Ready to tap into the biggest season for shopping and streaming? Read our 5 winning holiday strategies to inspire shoppers from discovery to purchase.
Last year, Roku streamers spent about $1,000 on winter holiday gifts — meaning our 70+ million active accounts collectively spent $70 billion that holiday season. What’s more, Roku streamers planned to spend 18% more than non-streamers.¹
Each year, marketers fret about how to get consumers to choose their brand for their holiday shopping needs. A critical strategy is to get your message out early. Almost one-quarter of Roku users plan to start holiday shopping before summer ends and 64% plan to start before Thanksgiving.² Make a bid for their attention in Q3 to influence holiday purchases throughout the shopping season. If you’re only prioritizing Black Friday through Christmas Day, you’re likely missing out.
The good news: Q4 is an opportune time for holiday-focused TV streaming ad campaigns. As the weather cools and the festive season ramps up, people stream more TV. The year’s five most active streaming weekends fall within the quarter (led by the weekends of New Year’s Day, Christmas, and Thanksgiving) and Q4 represents 27% of all streaming hours.³ That’s a total of 23.9 billion hours (equivalent to watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas 13.7 billion times).
How can your brand leverage Roku advertising to attract new consumers, increase sales, and measure ROI this holiday season? We’ve got your answers. In this guide we share five strategic steps for successful holiday advertising on Roku. Consider it a playbook distilling the latest trends and insights to help your brand stand out this holiday season.
5 winning holiday strategies on Roku
1. Streamline the shopping experience
The top shopping motivator for Roku streamers? Convenience.⁴ Brands that simplify the discovery and purchase process will resonate most strongly.
To succeed, provide convenience at every touchpoint. Seven in 10 Roku streamers research online before buying in-store.⁵ So even if they prefer to buy products in-store, digital and online channels will influence their purchase decisions.
Roku streamers appreciate when brands make their lives easier with custom recommendations. One in two Roku streamers are willing to share their data for a more personalized and easier shopping experience – 16% higher than non-Roku streamers.⁶ Give them the relevant and seamless experiences they crave and they’re more likely to convert.
Roku solutions
Shoppable ads. Roku Action Ads transform traditional video ads into conversion points. By following simple instructions like "click OK to shop now," consumers use their remote controls to make an immediate purchase or receive more detailed information via text or email. Partners leaning in to make TV actionable include Shopify, Walmart, and DoorDash.
Personalization at scale: With first-party data from 70 million+ active accounts, Roku offers one to one audience reach capabilities. Using segments like frequent shoppers, category shoppers, or demographics, we’ll create a strategy based on your brand’s unique needs. Plus, our retail media partnerships with companies like Kroger Precision Marketing and Best Buy Ads take it one step further, helping us build audiences based on actual consumer purchase data and closing the measurement loop between ad impressions and sales.
2. Appeal to the cost-conscious consumer
Inflation dominated the headlines in 2023, and 28% of Roku shoppers plan to curtail their spending this year.⁷ Consequently, “value” emerged as the second leading shopping motivator for Roku streamers, just behind convenience.⁸
Roku streamers are open to new ways to save. For instance, one in three Roku streamers say they are interested in TV ads that send a link to their mobile devices for special offers, promotions, or more information — 18% higher than non-Roku streamers.⁹
Roku solutions
Promote special offers on Roku’s home screen. This holiday season, brands should prioritize promotions, sales, free shipping, or gifts with purchase offers. A banner ad on the Roku home screen is sure to grab attention. In fact, one in three frequent online shoppers who streamed on Roku in Q4 2022 clicked a Roku Home Screen Native Ad.¹⁰
Maximize share of voice. Use Roku’s Primetime Reach Guarantee to deliver your value-focused message to unique households across Roku channels during key promotional sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With Primetime Reach Guarantee, advertisers can reach more TV homes in primetime than the average program airing on a top five cable network.¹¹
3. The holiday streaming season lasts longer than you think
The holiday spirit kicks in long before New York sees its first frost — and TV streaming behavior proves it. People start watching holiday favorites like Home Alone in mid-October. By Thanksgiving week, holiday titles account for 22% of searches across all age demographics.¹² Apart from Yellowstone, the top 5 searched titles on Roku in Q4 2022 were all holiday titles, led by How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Elf.
