Roku Debuts New Originals and More at 2023 NewFronts

Roku’s popular screensaver, Roku City, is getting a new partner. McDonald’s is joining TV’s biggest digital downtown, becoming the first brand to integrate with the screensaver, the companies announced Tuesday afternoon during Roku’s NewFronts presentation at New York’s Chelsea Factory. The partnership is set to create plenty of reach for McDonald's. Internal Roku data found that two out of three of Roku’s 71.6 million users would take a trip to the purple-drenched city occupied by friendly monsters. Plus, previous Twitter data found that Roku City is mentioned every 11 minutes, and 40 million users regularly engage with Roku City every month. The company itself didn't name Roku City, it was instead branded that way by fans. After a peek at the new creative during the presentation, Roku's head of advertising Alison Levin told the crowd that while McDonald's is the first brand to join Roku City, the company is reserving a few category exclusives for interested brands. "Those Golden Arches will shine with a purple glow," said Levin. When it comes to potential partnerships, McDonald's is a natural fit for the screen-saving experience. After all, Roku has had a long-standing relationship with the QSR, with the first meeting between the companies occurring in 2015. Now, the fast-food company is one of Roku’s major partners. Roku City Comes to Life to Highlight Expanded Best Buy Partnership at First SXSW Pop-Up “Our goal this NewFront is to make brands unmissable in TV,” Dan Robbins, vp of marketing and partner solutions at Roku, told Adweek ahead of the presentation. “As the platform, our goal is to bring all of the pieces together so that you're not just buying the pieces, but buying the platform.” McDonald’s isn’t Roku’s only major brand partnership. The company has commerce integrations with Best Buy, Cox Automotive, DoorDash, Kroger and Walmart, with Instacart most recently joining the fray. Together, these partnerships are the company’s new Commerce+ offering, which Roku says brings all of the best data and measurement from the biggest retailers and marketplaces directly into its platform. Roku now has over 30 measurement partners. “We’ve been working with a lot of other partners in a way that’s really unique to us to help bridge the lower funnel,” Levin told Adweek. “We want marketers to be able to understand the lower funnel, measurement and outcomes of their campaigns beyond what we can measure on our own. And those partnerships have been incredibly successful.” Incoming originals Following last year’s success with the Daniel Radcliffe-led Weird Al biopic, even more stars are coming to Roku Originals. The show kicked off with the supposed president of media Charlie Collier, but Al Yankovic came out instead. This time, he acted as "Serious Al," telling the crowd that the biopic was the most-watched original Roku movie of all time, before kicking it off to the real Collier. "If you were creating the best TV experience in the world, would you just tweak regular TV, or would you transform it?" Collier asked the crowd, echoing Levin and Robbins' message of unmissable TV. The company announced the new series (working title) Charlie Makes a Record, starring Charlie Puth. The unscripted sitcom takes stories from Puth’s real life and puts them into borderline-surreal scenarios, designed to mirror the reality that exists in Puth’s brain. In addition, Special Delivery, an interactive reality show, comes from the producers of Hell’s Kitchen. The competition show features chefs preparing food, and viewers can order the winning dishes by pressing “OK” on their Roku remote. Side Hustlers, another new original, comes from Hello Sunshine in association with Ally. Other projects 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 of The Great American Baking Show, featuring Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry; and Honest Renovations, starring Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis. “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 in a statement. “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.” Other marketing offers Besides the content news, Roku announced contextual AI, which will allow brands to automatically run their ads right next to the most relevant moments in every show and movie on The Roku Channel. It works by having Roku’s artificial intelligence search the company’s library for plot moments that match a brand’s message and can place ads in real-time. Inside Roku’s Journey From Startup to Streaming Power Player There will also be a new experience that will let brands host a presence in content discovery before a viewer starts streaming, including a new home and garden home screen activation. Alba and Mathis presented onstage as part of their Honest Renovations show, which will be heavily featured in the content slate. Roku also emphasized its recently announced Primetime Reach Guarantee, which means the company is guaranteeing it will reach more consumers in primetime than the average program on the top-five cable networks. “We’re running multiple tests on this and have consistently out-delivered the cable networks on reach,” Levin previously told Adweek.

NewFronts

Roku Debuts New Originals, McDonald’s Joins Roku City at 2023 NewFronts

The QSR is the first brand to partner with the screen-saving experience

Mollie Cahillane

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Mollie Cahillane