As more people connect their TVs to the internet, marketers are seeking ways to reach consumers among the growing number of streaming services that carry advertising. Streaming-device maker Roku this year highlighted five offerings at the NewFronts as it emphasized the idea that traditional linear TV is in decline.
“TV should start with TV streaming, and TV should start with Roku,” Kristina Shepard, head of agency partnerships and national brand team lead at Roku, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “We want to make sure that when we’re talking to brands, we’re arming them with first- and third-party data to better understand how to right-size their budget to take advantage of this shift.”
About half of CTV ad impressions are on Roku devices, while 57% of Roku users don’t subscribe to cable or satellite TV, according to data the company presented at the NewFronts.
Among this year’s announcements, Shepard said Roku had expanded its OneView Ad Platform — a self-serve dashboard introduced a year ago — to include the Roku Channel, the company’s ad-based video on demand (AVOD) service.
Advertisers and their agencies can use OneView to buy ad placements on linear TV, TV streaming, desktop and mobile using age and demographic data from TV ratings company Nielsen. As part of a strategic agreement, Roku in March agreed to buy Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising business that included Nielsen’s video automatic content recognition (ACR) and dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technologies.
“We’re excited about the Nielsen acquisition and all that it will offer,” Shepard said. “We want to make sure brands can see more apples-to-apples, the targeting and measurement they’re getting from TV streaming and make that available on traditional as well.”
Roku showcased its recently announced Roku Originals, which consists of exclusive programming acquired from Quibi, the defunct mobile video startup. Roku also created a branded content studio to develop exclusive programming that’s integrated with branding.
“The possibilities are endless of what we can offer here,” Shepard said, “and we know that brands and agencies are looking for more and more content to be exclusively available and sponsored within TV streaming.”
