new head of Amazon Prime Video Australia and New Zealand, ahead of perhaps the territory’s biggest ever local originals launch, the Aussie version of The Office, which debuts everywhere except the U.S. on Oct. 18.
Loke, a 15-year marketing veteran who has had stints at Disney, Australia’s SBS and Nickelodeon, takes the reins at Prime Video ANZ as the company basks in the critical glow and global ratings success of a number of recent local originals, including the Aussie noir comedy Deadloch (boasting a 100 percent Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and ranking in Prime Video’s Top 10 TV shows in more than 165 countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Canada) and the Sigourney Weaver-starring drama The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Prime Video ANZ’s biggest local release globally to date that reached the top five overall in 78 countries).
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Despite the streak of successes, The Office, the first female-led iteration of the famed comedy franchise, is already drawing the most global attention — admittedly both positive and negative — for a Prime Video ANZ original due to how beloved both the U.K. and U.S. versions are. The company insists that The Office is Australia-first programming but it can’t deny the interest outside its core market, with the YouTube trailer for the show already racking up 2.2 million views in just four weeks and coverage and discussion of that trailer being featured in major international publications.
As part of that promotional push, The Office was given maximum visibility during SXSW Sydney 2024, as Prime Video ANZ launched the experiential space Primeville that saw a raft of local and international talent, including The Office star Felicity Ward, come through to tout the company’s content offerings.
As Primeville got underway, The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Loke about the imminent debut of The Office, Prime Video’s recent successes with its Aussie originals and sports, the company’s push to become an entertainment hub and the potenital for consolidation in Australia’s incredibly crowded streaming market.
First things first, congratulations on the promotion. How does it feel?
It’s a dream job for me, honestly. I have been working in this industry for almost two decades throughout APAC, and it’s nice to be home and in this position in a company that I feel so passionately about. At the core of my career has always been creativity and storytelling, and I think that Amazon is doing it so well. So it’s really exciting, and the innovation behind it allows us to do things in market like the entertainment hub that no one else is doing and it couldn’t be a more exciting time to do it.
You have a long career in marketing and also creative. Was it both of those things or one more than the other?
I am predominantly a marketer. My background is brand marketing, and I’ve been in the entertainment industry marketing for a variety of brands and stories and content types, and then that led me really beautifully into the creative space. I’ve been so passionate about content and creativity my whole career that it was like another dream job of mine to step into doing pure creative. I started to do that at Amazon, actually, and what a great way place to innovate because that’s really when you can make magic happen — when you make the data mix with creativity to make innovation.
You have the marketing background, you have the creative background, but you also work for a tech company. So how does the tech aspect come into that?
It’s not really something you consider. You are dealing with the creative aspect of content with the beauty of tech and data. That’s when you can make magic. So things like [Rapid Recap an AI tool that can quickly compile highlights] what we’re doing with our live sports. You’re bringing in the tech of Rapid Recap, which is when you can come into a game at any point in that game and be caught up to speed with a two-minute grab. Another thing that I love is X-ray where you’re watching something you might be like, “Who is that actor? Like, I’ve seen them somewhere.” We have a function that if you toggle up, it will show you exactly what actor is playing what role on screen at that time, that kind of capability mixed with content. I mean, that’s magic, right?
Does the tech come first and then you try to fit the content around it?
It’s the consumer always for us. At Amazon, we’re customer obsessed. So it’s what is the need of the customer first, and then how do we build on that? What do they want to watch? How do they watch it? And then we build a story around that. For instance, right now, what we know is there is a lot of content out there, so much content it couldn’t be a better time to be a consumer, but it’s fragmented, [people] don’t know where to go for what content. That’s the consumer problem. We’re solving that content chaos by presenting a hub experience that brings all that content into one seamless interface for you so you can have your Prime Video experience, everything that comes with Prime Video that’s included in that subscription. But you can add on other things, so you can add on other subscriptions to other platforms like Paramount+, Britbox, sports, and it’s all integrated into the one platform. You don’t have to toggle in and out. Plus the blockbusters you can rent or buy that content, it’s all one seamless click.
So Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. announced they will have Apple TV+, is that going to happen in Australia?
Correct.
OK, is it happening at the same time?
It probably won’t. I don’t have the exact dates for you right now, but it’s definitely coming, though.
Regarding Primeville, what’s the idea behind that?
This is the second time we’ve been at SXSW Sydney. It’s such a great partnership because SXSW is all about creativity and innovation. This year, we stepped it up a notch [with Primeville], and it’s a holistic entertainment experience. I’m calling it an edible entertainment experience because you essentially eat your way through our entertainment choices. I’m not sure if you’re aware of what a pick ‘n’ mix is, but in Australia you can create your own [sweet treats]. You create your own through this personalized experience. That’s exactly what our entertainment hub is. It’s exactly the entertainment that you want from Prime Video. You can pick and choose your subscriptions, what you rent or buy.
