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It’s been a year since Roku started courting brands for Roku City, and the flirtation is far from over.
At its NewFront presentation in New York on Tuesday, the connected TV platform introduced new brand integrations for Roku City, along with a slew of other ad formats and partnerships. Roku, which reached more than 81 million streaming households monthly as of its most recent earnings report, is focused on simplifying the fragmented TV landscape for advertisers and reeling them in as consumers continue to migrate to streaming, Julian Mintz, Roku’s head of US ad sales, told Marketing Brew.
The TV landscape is “like a puzzle that’s broken into a thousand pieces,” Mintz said. “We put that puzzle back together.”
Vroom, vroom: Earlier this month, Roku announced the addition of TV and movie cars to Roku City, on which brands can advertise, Mintz said. While Roku is still building out how those integrations with the cars will look, DoorDash has already signed on, and its name will be featured on a delivery car in the screensaver.
Since Roku City opened to advertisers at last year’s NewFront, brands from most big ad categories have jumped in, Mintz said.
Roku is also adding video ads on its home screen, VP of marketing and merchandising Sweta Patel announced at the NewFronts. To measure those video ads, Roku has struck up partnerships with both iSpot and The Trade Desk, head of global media revenue and growth Jay Askinasi said at the event. Both partnerships come as Roku has continued to build out its programmatic ad offerings.
Play ball: Coming this summer to Roku will be an “NBC Olympics Zone” featuring content from the Paris Olympics, thanks to a new partnership with NBCU, according to Dan Lovinger, NBCU’s head of Olympics ad sales, who made an appearance at the event. The hub will include pre-Olympics coverage and a Medal Count Module, where viewers can see how many medals athletes from various countries have won.
Starstruck: Roku also continues to build out its slate of Roku Originals. New shows on deck include a talk show hosted by actor and wrestler John Cena, a new season of The Great American Baking Show, and a docuseries starring actor Keanu Reeves.