Roku solutions
Make it easy to find holiday entertainment. Spread some holiday cheer by sponsoring a free title or collection of TV shows/movies. Last year, a popular retail brand sponsored a Season Pass of a Roku Original show during the holidays. The results? Ninety-two percent said the experience was attention-grabbing and 90% called it memorable.¹³
Claim your spot in Roku City. Capture the attention of holiday shoppers with a virtual storefront in Roku’s vibrant digital cityscape screensaver which is viewed by 40 million households monthly.¹⁴ With its hidden film and TV references, it’s an eye-catcher that 85% of Roku users have watched scroll by.¹⁵
4. Don’t forget about the “fifth quarter”
If you’ve ever hit the mall right after Christmas to return an ugly sweater or ill-fitting pair of jeans, you know the holiday shopping season extends well past Christmas Day. In fact, according to NRF, last year 70% of holiday shoppers plan to shop the week after Christmas to take advantage of holiday sales or spend gift cards before they get forgotten.¹⁶
And even New Year’s Day is not a hard stop for the holidays. Turns out, January is a prime time to capture post-yuletide shopping intent. After Q4 ends, holiday searches for seasonal favorites don’t return to their “hibernating” baseline until the beginning of February.¹⁷
Take advantage by extending Roku ads past Christmas Day. You’ll not only reach existing streamers but new ones too. In fact, we saw in Q4 of 2022 that December 25 was the largest day for new Roku account creation with 7x the activations of the smallest day of the year.¹⁸
Roku solutions
Keep marketing after Christmas. The holidays are when we binge together, and that extends through New Years and beyond. Remember, New Year's weekend was the most-streamed weekend last year, with the weekend of Christmas in second place.¹⁹ Continue running targeted video ads and experiences, and reap the rewards.
5. Unwrap lessons for next year
It’s never too late to prep for the holiday season. With advanced metrics, we can help you measure not only Roku ad impressions but also online searches and in-store purchases.
TV streaming ads lead to purchases, with TV being the preferred platform for Roku streamers to see ads — and our metrics can help you prove that to your stakeholders as you prep for 2024.
Roku solutions
Lean into our measurement partnerships. We believe all TV ads should be accountable and measurable. Roku’s Measurement Partner Program combines Roku’s first-party data with a wide variety of measurement solutions, including from Nielsen, Lucid, and Kantar. Joining forces with these best-in-class vendors allows us to measure an ad campaign’s reach, resonance, and actions — such as purchases, store visits, or website visits.
Unlock the power of retail media and shoppable ads. Roku’s Commerce+ Partnerships unlock a treasure trove of useful measurement data. Retail partners like Walmart Connect not only allow for shoppable ads but also give us privacy-first ways to measure direct outcomes of your TV streaming campaigns.
TV is the most preferred channel for ads!
Ready to win the holiday season?
TV streaming ads have gone from nice-to-have to a must. People watched more TV via streaming than cable for the first time in 2022, according to Nielsen.²⁰ And streaming ads are far more efficient, since advanced audience reach helps brands connect with the right buyers. By delivering convenient ways to shop, promoting deals to inflation-weary consumers, and taking advantage of the extended holiday streaming behaviors, you’ll put your brand in position to win holiday 2023.
Ready to get started on your holiday planning? Contact a Roku representative today.
¹ Harris Poll Study, Roku Holiday Shopper Survey, 2022
² Lucid “Examining the Roku Shopper” Retail Study, 2023
³ Roku Internal Data, Analysis of Q4 2022
⁴¯⁹ Lucid “Examining the Roku Shopper” Retail Study, 2023
¹⁰ ”frequent online shoppers’ defined by Acxiom | Roku Internal Data, Q4 2022
¹¹ Roku Announces Primetime Reach Guarantee Ahead of TV Upfronts
¹² Roku Internal Data, 2021
¹³ Kantar Millward Brown Campaign Results, Q4 2022
¹⁴ Roku Internal Data, 2023
¹⁵ Internal Roku research: Roku City Research via Qualtrics feb ‘23; n=487 Roku users
¹⁶ NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics December 2022 Consumer Holiday Survey
¹⁷ Roku Internal Data, 2021
¹⁸¯¹⁹ Roku Internal Data, Analysis of Q4 2022
²⁰ Ars Technica
