In 2023, Roku added new ways for advertisers to be unmissable on our platform. As more viewers chose streaming over traditional TV and cable, we helped advertisers shift their budgets accordingly. The result? Standout campaigns that made a splash and drove sales.
Through collaborations with giants like Spotify, Instacart, and Shopify, we opened doors to trail-blazing ad experiences and helped advertisers reach and captivate their desired audiences. Our work with brands led to some of the highest-performing campaigns we’ve seen on the Roku platform to date. And yes, we even brought advertisers into our popular "Roku City" screensaver.
Below, we've compiled Roku's noteworthy campaigns, partnerships, and insights from the last 12 months and offer some takeaways to inspire your 2024 strategies.
Roku City welcomes brands
At May’s IAB NewFront, we announced that Roku City was now open to advertisers. Our purple-hued digital downtown, packed with movie and TV references, had already become a fan favorite. Eighty-five percent of Roku subscribers have watched the screensaver scroll by as they take streaming breaks.¹
By enabling ads in this environment we immediately created a new home for scaled, high impact advertising. Big brands jumped at the opportunity. Carnival Cruise Line added its brand-new ship, the Carnival Jubilee, to the waters in Roku City. Other placements featured Barbie’s dreamhouse, a Walmart storefront, and McDonald’s golden arches. Paramount+ went even bigger, launching a custom Roku City neighborhood complete with Transformers patrolling the street, a stagecoach from 1883, and Spongebob Squarepants outside his pineapple house.
Insight: Integrating with Roku City sets your brand apart in a saturated advertising market.
Breaking the mold with innovative campaigns
Barbie’s blockbuster campaign: To promote Summer’s biggest blockbuster, Warner Bros. Pictures and Mattel launched an immersive Roku campaign featuring Barbie’s Dream House in Roku City and a Barbie and Ken takeover on Roku’s home screen. The campaign wasn't just about views; it let users engage directly by watching trailers or buying movie tickets through a QR code.
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Walmart created a custom Roku presence. For its "Welcome to Your Walmart” campaign, the retailer presented curated shopping carts from football quarterback Patrick Mahomes, global superstar Becky G, and fictional but fabulous Barbie. To support the campaign, Roku offered a blend of personalized video playlists, shoppable ads, a Roku City storefront, and an unmissable Roku platform takeover. The result? Walmart differentiated itself as not just a place to buy everything — but as the place to find special items tailored to your individual passions.
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Insight: Move beyond the traditional 30-second spot to engage viewers throughout their entire streaming journey.
Game-changing partnerships of 2023
Roku places a high priority on our alliances with leading companies in areas like measurement, commerce and content, and in 2023 this partnership strategy continued to gain steam. Here are some highlights:
Spotify + Roku: We expanded our longstanding partnership with the world’s most popular audio streaming service by making video ads available in the Spotify app on Roku.
Shopify + Roku: This collaboration lets Roku viewers purchase products from Shopify merchants directly from their TVs, bringing e-commerce to the biggest screen in the home.
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FreeWheel + Roku: Together with FreeWheel, we brought forth a suite of industry solutions to amplify streaming TV value for advertisers and publishers.
Instacart + Roku: We locked elbows with the leading grocery technology company to enable marketers to measure whether streamers are purchasing products on Instacart after seeing an ad on the Roku platform.
DoorDash + Roku: DoorDash merchants can now place unique click-to-order offers within their Roku ads and provide direct measurement of their effectiveness.
Cox Automotive + Roku: Combining automotive data with TV streaming insights, we help auto marketers quantify exactly how advertising in streaming TV impacts web browsing, vehicle sales, and more.
Insight: From shoppable ads to advanced data analytics, Roku simplifies and enhances the advertising experience.
Brands see tangible results
Raymour & Flanigan drives 337K store visits: To boost foot traffic, the furniture retailer ran streaming ads and used geo-targeting to find consumers near Raymour & Flanigan stores. The campaign reached nearly 4.5 million people and led to 337,000 store visits after campaign exposure — with 146,000 visits attributed directly to Roku media.²
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MINI sees a rush of traffic to dealer websites: MINI and Roku launched a branded Game Day Guide that helped NCAA March Madness fans find games. Accessed directly from the Roku home screen, the experience provided utility while showcasing MINI’s vibrant line-up of cars. Leveraging Cox Automotive data, the campaign led to a 64% increase in dealer website visits and a 50% surge in visits to Autotrader and KBB MINI sites.
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Wendy’s launches shoppable ads: Wendy’s offered $5 off orders of $15 or more if customers ordered with their Roku remotes. The campaign saw an +11% lift in Average Order Value compared to non-exposed customers on DoorDash and a +14% lift in return on ad spend. Almost half of orders came from new or lapsed Wendy’s DoorDash customers.
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Insight: Whatever your goal — from foot traffic to web visits to direct sales — Roku’s got your covered.
Stream of Thought: Insights for 2024
Our new insights program, Stream of Thought, offers deep dives into Roku’s extensive TV and advertising data, helping advertisers make more informed decisions. From understanding viewers' interests to connecting these insights with purchasing behaviors, this program is packed with intelligence that can augment your media strategy.
For example, we know that King Charles’ coronation led to streaming demand for titles like “The Crown,” “Diana,” “Harry & Meghan,” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”³ Advertisers in the know can proactively position themselves around those titles.
Additional insights from Roku’s Stream of Thought:
3 trends ahead of Barbenheimer
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Literary adaptations from The Hunger Games prequel premiere
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Searches for titles set in the Roman Empire surged following TikTok’s viral Roman Empire meme
Insight: Leverage Roku's Stream of Thought insights to align your ads with viewer interests and maximize impact.
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¹ Internal Roku research: Roku City Research via Qualtrics Feb ‘23; n=487 Roku users
² Measurement period from April-July, 2023; US specific
³ Internal Roku data, May 2023
