Do you ever feel like the ads on Roku don’t seem to be very relevant to you? Roku now wants to use AI to help match ads to what you are watching.
Here is how Roku describes this new AI-powered system to target ads on Roku players and Roku TVs.
- 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.
“Everything we do, from our first player to our latest Originals, is about getting you closer to your customers,” said David Eilenberg, Head of Content, Roku Media. “Many are renting you ad space, but Roku is building an entire ad-friendly world where the viewer, content, and advertising come together at every step of the streamer’s journey.”
Roku is hoping that by offering more relevant ads to you and to what you are watching, the ads will be more effective.
That is not all Roku announced. Here are a few other things Roku announced yesterday:
- 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.
- 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 renewals like “The Great American Baking Show,” featuring Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Ellie Kemper, and Zach Cherry, “Honest Renovations,” featuring Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, and more.
- 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[3]. Primetime Reach Guarantee brings the vast reach of cable advertising to TV streaming, so brands stand out.
What do you think about these changes? Leave us a comment and let us know.