Back to programming. There seems to be a lot of interesting things going on with the streamers in Australia and Amazon in particular, because it seems like you’ve geared up to become more outward facing. Is that fair to say, in terms of your content? If so, what’s the impetus behind making originals that have an eye on an international audience?
Ultimately our focus is on an Australian consumer and what they want. And we know that what consumers want is diverse, compelling storytelling. At the end of the day, that’s our focus. What we’re seeing across what consumers are responding to in our global slate, we’re seeing a tremendous response for content like Fallout, Reacher our Roadhouse film that launched earlier this year, Rings of Power. But then you’re right, we’re seeing a compelling audience come through globally for our local content. Even last year, The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart and Deadloch, these were two launches that did so well for us locally. We’re seeing global audiences come through from them. Both of these shows reached top 10 status in over 65 countries globally. We’re not marketing in a big way globally; we focus on the Australian audience first and foremost, but people are talking. While these are great priority titles for Australia, we support them heavily if our international audience see potential [the global company] will support them, too. What we’re seeing is organic, word-of-mouth coverage of [Deadloch for example]. It’s all fantastic for us. But at the end of the day, we’re focused on our Australian audience.
Moving on to The Office, could you talk a little about why Prime Video wanted to make an Aussie version of the show?
We saw an opportunity here because fandom for The Office U.K. and U.S. series is so passionate. What we aim to do with The Office is to have something that’s familiar but fresh, and we wanted to create something uniquely Australian with it. So we have episodes that center around unique Australian themes, like the Melbourne Cup. We have a female lead, but there’s still the same situational humor that you’ll find from the U.K. Office, the same kind of boss archetype, the same love story duo. But then [we have] the beautiful Australian sense of humor and language and characters and personalities that again people will find relatable. Although it is a global franchise, it has a local heart. That’s why we think Australians are gonna love it.
There’s a key phrase that you said there, “passionate fandom” — now passionate fandom is obviously in the news a lot at the moment, because passionate fandom can be a bit of a pejorative sometimes, especially with a female lead in a well-known IP. Have you considered what that reaction might be?
We saw an opportunity here for a great character at the end of the day, and that’s what it’s all about. A great character who is relatable to audiences. And she’s a female boss. And that’s certainly relatable. I mean, I’m a female boss, too. I see, maybe not some of the awkward things, but it’s something that everybody can see in themselves. We see beyond the gender there, and [the character Hannah Howard played by Felicity Ward] is someone who people are going to fall in love with, just like Michael Scott.
I noticed that Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais have both publicly backed the Aussie version. Was that support important to get, or is it something that’s just a bonus?
It was a bonus, definitely. I mean, to have them on board. There were a lot of inspirations that we took from the U.K. version, obviously, and they created it, so to get their blessing was fantastic for us.
How do you plan to push The Office globally?
Our priority is the Australian launch. It’s releasing in all markets excluding the U.S. and all our other Amazon teams are also excited to have it on the platform.
When I look at Amazon as a consumer, there’s a lot of what people would consider “Dad content,” things like Bosch, Reacher, The Boys. But to me, and you can correct me here, a lot of the Australian originals seem more female-focused. Is that just a happy accident, or is it something that’s deliberate?
There are great female-focused stories to tell and we saw an opportunity with that with Deadloch last year. But it comes back to the core — these are great stories. We’re happy to present that to an audience and you’re right, it does give us a very beautifully well-rounded slate.
Let’s talk about sports. Of course, sports are very important in Australia and you have the ICC cricket and you have [the cricket docuseries] The Test. In terms of live sports, are you keen on picking up more rights?
You know, I think that there’s always like discussions that are happening and different rights cycles happen at different times.
So you’re always keen on being involved in all of these discussions?
We see an opportunity there for audiences and we can see that they want live sports. We know Aussies love sport, it’s intrinsically in our DNA and cricket is one of those sports. So when we saw that partnership opportunity with the ICC, we jumped on it because we knew that’s what Australians wanted. Next year, we’re going to have the NBA, we specifically have 66 games.
Zooming out a little, I’m always amazed by the number of streamers operating in Australia. Do you think it’s sustainable to have so many different streaming players in the Australian market? Can consumers afford that many?
I think that the more content is available to consumers, the better. I think it’s the way that we deliver that content to consumers that’s gonna be very cool because, as I mentioned before, fragmenting content means that consumers are gonna be confused. I think our solution and our proposal [with the entertainment hub] to the consumer is to find it in one place. And that’s what’s gonna make the key difference here. You don’t need to go anywhere else for your needs. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be a subscriber to many different other services — it can all be through that one place. That’s what we’re seeing is really the need of consumers now, it’s not about more platforms. It’s about one place to find everything.
Do you think there will be consolidation in the market?
I can’t speak to that. What I can say is I think consumers want value. So Prime, for instance, it’s what you get in your Prime subscription. You get your Prime Video offering, and what’s great about us is you also get free shipping with your Amazon deliveries. You also get Prime Gaming, Prime Music, Prime Reading. Value, I think, is important to consumers, that’s what they’re looking for.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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