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Roku City is open for business.
At Roku’s annual NewFronts presentation on Tuesday, the connected TV company said it would give brands the ability to buy up real estate inside its virtual screensaver.
This summer, McDonald’s will become the first brand to erect its trademark golden arches as part of the city’s backdrop, Alison Levin, Roku’s VP, ad sales and strategy, told a room full of marketers. Other brands can get in on the action with a few category-exclusive spots the platform has reserved, Levin added.
Other developments:
- Roku will let brands sponsor content hubs, where they appear as the sole company presenting collections like home and garden programming or cooking shows.
- It also touted contextual AI technology that positions brand messages alongside relevant programming.
- The platform highlighted its measurement partnerships designed to help marketers measure the effectiveness of their ads.
Should have known: Roku has been hyping Roku City for months. At SXSW this year, Roku brought the screensaver to life for attendees, and at the NewFronts yesterday, the company’s event space in Chelsea was decked out to look like Roku City.
Turf’s up: At its star-studded presentation, which featured guests such as Weird Al Yankovic, Jessica Alba, Sofia Vergara, Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, and Charlie Puth (who announced he would star in an unscripted series for the platform), newly appointed president Charlie Collier pitched Roku as the place for marketers to start their TV buying and take advantage of the consumer shift to streaming.
“Roku is not fighting for turf in the streaming wars: Roku is the turf,” Collier said. “The streaming wars are not happening to Roku. We’re not in the streaming wars. The streaming wars are playing out on our platform.”