SAN JOSE, Calif.—At its IAB NewFront in New York City, Roku revealed a suite of new advertising solutions and content offerings that the streaming platform said will help make brands unmissable on TV.
“We’re uniquely positioned to make brands unmissable in TV because Roku is not fighting for turf in streaming—we are the turf,” said Alison Levin, vice president of ad revenue and marketing solutions, Roku. “This Upfront, we’re bringing the entire power of the platform, not just the pieces, to give marketers more of the scale, delight, and flexibility that they love in TV.”
With its platform available in nearly half of all broadband homes in the U.S., and streaming per active account reached a record high of 3.9 hours daily in Q1 2023, Roku said the new offerings were designed to help advertisers stand out across the entire streaming journey from powering on the device to completing a purchase.
“Everything we do, from our first player to our latest Originals, is about getting you closer to your customers,” said David Eilenberg, head of content, Roku Media. “Many are renting you ad space, but Roku is building an entire ad-friendly world where the viewer, content, and advertising come together at every step of the streamer’s journey.”
Highlights of the new offerings include:
- New Roku City Brand Experiences: This summer, McDonald’s will be the first brand to be integrated into Roku City screen saver.
- New Discovery Experiences: Brands can be active hosts in content discovery well before the stream, within new home and garden and sports experiences that curate the best content across all of TV, right from Roku's home screen.
- New Roku Originals: Brands can go big in new Roku Originals such as “Side Hustlers,” an entrepreneurship docuseries produced by Hello Sunshine in association with Ally. Other new Roku Originals this year include “Celebrity Family Cook Off,” executive produced by Sofia Vergara and hosted by Manolo Gonzalez Vergara; “Carpe DM with Juanpa,” featuring social media star Juanpa Zurita; and renewals like “The Great American Baking Show,” featuring Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Ellie Kemper, and Zach Cherry, “Honest Renovations,” featuring Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, and more.
- New Commerce+ Partnerships: Marketers can close the loop on the largest screen in the home with data, experiences, and measurement from top retailers and marketplaces. Instacart joins Best Buy, Cox Automotive, DoorDash, Kroger, Walmart, and other leading partners providing unique solutions to shorten the path-to-purchase for most Ad Age 200 brands.
- Primetime Reach Guarantee: For the first time, advertisers can buy with assurance that their campaign will reach more TV households in primetime with Roku than the average program on a top-five cable network on traditional TV. Primetime Reach Guarantee brings the vast reach of cable advertising to TV streaming, so brands stand out.
- Contextual AI: Brands can automatically run their ads right next to the most relevant moments in every show and movie on The Roku Channel. Roku’s artificial intelligence searches the Roku library for iconic plot moments that match a brand’s message and place their ads in real time.
