Guess who’s trying to start Cannes Lions off with a bang? (Aside from, well, everyone.)
In the early hours of Monday morning, Roku and Amazon jointly announced a partnership that will reportedly result in the “largest authenticated TV footprint” in the US.
How do they figure?
Because both platforms require users to be “100%” logged in, said Jay Askinasi, Roku’s head of global media revenue and growth. In other words, those audiences are very easily identifiable thanks to a wealth of first-party data parameters, so it’s easy to target and measure them with a higher degree of accuracy compared to other available methods.
The two companies expect that their combined data footprint will allow advertisers to reach roughly 80 million CTV households through Amazon’s DSP. According to data from Comscore, this represents over 80% of the total CTV households in the United States.
Not surprisingly, much of that coverage comes from Roku. Roughly 50% of the total streaming consumption in US households already happens via the streaming provider’s own operating system across all their devices, Askinasi told AdExchanger.
Adjusting the frequency
Although the public launch won’t actually occur until Q4 of this year, so far both teams are happy with the outcomes of the initial closed tests.
Per Kelly MacLean, vice president of Amazon DSP, the combination of Roku and Amazon’s data has achieved three times improvement in return on ad spend, as well as 42% more unique reach at the same media budget and a 27% frequency reduction, meaning how often users see the same ad.
Ideally, the final launch will benefit all the different players within the digital advertising industry. Publishers will have an easier time serving ads to the right customers, marketers will reach those same customers with more precision, and the users themselves will have a better experience, said MacLean.
“We want to make it easier for marketers of all sizes to have incremental reach, more deterministic reach and better campaign performance at the end of the day,” she added.
Expanding the reach
The news also falls in line with Roku’s recent efforts to expand its relationships with third-party DSP platforms over the last two years.
Roku has already been working with Amazon’s DSP prior to this announcement, Askinasi said. This new iteration just happens to be a “substantially enriched version” of what Roku had already been offering to advertisers, particularly where their programmatic in-stream video inventory is concerned.
“It’s less about what or who Roku wants to work with. It’s more about who our clients and marketers want to work with,” said Askinasi.
