A recap of the 2023 Roku NewFront
On May 2nd we hosted our 2023 NewFront at the Chelsea Factory in New York City. As part of the larger IAB NewFronts week, the Roku NewFront brought together advertisers, agencies and partners under the glow of Roku City’s iconic purple skyline to share exciting new advertising and content initiatives.
Following the success of "WEIRD" on The Roku Channel, the show kicked off with the announcement of Roku's president of media Charlie Collier, but Al Yankovic came out instead.
The Roku NewFront went on to show exciting opportunities that will make brands unmissable across the entire streaming journey. Highlights include:
- New advertiser brand experiences in the heart of Roku City
- Content discovery experiences that put TV’s best lifestyle content right on our homescreen
- An all-new lineup of Roku Originals, including a behind-the-scenes series with Charlie Puth
Below we detail the exciting new shows, advertising innovations and platform offerings that will be exclusively available from America’s #1 TV streaming platform.¹
Announcements from the 2023 Roku NewFront:
New Roku City Brand Experiences: TV’s biggest and most beloved digital downtown is about to become an icon not just for consumers, but for marketers too. This summer, McDonald’s is once again leading the way as an innovative force in culture, as the first brand to become unmissable to the nearly 40 million homes that enjoy Roku City each month.
Alison Levin, Roku’s head of advertising explained: "Here’s why this is so exciting. Roku City is the largest, most beloved public art experiment in America. 40 million homes spend time with Roku City every month. 40 million. If Roku City were a country, it would be the 9th largest in the world, larger than Mexico and the UK. Picture your brand in this whimsical digital downtown, right at the center of pop culture – now that’s truly unmissable."
New Discovery Experiences: Brands can be active hosts in content discovery well before the stream within new home and garden and sports experiences that curate the best content across all of TV, right from Roku's home screen.
New Roku Originals: Brands can go big in new Roku Originals, such as “Side Hustlers,” an entrepreneurship docuseries produced by Hello Sunshine in association with Ally. Other new Roku Originals this year include “Celebrity Family Cook Off,” executive produced by Sofia Vergara and hosted by Manolo Gonzalez Vergara; “Carpe DM with Juanpa,” featuring social media star Juanpa Zurita; and new renewals including “The Great American Baking Show,” featuring Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, and Zach Cherry, and “Honest Renovations,” featuring Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis. We also announced: Charlie Makes a Record (wt), an unscripted sitcom starring Charlie Puth.
New Commerce+ Partnerships: Marketers can close the loop on the largest screen in the home with data, experiences, and measurement from top retailers and marketplaces. Instacart joins Best Buy, Cox Automotive, DoorDash, Kroger, Walmart, and other leading partners providing unique solutions to shorten the path-to-purchase for most Ad Age 200 brands.
Primetime Reach Guarantee: Advertisers can buy with assurance that their campaign will reach more TV households in primetime with Roku than the average program on a top-five cable network on traditional TV for the first time. Primetime Reach Guarantee brings the vast reach of cable advertising to TV streaming, so brands stand out.
Contextual AI: Brands can automatically run their ads right next to the most relevant moments in every show and movie on The Roku Channel. Roku’s artificial intelligence searches the Roku library for iconic plot moments that match a brand’s message and place their ads in real-time.
Roku makes your brand unmissable
Roku gives you more of what you love, across all of TV so your brand is unmissable along the entire streaming journey.
“Everything we do, from our first player to our latest Originals, is about getting you closer to your customers,” David Eilenberg, head of content at Roku Media, said. “Many are renting you ad space, but Roku is building an entire ad-friendly world where viewer, content and advertising come together at every step of the streamer’s journey.”
Contact us to learn more about advertising opportunities.
¹By hours streamed, Dec 2022, Hypothesis Group
