At last year’s NewFronts one of Roku’s key themes was to put streaming front and center, sending the message that given audience shifts to streaming, advertising budgets should also follow suit. But with the proliferation and usage of streaming no longer a secret, Roku is taking a more personal approach for 2023 – instead pitching its own scale within the TV streaming industry, to provide advertisers both more reach and data than they can expect from traditional TV, according to Roku’s Kristina Shepard.
“It’s our goal, to not just keep advertisers within our own network of media and apps, but also to think bigger with them and to truly make them unmissable throughout our entire platform,” Shepard, Roku’s co-head of U.S. brand sales, said in an interview with Fierce.
To the point of Roku’s scale, the platform now has over 70 million active accounts and the leading U.S. TV OS. In addition, Shepard said that half of all streaming impressions run on Roku, adding “that’s actually more than Apple, Google, Samsung, Vizio, PlayStation and the Xbox combined.”
And with its platform as the entry point to TV for many in the U.S., Shepard reiterated the stance that “Roku isn’t fighting for turf in the streaming wars like so many of the other apps are, Roku is that turf.” She added that played into the decision to stick with NewFronts instead of moving to Upfront week, as they believe advertisers should want to buy the platform and hear from Roku before going to buy the so-called pieces when network partners take the stage a week later.
One of the main messages from Roku is that it believes it enables advertisers to own the TV experience, from the moment a viewer powers on the TV all the way through to completing a purchase when they use a remote for a shoppable TV ad. (Read here for more on why shorter distance between impression and transaction is a key element in advertising over the next couple of years). Roku’s already been making moves on the interactivity and shoppable TV front. That includes QR code-enabled perks and delivery though a partnership with DoorDash and early partner Wendy’s, as well as shoppable TV with a Walmart pilot that enables users to purchase products directly from the TV screen without needing to open an app or use any kind of second screen.
According to Shepard, Roku found that around 40% of Gen Z audiences expect to interact with ad units, citing interactivity as key to both the viewer and advertisers to drive results. But with direct shoppable integrations like Walmart, the ultimate goal is “to remove the steps, remove the friction” so that eventually the purchase experience can be as easy as possible.
More partnerships are expected to be announced as Roku plans to lean in further to interactivity and shoppable TV this year, with Shepard saying the company wants to “push for as many of these partnerships as possible.” It's also teed up data sharing and retail partnerships, such as with Best Buy.
And while ensuring 30-second spots work harder and better for advertisers is still a primary aim for Roku, the opportunity for advertisers starts even before the TV ad or purchase point, with Shepard citing home screen sponsorships and integrations as the first point of entry.
Shepard didn’t get into details just yet but teased that new home screen capabilities and other advertiser touchpoints will be disclosed during its NewFronts presentation on May 2.
The Roku City screensaver is also another avenue where brands can make an impact, an effort that Shepard said has seen organic viral growth. In terms of breadth of people who view the Roku City screensaver every day, Shepard said “we’ve seen that it touches more people than the population of the eight largest country in the world, and 2x more hours are actually spent seeing Roku City on someone’s television set than all hours spent watching NFL football on TV in Q4 of last year.” (For those interested, Argentina is the eighth-largest country by area with a population of about 46 million people).
She also noted that when it comes to Roku City, advertisers are interested to be a part of any organic tentpole that’s meaningful to the viewers in their audience.
And it’s not just cord cutters that Roku can help advertisers meet, as the platform has reach in nearly half of all U.S. broadband homes. However, the median ad-supported channel only reaches 6% of Roku households, which is why Roku as a platform is so key, according to Shepard. She said part of the value it’s bringing is increased touchpoints for advertisers along with scale and innovative ad solutions.
Primetime reach guarantee
While advertisers are aware of consumption habits shifting to streaming, Shepard said some have felt they can get lost in the highly fragmented streaming TV world as “there’s more services, more content” and “fewer bankable winners.” She also cited a marketer perception that on streaming there isn’t the ability to quickly blast out messaging on a large scale in a short period of time as is possible on linear TV.
To address this Roku just recently introduced a Primetime Reach Guarantee ahead up of the Upfronts, which promises advertisers that they can reach more TV households in primetime (between 8pm-11 pm local) than on the average program airing on the top-five cable networks.
To use it, marketers choose a primetime date and Roku prioritizes delivery to unique households across The Roku Channel and the other top 100 channels on the platform. In a pilot with a financial services brand, Roku reached more TV households during the one-day flight during primetime than on an average top-five cable network program, and total household reach was 15% greater with Roku.
The offering is available to buy directly from Roku, including programmatically through the OneView ad platform. It’s something Shepard believes will “absolutely” make marketers more comfortable in shifting bigger budgets to streaming.
“The fact that now [marketers] can come to streaming, they can get that targetability and that measurement and that unique incremental audience that they love, and now they can on top of that get fast reach, it feels like it checks even more boxes than it did previously,” she commented regarding the primetime guarantee.