Amazon Sponsored Brands video is 16:9 only: render 1920x1080 on Sume

To make a video for Amazon Sponsored Brands, render a 16:9 MP4 at 1920x1080. Amazon's spec page lists "16:9 (square pixel) only" as the aspect ratio, so the vertical 1080x1920 default of Sume's Timeline 1.0 is the wrong shape for this placement. Send output.width: 1920 and output.height: 1080, pick a frame rate Amazon accepts, and run the free plan call first.

This matters most in Q4, when a vertical social cut is often the only master a team has. Do not stretch it. Re-frame it, and use the fit mode that fits the footage.

Amazon's spec next to the Sume setting

Amazon's page and Sume's Timeline docs line up like this.

Steps

Import the clip to Sume first. Timeline refuses URLs that are not in your workspace's media.sume.com host, and the docs point you to POST /v1/media-imports for that.

The sample below asks the unbilled plan endpoint what a 20-second, 24 fps, 1920x1080 render would be. Set CLIP_URL to your imported clip and SUME_API_KEY to a key.

import json, os, urllib.request

body = {
    "audio": {"mode": "silence", "duration_seconds": 20},
    "video": [{"source_url": os.environ["CLIP_URL"], "start": 0,
               "duration": 20, "fit": "blur"}],
    "output": {"width": 1920, "height": 1080, "fps": 24},
}
req = urllib.request.Request(
    "https://api.sume.com/v1/timeline-1.0/plan",
    data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["SUME_API_KEY"],
             "Content-Type": "application/json"},
)
plan = json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req))
print(plan["duration_seconds"], plan["billable_minutes"],
      plan["estimated_cost_usd_micros"])

Then submit the same body to POST /v1/timeline-1.0/render with an Idempotency-Key, poll GET /v1/jobs/:id/status, and read GET /v1/jobs/:id/result for the video_url. Timeline is priced at $0.10 per ceil output minute, and the docs tell you to confirm the live rate in GET /v1/catalog.

Use fit: "blur" when the source is vertical, so the picture sits centered over a blurred copy of itself. Use cover when the source is already 16:9 and you want it to fill the frame.

A worked example: a 9:16 holiday cut becomes 16:9

Say you have a 1080x1920 vertical clip of a gift set, 18 seconds long. Put it in one video[] slot with start: 0 and duration: 18, set audio.duration_seconds to 18, and choose the fit that matches your intent. With contain, the whole vertical frame sits in the middle of the 1920x1080 canvas with empty bands on the sides. With blur, those bands are filled with a blurred copy of the clip, which usually reads as more finished. With cover, the clip fills the width and the top and bottom are cropped away, which can cut off the product.

The 18-second length is inside Amazon's 6 to 45 second range and below its 20-second recommendation. The render bills as one output minute. If you have two or three vertical clips, add them as consecutive slots with later start values that increase, and add a fade transition of 0.25 seconds on the slots after the first. Transitions must be no longer than one second and no more than half of the shorter neighbouring slot.

Look at the first rendered frame before you send the batch. Pull it with video_inspect stills or the Timeline result, and confirm the product is still readable at the size Amazon will show it.

What Sume does not do

Sume does not submit anything to Amazon Ads, and it cannot check Amazon's review rules for your creative. The Timeline docs I read do not state the output codec or audio codec, so confirm H.264 or H.265 and AAC on the file itself if Amazon asks for it. Check the 500MB cap on the downloaded file.